tips for painting a pattern wall

I thought it be fun to share a peek into my process and a few tips for painting pattern on a wall! 




This wall was one that I painted for my Paint Your World class and the cool thing about this project is that I only used white house paint (and a little bit of black acrylic paint for accents). While it took me around 6 hours and was lots of work, the supplies and process were so simple but the results are super dynamic! 

This space was the cutest little beach cottage that belongs to one of my customers Lisa. It is a really cute home just a few block from the ocean. The space is small and and quaint with a living room, kitchen and bathroom down stairs and a loft master bedroom. The entire house is decorated in lots of white, white washed wood and natural wood so we decided to keep the mural light and airy- no wild and crazy color! The fun thing about the layout is that you can see the master bedroom wall when you walk in the front door so the mural is a big focal point.  After an initial visit and meeting, I knew right away that the wall would be perfect for what I call "wall doodles". I took photos of the space, went home and got to work on a basic plan.

What I came up with was covering the wall in mandalas. I knew that painting them in white against grey would give the look and feel of lace. Even though it would be a busy pattern, the light color would keep it subtle. After some sketching I used one of the photos I had taken of the space and I altered it with some of my existing drawings.

Below I have a few tips for anyone wanting to try this in your own space. And if you are looking for more in depth process and tutorials, I have an entire online class Paint Your World dedicated to painting a space in different ways!


TIPS:

When it comes to painting a wall full of pattern, I like to work off the top of my head go totally free hand. But you can also really plan things out, draw them out in pencil or you can take it a step further and use a projector to get that design just right. I like to come up with a basic idea and then work off the top of my head.

For this wall, the only thing that I did before painting was draw a circle to help start each of my mandala designs. Some of those circles I drew free hand while others I used a paper plate just to get the center of my mandala set up and then I build off of that circle with my designs. Having a circle to work within helps keep my designs fairly balanced when I paint mandala pattern.


When I am working on more of a pattern approach, I almost always start at one side of the wall- sometimes it is left side, sometimes it is the right side. I find that it helps to begin on one side of my surface and then build those designs out and across that surface.

Creating a pattern from your drawings or doodles on a wall is truly the same process as working on paper or canvas- just on a larger scale! Begin with a design, add another one next to it, fill the space, repeat over and over again until the entire surface is filled.

Layer, stack and squish those designs together. This will instantly create the visual appearance of pattern.