Hand-Painted Tropical Wall Mural
This project was produced in partnership with KILZ.
I’ve always been inspired by flora – especially tropical plants in lush, layered landscapes. It might’ve been my recent trip to the Dominican Republic or my excitement for some return to normalcy this summer as vaccines continue to roll out – but when I saw the beautiful colors from the Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines® paint line, I knew I could find all the right hues to create a hand-painted tropical mural in the guest room in West Midtown Project. I love this line because the paint colors are so well-curated, so you know you’re getting a classic color no matter what your palette becomes. I decided to go with two shades of green (Regal Leaf and Magnolia Green) and a warm, golden yellow (Cottage Feel) to add a contrasting pop to the design. See how I planned and executed this fun, painted mural below.
The first step of any large-scale creative endeavor like this is to sketch! I got out my markers from design school and drew a mini version of the mural, blocking out where the furniture would cover the wall. This helped me see the big picture and make sure the composition was well-balanced in the space.
With any painting project, you need a great primer to set the stage for the fun part (color!), and KILZ is my go-to for the best priming products. I used KILZ 2® All-Purpose Primer on the wall to prepare for the beautiful Magnolia Home colors. See a time-lapse of the first layer of mural going up on the wall below:
To create depth in my design, I used a lighter, medium green (Regal Leaf) to paint out all of the plants, then went back in with the dark Magnolia Green to add another outline to the larger palm trees in the “foreground” that helped pull them forward in the composition. Then I added the pops of yellow for a fun accent color that helps the whole mural pop.
The great thing about a mural like this one is that I only needed sample sizes of the paint colors, and they dried super quickly, so I got this whole thing up in a day! I love what a unique statement it makes, and how special it is to have something completely original on the wall. It’s the perfect weekend project to bring a plain wall to life with the Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines paint line!
