Jumping Dolphins Mural: How to Paint a Mural, step by step

The first step in creating a mural is an idea. Marisol is a young girl who loves dolphins. Her room is painted blue above a chair rail and lavender on the bead board below. She also specified that she’d like to see a sunset. As this is not an under water mural, the dolphins must be jumping. We found several images of dolphins jumping in the air. We added splashes and stars to express delight and exuberance. Next step will be a full color sample board.

Jumping Dolphins will be painted as a graphic mural, using color and shape in a very stylistic way. We designed and cut a stencil out of mylar for the stars, painted in Ronan Bright Silver and a custom lavender. Next step is to project our design and paint it on the wall!

We projected our black and white drawings directly on the wall and drew it on with a water soluble colored pencil. We used our handmade star stencil and applied the stars liberally around the “waves”. I love the way the Bright Silver Ronan paint glimmers. It’s so worth it to use high quality metallic paint.

As I was taking pictures of the completed mural, I had an idea to transform the bureau, which clearly to not work with the lightness and spirit of the mural. Caromal Colours makes a product especially for situations like this, where you have a perfectly good piece of furniture that just needs a magic wand. Well, it’s almost that easy. Their products are a revolutionary way to resurface furniture without any time consuming preparation. The stuff just instantly bonds to almost any surface. And it’s so easy to use.

I used their Textured Basecoat in Wisteria (white). I thinned it a little and applied liberally with a chip brush. It finally took 3 coats to cover and a very light sanding at the end to knock down the texture a little. I actually used Benjamin Moore’s glitter coat over top of it when it was dry, which was a very subtle effect. If my client ever wants to use the bureau someplace else, another coat of Textured Basecoat will give her yet another look!