Moveable Painted Rainbow Mural Using Wall Vinyl

My daughter wanted to create a rainbow mural for her fifth birthday. Although she would have excitedly painted right on the wall, I wanted an easier and less stressful project. Using wall vinyl, she created her masterpiece. As a happy surprise, her rainbow wall mural has survived being moved twice. The picture shows it four years after its creation, in her current bedroom.

Materials Used

1. Rainbow of Acrylic Paint Colors (customize using any set of rainbow colors!)
2. Pink -- Bright Pink
3. Orange -- Pure Orange
4. Yellow -- Yellow Light
5. Green -- Apple Orchard
6. Blue -- Calypso Sky
7. Purple -- Violet Pansy
8. Paint Brush
9. Pencil (to trace design on wall vinyl before painting)
10. White Wall Vinyl (≈12" by 80")
11. Holographic Vinyl (≈12" by 48")
12. Scissors (to cut out design)
13. Tape (to tape wall vinyl temporarily to the ground/painting surface to make painting easier)

First, I cut two pieces of 12" white wall vinyl to about 40 inches in length. Then I overlapped the two pieces of wall vinyl by about one inch (I'm attempting to show the overlap with the close-up on the pink box in the attached photo). I did this by pulling the backing off the long edge of one of the wall vinyl pieces and carefully sticking it across the long edge of the other piece. This turned my 12" wide vinyl into about 23" wide. I wasn't aiming for this size in particular; I just happened to have this amount of scrap wall vinyl left from a different project.

My final design was about 40 inches long by 22 inches wide, but you can make this step your own by cutting and overlapping your vinyl to whatever size you need.

Second, I taped the vinyl to the floor (to prevent moving/rolling) and sketched the design onto the vinyl using a pencil. I knew we would cut the rainbow to size after painting, so we drew raindrop shapes in the available space around the rainbow. My daughter helped with this step. It doesn't need to be perfect, as shown by my recreation of our pencil sketch. Done is best.

I labeled each raindrop to know what color to paint it later. We did "p" for pink, "o" for orange", "y" for yellow, "g" for green, "b" for blue, and "v" for purple/violet (since "p" was already used for pink).

Note: I *should* have written the letter on the outside edge of the raindrop, instead of boldly inside the raindrop. Although you can't see it in the picture, the pencil shows through some of the paint colors (especially the yellow and pink).

Next, my daughter painted the design. She did two coats of paint, and I added a third touch-up coat to try and cover pencil marks. Because the raindrops were getting cut out, I told her not to worry about making it perfect and to paint over the lines of the raindrops.

If you are worried about mess, you can put down a dropcloth or cardboard to protect your painting surface (or paint outside). We painted directly on the surface of our floor and, yes, paint drops fell onto the floor. I was able to clean it up with hot soapy water and/or my fingernail (ifykyk).

Note: Acrylic paint can stain clothes, so dress accordingly.

Using scissors, I cut out the main rainbow piece, the two cloud pieces (from the silver holographic vinyl), and ALL the raindrops. The picture shows an example of possible cut lines. At this point, the wall vinyl backing was still attached.

Note: Unfortunately, the silver holographic vinyl is NOT wall vinyl and is not ideal for this application. You could make your clouds using the same white wall vinyl instead. I just happened to have the holographic vinyl in my supplies at the time and my daughter wanted to use it.

Last, we peeled off the backing and attached the sticky side to the wall. We put the rainbow on, then the clouds, and finally the raindrops.

Could we be bothered to tidy up the books for this photo? Apparently not 😆. This picture is from four years ago, so I'm simply satisfied that I found these photos to write this instructable. This is your sign to go into your old photo reel and share those favorite past projects 😉.

Note: We saved the backing! I rolled the backing up and stuck it inside the tube of a wrapping paper roll to keep it safe. This came in handy when we moved. We peeled the mural off the wall and stuck it back on the backing. So far, it has been attached to three different walls!

That's it! It's a flexible idea, so go make the mural of your dreams 😊🖌️🎨.