Beach House Wall Mural that Captures an Ocean View!

Beach House Wall Mural

Home Planning Guide| Get Organized | Home Design Ideas | Plan a Room

The beach house wall mural I created can be easily recreated to reflect your personal style. Whether you are a brilliant artist or a "wannabe" I'll show you how to paint a wall mural with architectural elements quite easily and inexpensively.

Because I had never even painted a painting before I was quite hesitant in getting started creating my wall mural. However, I found it to be quite easy and even enjoyable. So...if I can do it, you can do it too! You just have to get set in your mind that you are an artist and just go for it. If it doesn't come out the way you want, just paint over it and try again.

Painting Supplies Needed:

Pencil and Eraser
Artist Brushes of various sizes, including a "fan brush".
Acrylic Paints, various colors, as desired.
Painter's Tape
Styrofoam Plates or Bowls to mix small amounts of paint colors together.
Clear non-yellowing sealer, such as polyurethane, in a matte finish.

Before you begin, you will need to get inspired to choose a theme and features to include. Your inspiration may come from a book, a photograph from your vacation, or from your dreams.

My ideas and inspirations resulted from a trip to North Carolina that I took with three of my friends. There were four priorities that my mural had to have: a lighthouse, ocean waves, a sandy beach, and a beach house porch that overlooked it all.

Next, decide if you want your mural to look realistic, abstract, or what ever painting style you desire. Once those two decisions have been made you are ready to begin your wall mural.

If you don't feel that you can just dig right in, take a plain poster board and draw out your image and paint. When you are ready, gather your painting supplies and begin:

Step 1: Sketch a Layout of Your Wall Mural with a Pencil:

Draw or sketch a layout of your wall mural. If you don't like what you see just erase and start again. But don't erase too soon. Some "mistakes" make for a great painting!

To recreate an exact image on your wall, take a photocopy of a picture, post card, etc... and draw gridlines over it. Next, draw gridlines on your wall in a larger scale in porportion to the size of your desired mural. For example, if you want your wall mural to be 10 times larger than your photocopy, make the gridlines 1 inch square on your photocopy and 10 inches square on your wall. Finally, sketch in the image of each individual square on your wall exactly as it appears in the same square on your photocopy.

Step 2: Paint in the background images:

I would say that the most difficult part of my wall mural was capturing the natural flow of the waves. If I didn't like something, I just painted over it and tried it again. However, I must caution, don't paint over something too soon. Move on to another area and take look at it later, as something miraculous may appear after it dries.

After finishing my wall mural I found the following article on painting waves...this will help!

Click Here to Learn How to Paint Waves

Step 3: Draw and Paint Architectural Elements

To create realistic architectural elements, take measurements from life-size objects, draw them out on your wall using proper perspectives and then paint each angle a different shade of the same color to create a shadowing effect.

Click Here for a lesson in perspective drawing.

To paint shadows, I found it easiest to observe like-objects that are sitting in natural light. Place either the like-object or its lightsource so that a shadow is cast where you would like it to be in your painting. If you have a floor lamp, or desk lamp that has a bendable arm, it is easy to control where your lightsource is coming from.

Let's say that it is 2:00 in the afternoon. Position your lightsource as if were the sun at 2:00. Place your like-object between yourself and the lightsource and observe its shadow.

All shadows should be cast in the same perspective as in your drawing. Notice how the position of the light affects the shadow of each individual object, then paint it in the same way on your wall mural.

If you take a look at the photo below, you will see that my "presumed" lightsource is coming from the east around 2:00 in the afternoon. Therefore, sides facing the east are painted in lighter shades and everywhere a shadow should be cast (sides facing the west) are painted in darker shades.

If needed, draw objects on a piece of paper and practice creating shadows using various shades of paint.

After drawing the porch details, I used blue "Painter's Tape" to help keep the hand railing and spindle edges crisp. Also, before applying the painter's tape, make sure your wall mural has had time to dry (at least overnight).

Caution: Never use masking tape as it could ruin your wall mural when you peel off the tape.

Step 4: Add the Finishing Touches

To make my mural even more interesting, I finished off my beach front wall mural by adding grass, plants, foot prints walking out to the ocean, sea gulls and waves. The entire wall mural took me five days to complete and cost under $20.00, as I already had some basic acrylic paint colors on hand, including dark blue, black, red, yellow, green, and brown.

By utilizing a white water-based wall primer, which I also had on hand, I was able to mix it with my acrylics to create the different variations of color used in my shadowing effects, which cut out the expense of having to buy more shades of acrylics.

Notice the door at the left of the picture above-that is the actual door to my bathroom. I created my wall mural to appear as if you are standing on a deck outside a beach house. The other three walls, excluding the wall with the mural, in my bathroom represent the beach house, including the wall with the door.

Step 5: Apply a Clear Coat Sealer to Preserve Your Work

It is always a good idea to apply a clear matte sealer to preserve your work and allow for a washable surface. Handprints and steam from a shower can ruin your artwork. Therefore, this last step should not be overlooked.

Use a clear coat sealer with a matte finish to prevent your mural from turning yellow and having a glossy appearance after it dries. You will then be able to enjoy years of beach side living!

__________________________________

For permission to use this article click here.