Im going to paint a mural in my kid's room but im not sure what paint to use.?

Question

well the question pretty much sums it up! should i use regular wall paint...or paint from the craft store? im not sure! i've looked some things up but its sooo confusing!

im doing a jungle theme and im paiting the wall a green but the animals are going to be in black and white. i know the wall is going to be regular Behr paint but to outline the animals in black...should i use the same? and in what finish?

Answer 1

For big areas, use wall paint. For the smaller details I would use small oil paints from the craft store otherwise you will end up with gallons of leftover colors you will never need. I wouldn't do a high gloss, keep it flat. If you want it gloss you can add a gloss coat later.

Answer 2

Use a low-VOC laytex wall paint for the background color, then use acrylics for the mural.  I wouldn't recommend oil paints for a child's room because of the solvent fumes.

Answer 3

Stick with wall paints, even for the trims. You can go to places like Sherwin-Williams or other paint stores and usually find small sample bottles for a couple of bucks (the ones people use to choose a room color by putting samples on the walls). Sticking to paints that are supposed to be on the walls makes for easier cleanups on the walls and even easier covering the mural, should you ever choose to do that.

Answer 4

Definitely use regular latex wall paint for the larger areas.

For the details, take a look at these liquid acrylics from Liquitex (see link in sources). They're student grade, meaning that they're not fine art quality (ie, expensive) and you can get them in a wide variety of colors and sizes from half-cup to a quart. I'm citing d**k Blick as a source, click around the rest of their site, they have a huge amount of stuff to offer that is right up your alley for this. They are big into supplying schools and commercial art supplies.

Don't go with the oil, it will be harder to work with and clean up. If you ever want to paint over this in the future, the oil paint may be an obstacle.

Answer 5

for the bigger areas you can go to a small hardware stores and get paint samples, or buy paint that was mixed wrong to save money, try to look for flat or eggshell, i think that looks the best. if its too glossy it may look tacky.  but for the fine detail you should use acrylic paint, and once the piece is done you can get a clear matte aerosol finish to spray on to protect it! good luck and happy painting!