Geometric mural for under $20 - Renter Friendly

This might sound odd, but I never quite felt the need to decorate my bedroom. I was pregnant when we moved in, and somehow decorating the bedroom never seemed a priority even after Rachel was born. Once I wake up, I leave the bedroom and hang around everywhere in the house except my bedroom, until bedtime. And I wondered why I didn’t like being in my bedroom, and I finally realized it was because the space didn’t feel inviting to be in. It felt dull, not personal and most definitely it didn’t feel like a sanctuary to retreat into.

I have been loving the wooden geometric board and batten walls I have been seen on social media. I really felt that would make a great mural to the bedroom. Having never attempted a wood working project before, the angles I needed to cut on the trim to achieve this look, seemed pretty challenging to achieve. I didn’t know if I would like this look after a few years, and if I didn’t, changing it would be potentially messy. Also it seemed like an expensive experiment at the moment for me.

So I decided, the next best thing would be to recreate the look with a geometric mural using paint and frog tape 😊

This is a 5 step by step guide to achieve this look:

1. Sketch out your design

This step is ideal to understand how you want the mural to look. I created a sketch on my Procreate app, fairly to scale of my wall. I went through various design before I settled on the final one. This saved time, work and tape to avoid trying patterns.

2. Tape the final mural

Using a wall mounted laser leveler tool, I was visually able to see how the line I needed to tape. I didn’t measure out the space, because I wanted it to feel organic. I used 1.41" frog tape for this project. Using the tape, I first divided the wall into the major sections of the design. Next, I started to tape the parallel lines to the main line. I used a piece of tape as the spacer between the lines. Once this was complete, I was able to step back and readjust any lines that didn’t seem right to me. This way I had a view of what the final mural would look like, at the start.

3. Create the borders to paint within

Once I had the final lines taped out, I needed to create the borders within which I needed to paint. I taped on either side of the mural line tape. And then I removed the middle tape. I was used 1.44” width frog tape and I wanted the lines to be slightly thicker, so I tape the border tape about 1/4^th “ away from the mural line tape.

Once all the mural line tape was removed, at the joints where the lines met, I used a sharp blade and ruler to score the tape. I ensured the corners formed were sharp. This now allowed me to paint the entire mural in one go.

Before painting, go back and press all the taped lines firmly onto the wall. This is to remove any unwanted gaps between the wall and tape, and to prevent the paint to bleed through the tape.

4. Paint 3 layers

Here’s a painting trick I learnt on Tik Tok to paint really crisp lines using tape. After you tape off the section you want to paint, first paint using the same color as the wall. This is your base coat. The logic is, the base coat paint will first bleed through all the gaps in the tape. So then when you paint using your final color, it wont bleed and you will achieve very crisp lines. And I fully vouch for this trick, because it works!

Since I need the lines of this mural to be sharp and crisp, I followed the Tik Tok method. I first painted a base coat using the paint color on the wall. After the paint dried, I then I painted two coats of black paint. I required one 8oz sample tin of Behr paint for this project. I used a satin paint and asked for the color black at the Home Depot counter.

5. Remove tape, and do final touch ups

Once the paint fully dried, I carefully removed the tape. There was definitely a lot of ooh and aahhs as I watched the crisp lines reveal. The corners were SO incredibly sharp it felt like *chef’s kiss*. The lines were crisp and the contrast was spectacular.

There were some portions that had a slight bleed. I took a flat paint brush from my art and craft set, and using the base color paint, I covered up the bleeds. Honestly the touch ups were so minor, it didn’t dampen my mood at all.

After completing this mural, I realized I achieved the entire look in 2 days for under $20! Whaaat ?!?!? Aaannd, this mural is renter-friendly! Now you can recreate this trendy look for yourself 😊 Do tag @amucherian when you create your own geometric mural <3