Quick, Easy and Inexpensive Spring Decorating Idea - Create an Indoor Mural

Believe it or not, you don't need to be a professional artist or painter to create a one-of-a-kind mural in your home for spring. Imagine a field of flowers, a fruit basket or cheerful balloons freshening up a boring room in your home.

My daughter is turning four this summer and she is ready for a "big girl room" update. I decided to use her boring, blank, honeydew yellow wall as my "test-canvas" for a spring garden mural. How bad can you mess up a child's room, right?

While I am not a professional artist by any means, I love to doodle. I started my mural with a black frame that had been collecting dust in my craft room. It was missing the glass insert so I decided it would make a great frame for my garden doodle.

I hung it on my wall as a guide and proceeded to paint circles, petals, stems and leaves using five small bottles of basic acrylic paints (These cost anywhere from $.79-$2.00 at craft stores. I'll never forget my daughter's reaction when she saw the finished and framed mural above her bed. "Oh mommy...it is BEE-UTIFUL, she squealed". (I created a Photoshop version of my "doodle-garden" to the left so you can see what I created).

Even if you aren't a great "doodler" you can still create a beautiful spring mural using a few simple tools;

1). Stencils - While I consider myself to be fairly crafty, stencils used to intimidate me. Last summer, I calmed my stenciling fears by testing them out on an old dresser that we had considered throwing away. Since I didn't have anything to lose, I taped...dabbed...and pounced to my heart's content. It turned out beautifully once I got used to the technique. If you are thinking about trying stenciling for the first time on a wall, practice on an old piece of wood or some paper first. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy and addictive it is.

2). Projectors - If you aren't confident about your ability to "free-hand" a mural, rent a projector from a business supply company and cheat a bit. You simply need to search for a design (preferably black and white) and copy it onto transparency paper. Aim the image at your wall and you are ready to trace the outline and add color.