How to Paint a Wall Mural by Hand (Even If You Can’t Draw)

Updated October 2026

Think you can’t paint a wall mural because you can’t draw?  You can.  Really.  I painted this tropical floral mural by hand based off an image I found, a few simple tools, and an easy grid method that lets you transfer just about any image you want onto a wall.  Really.

This particular mural?  Also came with a little side plot.

I had already asked Mike if I could paint an image I had spied on Instagram behind the television.  He said nope.   I could not get the thing out of my head, so I moved the plan to the wall between the living room and kitchen and painted it there instead.

Actually, I ended up being torn between two with the right hand one being the original desire.

I had take this quiz for sh*ts and giggles, see, and it decides my style is eclectic.  Fair enough, as much as I wished it to be minimal.  Though you'd never know that by looking around the house, ahem.  So fine, I used the quiz as factual validation.

Technically, I had now entered the asking-for-forgiveness-rather-than-permission portion of the project.

And so I began.

And so I began.  Drew on the wall with erasable charcoal sticks.*  That's the uh, light through our front door on the wall.

One day Mike comes home from work and “.....what......what is going on here?”

Ok, so this was a little after he asked.

“It’s gonna make sense, I’ve got...just wait and s…..”

“Uhhhh,” he interrupts, stinky side eye, shrugs, and with a warble, “ohhh-kayy.”

Moving along.  I know, Finn's toy basket, heh.

Time passes. I share progress photos to a couple people; they respond politely, diplomatically, confusedly, “o-- .....oh.”

Think I was about here when I showed them.

I press forward.  It’s gonna make sense.  Really.

So, hot painting tip:

You too can paint a wall mural, even if you incorrectly assume you have zero artistic skill and feel like you can't draw.  Truly.

How?  Print the image you want to use and draw a grid over it, say quarter or half inch squares, inch, whatever.  The smaller the square, the easier for you.

You can also draw the grid on acetate and tape it over the image too, that way you can look at it with and without lines.

On the wall using a chalk line* filled with erasable powdered charcoal,* snap a corresponding grid say, six inches or a foot.  For instance, quarter inch equals six inches, half inch or one inch equals a foot.  Number down and across on both.

Now, focus solely on one square and draw what’s in that box on the wall.  Ignore the whole picture; focus on just the one square.  You can even further divide up a box smaller if it helps.

Or, purchase, borrow, rent an overhead projector and print the image on acetate* or something clear, project it, and trace.

Pick up a few brushes, some acrylic paint, use leftover paint you have, check the mis-mix section or buy those little sample colors at the paint counter.  Fill in the lines like a paint-by-numbers.

Voilá.  You’re an artist.

Back to the story at hand.

The mural nearly complete, Mike arrives home another evening.  “Ya know, I was talking to so and so at work and I’m tellin’ him, I dunno what my wife is doing, it’s crazy.”

Ok, so he hates it.

Here's where I stopped.  The first time.  Called it done, time to let it sink in.

Time passes, I tweak it a bit here and there.  I stare at it nightly from my vantage point on the couch.  Something’s not, ehhh, there.

Yeah it’s busy.  Yeah it doesn’t jibe with anything else in the house.  Yeah there’s no precedent.  Yeah it’s outta left field.  But so am I.  And that's why it made sense.  Or was going to when everything else was in place around it.

Time passes.  Mike says it’s growing on him here and there as he waves dismissively at it.

Still not working quite yet for me despite having the entire wall designed and complete and magazine-worthy in my head, photographers here shooting it for their layout.  I tweak it a tiny bit more.

Ok, done done.  Done.  It's either this or....

Then.  Then one day Mike comes home and he shoots the wall a look with such disdain smeared across his face, I was aghast.  I think I did gasp.  In my head I did for sure.

He claims he was thinking of something else, mid-thought on a topic wholly unrelated.

Mmm hm.

Kinda sorta my vantage point of the wall mural nightly.   Why yes I did get a new rug for over here too, thanks!  It was at the Habitat ReStore, wool!, 6x9ish, brand new, stylish, and only forty bucks!  Bargain.

That’s ok, I calculated, tomorrow I paint over it.  And so I did.

Took my fancy sander to it, ground down the bumps then painted diagonal stripes.  Took a speed square,* marked a coupla' lines, taped.*  A reminiscence to the original stripes but different, using colors already existing around the house.  And more complementary to the foyer area too.

Welp, here we go.  Bye bye wall mural.  I kinda miss you now.  You photographed so nicely.  I enjoyed you so.       

Ultimately, I got the original out of my system and moved on.  Sometimes that’s exactly what needs to happen.  Sometimes you gotta try it, see it.  Be brave.

Mike came home that night, I was halfway done, desperately wanted to have it finished before he arrived but it slipped my mind to start early enough and my workload for the day was incompatible.

“...what…what’s going on here?”

“I…”

“Huh.  Ok.  I like this.”

Relieved, I wrapped it up the next day.

“Oh.  Yeah.  Yeah babe, I like this.  Yeah.  This is cool”

Aaaand the stripes are finished.  Yeah, a little 70's vibe there, eh?  I edited Finn's toys out a bit after all this too.  When he wasn't looking, of course.

Colors used, starting bottom left and moving up right:

• Mike's office
• Lemon Curd
• our bedroom
• the basement
• the kitchen wall
• the living room
• the other living room wall color
• white

Forgiveness granted.

See what this area looks like now by clicking here!

*The charcoal sticks, chalk snap line, powdered charcoal, acetate, speed squares, and painters tape are Amazon affiliate links. The Samplize link is a well, Samplize affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.