How to create a DIY arched mural

Looking for a simple, yet dramatic, way to liven up their wall space?

Take a little look behind the scenes with our Cubix mid sleeper bed for a little retro-inspired arched mural inspiration.

mustard, peacock and aqua mural for kids room. Graphical style with mid sleeper bed

Arches and rounded shapes have been big news for some time in the world of interiors.

We loved the idea of creating some rounded shapes to provide an interesting feature wall behind our Cubix mid sleeper bed, with it’s rounded port hole design along the side rail, and its lovely child-friendly rounded bed ends.

Here’s how to get the look! >>

What you’ll need: Paint, Paintbrushes, String, Scissors, Spirit Level, Masking tape

DIY tools for making an arched mural

1. Pick your Palette 

For a bold, colourful colour palette, you can try a complementary or triadic colour scheme. Complementary colours sit opposite one another on the colour wheel, and triadic schemes are created from 3 hues that sit equidistant to one another on the wheel. 

For our mural, we used a warm neutral as the base; Quill, by Valspar and opted for a retro-inspired palette, layering pops of Mustard, Peacock, Satsuma and Aqua... If you have old tester pots lying around, then this project is great for making use of them! For a more subtle feel, opt for harmonious or tonal palettes, where you use either colours that sit adjacent to each other, or that are different shades and tones of the same colour.

colour palette retro inspired interiors with paintbrush

2. Design your mural 

Create a mood board, packed with inspiration of shapes for your design, and then once you've                decided on the shapes you'd like to use, try to draw your design out to scale using graph paper.              This will help you work out proportions, and any layering that you'd like to achieve. 

inspiration board, retro geo

3. Lay the foundations

Apply your base colour, and wait for it to dry. For a full colour-wash effect, fully coat all woodwork as well as the wall.

4. Straighten up those lines

Using a pencil and spirit level draw out any straight, vertical lines onto the wall. Stop at the height you would like each arch (or shape) to begin. Once you’re happy with the placement, apply masking tape along the lines and any skirting board edges to help you achieve a clean finish later.

draw out mural arches

5. Create arches easily

Attach your pencil to some string and find the middle of your arch. Hold the end of the string in place and draw around from the top of one line to the other. Using this same drawing technique, you can get playful and create other curved shapes such as spheres and semi-circles.

6. Apply the colour!

The fun part - Get painting! Fill in your arch using a roller and cutting brush to get a defined outline. Remove the masking tape while the paint is still slightly wet to prevent lift off of the base colour.

yellow painted DIY arch mural

7. Layer up!

If you’d like to overlap some shapes, then ensure that the underneath shape is fully dry before attempting! (We’d recommend creating this mural over several days to ensure that each layer is fully dry before attempting the next).

DIY mural behind the scenes yellow and teal arches and paintbrush

and finally...

To pull the whole room together, we’d recommend duplicating pops of the same colour throughout the bedroom space. Try a round rug and other rounded accessories to translate this friendly, curved look and feel.

bold geo mural, with mid sleeper bed end on to camera

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