Easy Tips on How to Paint Clouds on a Ceiling

A cloudy sky is a popular motif on ceilings; they're particularly common in children's bedrooms, but they can lend a whimsical feel to any room and can be extremely easy to paint! It's not difficult at all to create a ceiling that looks very impressive; one just needs to have the right tools and the right technique for the job, like any other project. Here is how to paint clouds on a ceiling:

The tools that you'll need for this particular job are blue paint (I personally like Dutch Boy's E17-4, "Big Sky Blue," but this is obviously your choice-- some people like a brighter blue, and some people like a lighter or darker blue than this), white paint, a roller or brush to paint the ceiling (I definitely recommend a roller over a brush, particularly if you can get a long one so you can avoid moving across the whole room with a ladder while you're doing the blue coat), and a sponge for doing the clouds. I also highly recommend drop cloths and painter's tape to keep the paint where you want it, and even if you have a long roller you will need a ladder to do the clouds themselves.

The first thing you should do is put your drop cloths over any furniture in the room (unless you want it to be blue, of course!) and use the painter's tape to border the ceiling so as not to paint the walls blue (unless, of course, you are painting the walls blue as well, in which case you can skip this step). Painting the blue base coat onto the ceiling is just like painting anything else; no need to do anything fancy here. You should allow the paint time to dry before undertaking the next step, making the clouds themselves.

When your ceiling is dry and you're ready to paint the clouds, dip the sponge (held flat!) into the white paint. Then use the sponge to dab clouds onto the ceiling, making them more opaque at the center and more transparent around the edges. Don't worry about making mistakes! Clouds all look different from one another in real life, and if you're really unhappy with how one turns out you can always paint over it with your blue ceiling paint and try again. How you paint them is entirely up to you-- some people like to make them wispy and leave them largely transparent, with a lot of blue showing through, while others prefer fluffy, opaque white clouds.

Clouds are very forgiving (they do, after all, all look different when they're in the sky), and it's very easy to paint over any mistakes and try again. Do experiment with what they look like and find what you like the best! This is an easy, fun project that will give your room a unique, cheerful look that's impossible to duplicate, because you're the one who made it. Best of luck!