Creating a Sunset Mural

Updated: Jan 17, 2021

If you've been following me on Instagram i have been focused solely on creating a calm new bedroom to relax in. Adele Roche colour genius selected the colours and designed a heavenly mood board for inspiration. I'll go through my room in more detail when it's all complete. For now let's focus on the mural.

I got ideas for the mural from Pinterest and created a board. I took the elements of each image that i liked to create this mural. I decided to go for a sort of ombre effect with each mountain getting lighter. I (of course) thought about doing a geometric sunset but decided to do something different for once!

I'll list the specific products used below but you can make adjustments with what you have knocking about at home already!

Also if you'd like to watch this tutorial, I have my youtube video on this at the very end of this blog. Enjoy!

Stuff you'll probably need;

Masking tape- Deltec delicate tape, perfect for freshly painted walls
Artist paint brushes- straight or angled brushes I found were best
Two fussy blokes small rollers- semi smooth
Small roller tray
Metallic paint for the sun- Taika paint in sole km from Carlow Paint Hub
One large tester pot- Siesta in Optiva 5 is used here, also from Carlow Paint Hub
Lighter and darker tester pots to get varying shades of the same colour
Pots/containers to mix paints in
Sticks to mix paint
Circle stencil for the sun- a thumbtack and string method can be used to draw a circle either.
Cling film to wrap your brushes in between coats

Painting the thing;

1. Sketch out your rough idea on paper.

2. Start with a freshly painted wall. As we are going to keep the top part visible, it's easier if the wall has just been painted. You don't want to realise it's in rag order a few months after painting this elaborate mural.

3. Tape around the wall where the mural will end. I taped off the skirting board as I wanted to keep this the same colour around the room and use it to frame the mural. You can incorporate this into the mural if you wish.

4. Mixing paints- I used an Optiva 5 tester pot in siesta as my base colour, adding the wall colour for the lightest coloured mountain. For the darker colours I added some red and yellow from other testers I had around the house. I used a stick to stir the colours thoroughly and put them into Chinese containers (I'm all out of those containers, any excuse for a takeaway). This is all trial and error, just make sure you're looking at the colours in daylight and test them on your wall to make sure you're happy with them!

5. Label paints- Label all of your colours. Just do it. I tried to do this but I got confused and kept using the wrong paint. They all looked the same colour wet which didn't help and caused me extra work, painting over places where I touched up with the wrong colour- nightmare.

6. I didn't sketch out my design on the wall, I would never have started painting if I did. I was too afraid to start so I just jumped in with the paintbrush and figured it all out as I went along. But this is definitely personal preference. If you're a planner feel free to use a colour pencil in a similar shade to your design to mark out the mural.

7. Painting method- I've added a time lapse video below which will show how I did this better than how I will explain it but here it goes; I painted the darkest bottom mountain first. I cut in the outer edge of the mountain with an artist's paintbrush (I love the ones in Sostrene Grene). Make sure the outer line is quite thick to allow you to roll the paint up to this line when you're filling in the mountain.

8. Apply as many coats as needed-The darkest coats needed a few coats as my walls were so bright. I wrapped my paintbrushes, rollers and trays in cling film between coats to prevent them drying out and save me from washing them every time. A definite must for projects like this. (Again group paintbrush roller and tray from particular colours together to avoid mixing up each colour)

9. When moving onto the next mountain shape, using your paintbrush you'll need to cut in along the previous mountain and then create the shape of the new one. Same as before you will need to create a thick line to allow you to fill the shape in with a roller. (It was about here that i stepped in the paint tray and continued to paint with one sock for the rest of this project).

10. Continue this method until you are happy with the mountains. Any touch ups required can be done with your paintbrushes.

11. Here comes the sun- I used a circle stencil as i wanted to roll the metallic paint for a smoother finish. Stick the stencil to the wall using masking tape. (You could always trace around a large plate or use a thumbtack and string to draw one.) I rolled on a base coat of one of the normal paint colours before applying the metallic paint as they don't have great coverage (I learnt this the hard way when my dressing table required 200 coats). Try not to apply too much paint to your roller when using stencils as this can seep underneath. Then you're ready to roll on the metallic paint and remove the stencil. I touched up the circle using a small brush and the wall paint to hide anywhere the gold paint seeped under the stencil.

12. Remove the masking tape and voila a beautiful unique mural.