Room with a view

Murals can create a specific mood within a space and can also double as an eye-catching art piece.

The great news is that you don’t need to be a professional artist to create a simple feature wall in your home which helps transport you to a faraway land. We’ve created two separate murals in this bedroom using neutral tones from the Resene colour range. The result is a calming and restorative space in which our eye is drawn to the back of the room where there is a hidden walk-in wardrobe. The light from the wardrobe space illuminates the right hand side of the back wall, emulating the sun shining onto the landscape and creates the sense that we’re in a warm oasis.

The inclusion of a curved accent behind the bed provides an organic feel which acts as a bedhead. To create the arch wall, start by painting two coats of Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen waterborne enamel tinted to Resene Breathless. Once dry, draw an arch on your wall using the pin and pencil method and then paint around the inside edges of the arch with Resene Half Caraway using a wide angled painter’s brush. Feather your strokes inwards to avoid any raised edges and repeat with a top coat following the same method. Once dry, use high-quality painter’s washi-style tape to mask off the straight sides of the arches you traced on to your wall. Finally, fill in the rest of your wall arch using a mini smooth surface roller in two coats. Organic shapes not only emulate elements found in nature, but also help to add visual interest to the space.

Texture is another great way to add another interesting nature-inspired element to your room and you can achieve this by adding a limewashed effect to your wall using Resene FX Paint Effects Medium. To create a textured wall, start with two coats of Resene Half Caraway. Once dry, use Resene FX Paint Effects Medium mixed with Resene Half Nomad with loose brushstrokes, following close behind with a clean, dry rag to buff the wet medium and soften the effect. Applying a lighter colour over a darker colour is important when you’re looking to create this kind of finish and the key to making it look great is by working up multiple thin layers, rather than trying to get it all done in one go. It’s easy to ramp up the look by brushing and buffing on subsequent layers of Resene FX Paint Effects Medium mixed with Resene Half Nomad or scale it back by using another rag to buff on small amounts of Resene Half Caraway where the effect has gone on too strong.

Once you are satisfied with your textured effect and it’s completely dry, start creating the tree mural by sketching a rough design onto a piece of paper. Using this as a guide, lightly draw the outline of the mural onto the wall. Use a small painter’s brush with soft bristles and paint the treetops with a basecoat of Resene Craigieburn. This shade is a rocky landscape brown that provides the perfect contrast against the lighter background. In order to achieve a natural, almost shadow-like effect for the trees, keep your brushstrokes loose and unrestrained. Gradually build up your strokes leaving the outer leaves with minimal paint application to achieve a more feathered effect. Continue painting in the tree trunks down to the bottom of the wall.

Using repetition in your décor by using similar colours and shapes helps to create movement and harmony. The addition of a curved pendant echoes the arch, while a side table, painted in Resene Half Caraway, creates a sense of rhythm by colour matching the arch and back wall. Additionally, a few organic-shaped objects have been painted in earthy, tonal shades, such as Resene Barely There and Resene Half Breathless.

Project by Kate Alexander. Photography by Bryce Carleton. June 2022