Wall murals are a playful, lively way to decorate a child’s room. You can pay a professional painter to create the mural, or you can do it yourself—maybe with your children. Creating a fun wall mural for a child is not very difficult. It’s an easy and fun project for a beginning crafter.

If you want to start simply, you can buy a wall murals kit for children. Many home improvement stores or Internet sites sell hundreds children’s cartoon paint guides. You could paint a tree with colorful birds in a nursery corner or zoo animals throughout the room. Even if you decide not to use a purchased stencil, you can use them for inspiration. Also look for scenes in your or your child’s favorite storybook or cute imagines on greeting cards.

For a more elaborate project, you can paint a mural over the entire room. You could, for example, have a blue-sky scene with birds and clouds on the ceiling, trees stretching the walls, with animals, insects, and birds playing around the room. You could paint sleeping bears near the crib, Mother Goose by the story-time rocking chair, and animals playing together in the child’s area. Explore sports themes, cars and trucks, letters and numbers, castles, and fairy tales for your inspiration.

To paint a children’s wall mural, design your wall mural on paper first. Make color copies of your murals for reference, and a high-quality, black-and-white transparency copy as your stencil. Use an overhead projector to project your image on the wall. Center and align the image before you begin tracing. Also mark with masking tape where the projector is in case you have to move it before you are finished. Protect your woodwork, furniture, and carpet with cloth before you start painting. Acrylic paints work best, but you will probably need more than one coat. Use a wide paintbrush for large areas, a small round brush for the details. Don’t be afraid to get messy and use your fingers or a sponge to blend the colors.

As the child grows, update the mural with the child. A children’s wall mural can be an evolving, playful show of love.