I Painted a Mural on Our House

If you have been following along, then you already know that I LOVE house projects. Recently, I completed a mural on the exterior of our house, and it might be the craziest home project I’ve completed so far!

The city we live in, Des Moines, Iowa, is known for having lots of murals from many different artists. My husband and I both really like murals and even discovered a hidden mural in our dining room (I will blog about that soon)! We had tossed around the idea of adding a mural to one side of our house. We talked about hiring it out, but the more we discussed it, the more I thought “I could probably just do it”…

Once I wrapped my head around doing the mural myself, I started to think seriously about where we would put one. We settled on one of the walls in our courtyard. While it is outside, it also kind of feels like an interior wall. We felt like this part of our house would be the least offensive to our neighbors (incase they hate it!), and be an interesting surprise when you come through our front gate. We also spend a lot of time in our courtyard, and can see this wall from our front door, which meant that we would get to enjoy the mural daily. If we put it on another side of our house, the neighbors would see it a lot but we wouldn’t.

This is the area we chose, and how it looked before the mural. Below is the entire wall and how it looks from our front door to the street.

The first thing to do was measure the space and sketch some ideas for the mural. As I have mentioned, our house is a California style ranch that was built in 1957. It has a lot of MCM characteristics and we have restored that feeling throughout the house, in an updated way. I wanted to make sure that the mural design had a feeling of MCM, but again updated and kind of pop-art style, not kitschy.

After measuring, I drew the wall out to scale and came up with four different design options. Above are the drawings that I made. Surprisingly, my husband and I agreed on the same design right away! This never happens, so I took it as a sign that I was on the right track.

This one was the winner and I proceeded with a color rendering. I loved the first rendering I did, and my husband agreed. I was again shocked that this was going too well, but trusted my instincts and selected paint samples. I was never nervous during the planning or execution of this project. Paint is not a huge investment and is usually correctable if something goes wrong.

I used outdoor paint from our local hardware store. After checking my samples in the light, at different times of the day, I had my selections mixed up and made my execution plan. 9 different colors were used for this mural and I went with a semi-gloss finish.

The first step was to scrape any flaking paint and apply a very good primer. I selected a primer that is made for metal and for an outdoor application. This mural is painted on steel siding, but is protected by our roof line, so the paint should last for years. Because I was working on siding, and not a flat surface, I was concerned about how the diagonal lines would look on the slats. I decided to use a chalk line instead of tape so that I could visually see where the line needed to be. The painting was done free hand, following the chalk lines. I think trying to tape it off would have taken a really long time and not turned out as well as it did with the chalk line.

Incase the chalk line didn’t not work well, I started at the top with the most simple shape and one of the lightest colors. It worked so well that I had the first section completed before I knew it.

I moved onto the next section, which was the biggest block of color.

The blue section also went faster and easier than I expected. I was able to complete both of these sections on the first day. The space already felt different with just the first two colors, but also felt kind of like we were at the pool. I was excited to keep going.

The next section I worked on was the three triangles in gradient shades of green.

This section had a lot more detail and took longer to finish. I was really pleased with how it turned out, but it still felt like the pool to me. I was looking forward to adding the warm colors.

I chalked off the sections and then got the paint out.

I started this part with the two pink sections and finished with the orange and red triangles. By the end of the third day, all of the color sections were completed.

It was time to move onto the pattern I wanted to create over the blue section. I call this pattern the “sprinkles”.

I created the sprinkles using different sizes of Sharpie paint markers. I am in no way affiliated with these Sharpie paint markers, but I love using them for different projects. It is an oil based marker and there are a lot of options.

And here is the completed project! This mural cheers up our courtyard space and makes me happy every time I see it. We are thrilled with how it turned out. I was surprised by how close it turned out to the drawing. Even though this mural is large, it’s actually pretty hidden and not easily seen from the street. I like that it’s not too obvious until you get closer to the house.

While this might be the the largest project I’ve completed, it was also one of the easiest. I was really surprised and I enjoyed every minute of creating it.

Would you ever paint a mural on your house? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you for following along!