How to paint your own DIY mural to go from total blah to colorful oasis on a budget.
When we moved into our house this year, one of the projects I was most excited to tackle was our back patio. It was small, it was ugly, and the whole thing looked like a suffocating blob of stucco from every angle. When we first toured the house (and then when we kept going back again and again because, really? Do we love it? We love it. Should we do it? Let's do it. Oh my god are we doing it? We're doing it.) the backyard was the one spot on the property that just didn't thrill us.
After a few seconds of taking it all in, a light bulb went off. This could actually be a really fun project. I could see it all: the cafe lights, the colorful flowers, the summer cocktails, oh the summer cocktails!
But to get from this ...
... to an outdoor oasis was going to take more than just a few plants and bottle of rosé.
My only direction from Doug: Don't spend a ton of money.
My first flash of inspiration was to paint a mural. Had I ever painted a mural before? No. Did I know what I was doing? Again, no. Would I possibly regret this? It was almost certain.
So I did what any smart, responsible homeowner would do: I skimmed over a couple articles I found online and dove into the project with the confidence of a mediocre white man throwing his hat in the ring for Democratic presidential candidate.
Tools you need:
paint brush
exterior paint with primer
painter's tape (I had the best luck with FrogTape for the crisp, bleed-free lines)
panache
your favorite playlist
Other tools I thought I would need but didn't:
paint roller and stucco exterior roll
drop cloths
paint trays
artistic brilliance
Step 1: Pick your paint
Like any other major project I've ever attempted in my life, I approached this one first by spending an obsessive amount of time thinking about it, hours of Pinterest scrolling for inspiration, minimal real research, and almost no concrete planning besides a general idea of I want it to go there and look kind of like this.
So when I got to Lowe's I had only a fuzzy idea of the colors I was going to use for this, which is fine, because sometimes it's better to let inspiration lead you where you're supposed to go. HAH. It's called flying by the seat of your pants and sometimes it works and sometimes those pants end so far up your ass you don't even know how they got there but this time, it worked.
I grabbed a bunch of color sample cards, splayed them across the floor together, stepped back and decided I liked the look of them.
Because I was using so many colors (nine total), after a little bit of mental gymnastics, I realized that I could probably get away with using just a sample of each color to cover the entire wall. That's $2 per color sample instead of $19+ per quart or $40+ per gallon. In the end, this worked perfectly and it saved me significant coin when it came to the paint.
I went with Valspar Duramax Exterior Paint + Primer in one because that is what the Lowe's paint specialist assured me would be best when I told him I had no idea what I was doing. Let's hope he's right.
Step 2: Tape your lines
I have a general idea of my limits and I knew the simpler the design, the better. So I figured I couldn't go wrong with a geometric pattern that would essentially be a giant paint-by-numbers.
I cleaned the stucco wall with a rough brush and soapy water. Once it was dry I taped my design with the FrogTape. I had a couple false starts here until I was truly happy because sometimes my brain don't work so good.
Step 3: Blast those tunes and paint
This is the super fun part. Doug was on baby duty for the afternoon while I painted and I felt like I was on a vacation. I had Dawes and Maggie Rogers pumping from the speakers, the act of painting was super soothing, and watching it all come together just felt goooooood.
I did three coats of paint over the course of three days. In the end, the 7.75-ounce color samples were the perfect amount of paint for this project and I still have some left over for touch ups.
When I ripped off the painter's tape, I was pleasantly surprised at how crisp the lines looked, which I assumed would be a challenge on exterior. bumpy stucco. My original plan was to re-tape and paint so every triangle was directly kissing, but I liked the look of the clean white lines so much I decided to keep them.
So if you want to paint your own DIY backyard mural, just do what I did. It's fun, it's easy, and you just might actually surprise yourself and really love it. Or maybe don't. Planning is also really good too.
Total cost: $35.10
Let me say that again, but louder: I DID THAT FOR THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS.
That includes $18 of paint samples, a new paintbrush ($11.98), and some painter's tape ($5.12).
$35 buys you approximately one-half of that ottoman up there. (Don't tell Doug.) Or, like, one outdoor couch cushion. (Don't tell Doug.) I'm pretty sure it's the exact cost of one string of cafe lights. (I needed two, Don't tell Doug.) And it's approximately 1/8 of what I spent on plants for the front and back of the house. (Don't tell Doug.) But I did get the rug at IKEA for $10. See! Thrifty!
So yes, you too can totally transform your ugly little stucco back patio on a shoe string budget ... until you start furniture shopping.
It's going to be a good summer.
Comentarios