How To Paint Clouds on the Ceiling

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 when  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.  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!

So, are you inspired?

Cindy

Founder and Lead Blogger at Akron Ohio Moms

Cindy is the top Akron Blogger with her own take on awesome brands for families, where to vacation for families, a beat on local activities and family fun, a knack for getting moms to share , and a house that is always 2 weeks away from a complete remodel!