Fun Painting Techniques

Not every parent is a great artist. In fact, most aren't. You may think that even plainly painted walls are a challenge for you, but there are some very simple ways you can make the paint job in your kids' rooms or play areas more interesting. The right paint job makes a great background for the rest of the room. You can make a jungle, decorate with airplanes or anything you like.

If you aren't certain of your ability to do a particular technique, take some scrap wood or even a bit of cardboard and practice before you try something on your walls. Better to mess up off the wall than on it.

Sponging Designs

One simple thing to do that can work well for boys or girls is to paint clouds on the walls. This starts out as a wall painted sky blue. Next, take some white or even slightly off-white if you prefer, and use a wet sponge, available in the paint department, and apply the white paint in cloud shapes to the walls. What's a cloud shape? Just look in the sky. It's however you make it. This is probably one of the simplest designs you can do. No, exactly how you use the sponge isn't too important. You can dab the paint onto the walls or smear it about in small circles. Each will provide a different effect. Make sure you turn the sponge in your hands to vary the pattern it creates.

Sponging techniques can be used for more than just clouds. It can also be used as a faux effect, allowing the walls to show two or more colors at once. You can buy a special glaze mix to add to the paint or just water the paint down if you want the paint beneath to show through. This is not necessary for the cloud effect above.

Similarly, you can use an old rag, crumpled up in your hand to get an interesting effect. This will actually look quite different from the sponged effect. In fact, just about anything you can crumple up in your hand that can withstand paint can be used. People use plastic bags for yet another effect. Finally, a use for all those grocery bags!

Straight Lines

Another fairly simple design for rooms is to paint straight lines in two or more different colors. Once again, not as hard as it may seem, but possibly more work than sponging, in my opinion.

Paint the walls the main color. If the colors are to be about equal, choose the lightest color, as this is the easiest to cover. Once the paint has had time to entirely dry, tape off the sections you want to paint in lines.

You will want to decide in advance how far apart you want the lines to be. Use a ruler or measuring tape to keep yourself consistent. If you want vertical lines, use a string with a weight attached or a laser line level to follow with the painter's tape. For horizontal lines, the laser level is probably best. Of course, there's no rule against diagonal lines, but consistency is probably much more difficult to achieve. Mark the lines you will NOT be painting with a piece of tape so that you don't lose track of where you are. Make sure the painter's tape is firmly attached to the walls so that as little paint as possible can slip beneath it.

Paint the lines as you would normally. Before the paint dries, remove the tape.

Trees and Scenes

It is much more difficult to paint trees and such. But if you have that kind of confidence in your abilities, go to it!

Sketch your ideas out on paper first, then draw them lightly in pencil on a wall painted the color you want the background to be. If you're feeling precise you can use a grid, or just do everything freehand.

The wonderful thing about painting for kids is that they will probably be impressed no matter what you do. You don't have to recreate the Sistine Chapel. Your scenery can be accurate or cartoon-like or like nothing they've ever seen, and they'll probably love it, so long as you keep their interests in mind.

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