Tutorial // DIY Wall Mural

I'd say that my least favorite part of my current rental is that my landlady gave me the big fat "NO" when I asked her if I could paint my walls. Shoot, she wouldn't even agree to a nice grey. So here I am, four months later with these eggshell walls. Don't get me wrong, it looks clean and all that jazz, but it's just so boring for my taste. On top of that, I only have so much stuff to hang right now and I don't like the eggshell walls with my floor color.

So I needed a solution. Recently I remembered that I a pack of wall paneling from work which I saved from certain dumpster-doom doom. It was a display element from a few years ago that our store never used. They were going to throw it out and I nabbed it just in case I ever found something to use it for. Well, guess what, I did. See the full how-to after the jump.


Here's what you need to make your own:

• Printed panels
• Double sided tape (I used just barely over two rolls)
• Level (optional but recommended)
• Razor or exact-o knife for perfecting edges

Like I said, I was lucky enough to grab these panels from work. They're legal-sized pages on glossed paper. With a few steps, you can make your own. You just need a image or collage of images that you'd like to use. There are programs available to make mural-sized prints easy — Check out PosteRazor (Mac) or Rasterbator (Windows). There are endless possibilities and you can search Flickr for ideas!


Here is a close of the guide and panel detail! I recommend printing a guide just for ease. Looking at all these dots can get a little confusing if you're not paying extra close attention!


This is my 'before.' I haven't done much with my bedroom since I moved in. The walls are bare and random — strange for me because I normally have my wall decor game on point. This room has rather fallen by the wayside. Naturally, I figured this wall would be great for the project. It's pretty low traffic and should wear well.


I worked from bottom to top, left to right. Each panel got 8 pieces of tape — one on each corner and then one on each side. They went up smoothly.


And this is the end result! I absolutely love the outcome and am thinking about possibly doing it to the backsplash in my kitchen on maybe along my entry hallway.

Have you ever tried this? I'd be interested to see if any of my readers take on the task of DIY wall murals!