Elijah is our nature boy. He can tell you about every animal on the planet! It was fitting for him to have a nature theme bedroom with clouds on the ceiling. You may remember that Elijah’s ceiling fan is the Warbird Tiger Shark Ceiling Fan from Palm Fan Store. In that post, we talked about making the fan look like it was in an actual sky. Many of you thought it was a great idea to try, so we did!
On my last post on remodeling kids bedrooms, I explained how we took our son’s dark, paneled room and transformed it into a clean starting slate. I described how we tore off paneling from Elijah’s bedroom walls. We scraped the paneling glue off the walls. We repaired the drywall with joint compound by skim coating the entire bedroom walls, sanded it, and repeated several times. Then, we painted the entire bedroom with white primer paint. This left us with a great starting point for Elijah’s room.
How to Paint Clouds on the Ceiling
Elijah has a grandma that would do anything for him, including playing Michelangelo by painting designs on his ceiling. Lucky for him, she is a talented artist that has painted professionally in homes . First, we painted the top 1/2 of the walls with a satin “Pool Party” blue paint from Home Depot. Most paint stores have color wheels or charts just for kids. Take advantage of their research and go with what kids like and what will match their childhood!
We just started painting freehand. I used the rollers and left spaces below blank in various curves for the rolling hills to be added later. Grandma started outlining the clouds as she painted the edges of the ceiling with the brush.

Grandma began painted the clouds not just on the ceiling but also as if they were floating down into the skies on the walls. I loved that idea! She used a 2″ trim brush that has a slight slant to the bristles.

I love to let my kids learn and try new things. I think it is great to start teaching them that they can help even at the age of 5. Allowing a 5 year old to “help” paint his room also gives kids a sense of ownership and pride. For me, it gave me a lesson in patience!

Yep, this is what you get whenย you let your kids help paint the walls. As adorable as this is, it is not above the tape line where the blue is suppose to be. Luckily we are painting the bottom 1/2 a dark green color. Plus, if you do let your kids help paint the walls, be sure to go right behind them and use the roller over their painting or you will have globs and drips of paint everywhere which is not a pretty sight!

Together, we painted the walls and about 1/4 of the ceiling in 4 hours. It took 1-1/2 gallons of blue paint to paint the upper portion of the walls and the ceiling. (We previously primed the ceiling with white paint which helped a lot.) The ceiling took quite a bit of paint because of all of the ridges and such from the design on the ceiling. Don’t worry if you don’t get super smooth lines, we did some touch ups in the end but really you can’t see if the lines are perfect when standing on the floor!
Grandma came back another day and finished the clouds and worked another 2-3 hours. We considered painting the insides of the clouds a brighter white than the previously used primer paint. Once we got started into that, it became a mess with drips on the walls and it was hard to ‘stay in the lines’ within the clouds. It really wasn’t necessary since we first primed the ceiling. I would recommend priming and using a ceiling paint of the white you wish to use before painting the blue sky/clouds.
It was a lot of work but the results are not only beautiful but lends a very open airy and relax feeling to the room. This room is FAR from the dark, brown, depressing room that we began with.

Warbird Tiger Shark Ceiling Fan with Clouds on the Ceiling
Having a super cool fan like the Palm Fan Store’s Warbird Tiger Shark Ceiling Fan is great by itself. It adds a lot of character to any room – as well as a great breeze on warm nights! See picture below.

However, by taking the extra time and effort (thanks grandma!), this fan sets the theme of the room and creates a custom, exciting feel to any kid or teen bedroom. The clouds are great but the fan is what really makes the room pop!

Decide on a Bedroom Style
We purposely made our clouds look child-like, almost like something you would see in a Dr. Seuss book. However, for a teenager’s room or even an adult’s room, you could easily make more realistic looking clouds by using various faux effects with sponges and brush techniques like feathering.ย Just don’t take yourself too seriously when you paint clouds on the ceiling. You have a good margin of error since nobody will ever be up close to the final project! Remember, if you seriously mess up, you can always repaint!
here is How to paint clouds on the ceiling
What a great way to help him learn patience! Looks great too!!
Thanks, Tracie. Glad you like the idea. You could do this for a boy or girl’s room for sure. Nature is universal!
I love love love this! I’m trying to come up with some ideas for my kids room $4 year old girls room and the 2 yr old and 1 yr old boys room. This could work in either room. Awesome job
Great idea! Love the clouds! And that Warbird Tiger Shark Ceiling Fan looks pretty cool!
Thanks for showing us how to do this! I’ve been looking for some way to decorate my boys’ room, but didn’t have any good ideas.
I loved the idea, especially because I was planning the same thing for my son’s room. I still have not gotten to it but I like what I see and am going to definitely give it a try. I don’t have much blue paint either so I liked the way you did white first and just added blue.
I love this! I thought about trying to paint clouds on my son’s wall to match his nursery set, but lost my nerve. Yours turned out great!!
It looks like you have a happy boy and a very nice mother. I love the ceiling fan, it looks like it is coming out of the sky with the clouds all around. You have guts trying this.
Love the ceiling Fan! My daughter has a fairy room and I painted clouds and stars on her ceiling. I also will be adding some cute fairies flying on the ceiling through the clouds! ๐
I have always wanted to do this but never had the inspiration! Love the ceiling fan – what a great way to top it all off! Nice work!
That is a cute idea. Plus, when he outgrows it, you can just paint right over it. You will treasure it though, to see how he sees your family at his age now and compare it to how he can draw years later.
I really liked the fact you let your son help. I actually think the pic he painted on a person… is great and it gave me an idea to let my son paint with different colors on the wall. Paint what he sees the family like , including pets. His own little version of his life. Both my son and I are very much looking forward to doing this in fall. I can’t wait. Thanks for the great ideas!!
Cute! I always like nature theme ๐
I love this idea. I had glow in the dark solar system painted on my ceilings when I was little and have always wanted to something “cloud” like for my kids. Thanks for the great ideas.
I think Elijah’s little man is the best part ๐ I hope you let him stay! lol.
I had clouds on my ceiling when I was a girl ๐ I can’t believe how well that fan ties in, what a great find!!
Wow what a great idea!!!
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I love it. I would paint clouds for my daughter if we didn’t live in a darn apartment.. Oh well. I can keep my head in the clouds and dream about the day we get a house! Thanks for this post!
It looks great. I want to see the rolling hills as well!!
i like how it turned out!
This is amazing. I love the how the fan looks like it is in the clouds. You are creative.
What a great idea!! I love this post, thanks.
Very cute!!! And so perfect with his airplane fan ๐