How to Design a Mural for a Concrete Wall

By designing murals your way, you can create custom murals that are perfectly themed for the area. Design baseball murals for a wall near a sports field or a forest mural to complement a fantasy garden. Custom murals are a great way to beautify an area by sprucing up a boring or damaged concrete wall. Understanding the process of designing a mural on your own can get you a long way in creating a breathtaking mural.

One disclaimer: Follow all of the safety instructions for everything you use, especially a ladder. Do not take silly risks that can get you hurt. Use a ladder that is tall enough so you don't have to stand on those steps that say "don't stand here" to reach the top of your mural.

Stuff you will need to design and paint a mural:

Sturdy ladder with paint tray
Mixed concrete or concrete patch mix
Chisel
Pointing trowel
Paper
Pen
Ruler
Roller
Latex Paint
Measuring tape
Crayons or markers

Step 1:
Measure the concrete wall upon which you wish to paint the mural. Use measuring tape and a ladder, if necessary, to get the exact dimensions of the wall.

Step 2:
Observe any imperfections in the wall which might give a painting flaws or cause difficulty during the process of painting the mural. Find any damaged or uneven areas you might want to use to give the painting character.

Step 3:
Repair any cracks or broken concrete and even out the wall. Repairing cracks and holes in concrete walls is somewhat laboring work. Chisel the broken areas from around the crack until you have a chiseled area with a flat base for the new concrete to adhere to. Brush on a thin layer of concrete adhesive, then apply mixed concrete or a concrete patch mix to the chiseled hole with a trowel, pushing it into the hole as much as you can, then flattening it out to even the surface of the wall.

Step 4:
Design your mural art. Get a piece of paper and draw a scale model of the dimensions of the wall; one-half to one inch per foot should be sufficient. Make copies of the scale model. Decide your colors and the general layout of your mural by experimenting with shapes and colors on the mini-wall you drew. You may want to keep the number of colors to a minimum because the more colors you have, the more paint you have to buy for your wall mural.

Step 5:
Make a color copy of your final mural design. Using a pencil and ruler, draw a grid that breaks the scale model up into to smaller paintable parts.

Step 6:
Choose your paint colors. Use latex or acrylic paints, which are designed for concrete.

Step 7:
Thoroughly clean the concrete wall and allow it to dry, making sure to get rid of grease spots that can affect the paint as much as possible. A seriously dirty outdoor wall may need treatment from a power washer.

Step 8:
Apply a base of latex or acrylic primer paint to the painting area with a roller. Depending on your mural, you may choose to lay a base primer paint as your background color. Allow the paint to dry.

Step 9.
Using a pencil and your measuring tape, apply the scale grid you drew on the to the primer paint. You can mark it in dashes or any other way you will understand if you don't want to draw the whole grid.

Step 10:
Grid box by grid box, apply the paint the way it is laid out on paper, using the scale measurements to guide you to where to start and finish objects. Allow different paint colors to dry before adding a new one on top unless you intend to blend them.

Step 11:
Allow the wall mural paint to dry, then go over it to erase any remaining pencil grid marks.

As mentioned before, be safe and paint in a well-lit, well ventilated area clear of sharp objects, pets or small children. Use a sturdy ladder that is tall enough to get you to the height you need safely. Make sure you don't skip the cleaning process or your wall mural paint will be peeling off in no time.