Tori Mengel
- Aug 6, 2022
- 3 min read

A Plant Theme Mural

in a new space for the store "Just One More Plant"!

From the inspiration, to the application, to the materials I used, and all the final product pictures - join me for my latest adventure of a large scale mural in a plant store!

MOCK UP

Erin at "Just One More Plant" and I have been friends since high school! When she asked me to paint a mural in her new shop before she announced the move, I felt honored and instantly said "YES!!!!". We went back and forth, Erin wanted monstera leaves and the rest was up to me. Here's our inspiration:

Just as fast as I said to paint the mural, Erin said yes to this mock up! So let's begin!

SUPPLIES

As an amateur, there's probably a lot better ways to do this - but this is my process when getting materials:

Head to your nearest Home Depot or Lowes and grab a few color swatches and sample sized paints for budget friendly & low waste.

Artist tip: when looking at color swatches with different shades - get two shades from each swatch. Stick to one color and using shades of it helps keep your pallet in the same color family.

For this mural, I grabbed 2 shades of a warm green and 2 shades of a neutral pink.

Additionally, I used burnt umber and titanium white acrylic paint for variations within each shade on the wall.

As always, I have tricorn black and pure white wall paint on hand to bring up highlights and shadows within the mural elements.

For this mural specifically, I grabbed a Magnum Sharpie for the black outlined monstera leaves. 10/10 with working well on walls!

Lastly, you'll just need some brushes! I use Michael's cheap roller sponges because they're easy to clean and re-use. For the under coats, I'll use cheap 1.5" paint brushes from Home Depot or Lowes and for top coats, I use a round edge large acrylic brush from Michael's. I simply can't paint flat surfaces without treating it like a canvas!

LET'S PAINT!

Short and sweet, start from the back and work your way forward. The wall was already painted in this rosé pink, giving me the opportunity to just start from the neutral color blocks in the background.

These took 2-3 coats, have burnt umber in the darker shapes and titanium white in the lighter shapes. The goal was to give it dimension and that meant leaving it brushy with different shades!

Next: MONSTERA LEAVES

Once the color blocks dried, I realized I needed more to fill up some negative space. I added 2 more little dark spots to get it just right.

Each leaf is a little different, reflecting on how diverse this amazing plant can come! Between 2 shades of green, titanium white and burnt umber was used!

(I forgot to get a close up of the third one... sigh)

Lastly: the top details.

Black outlined monstera leaves and white dots and dashes. This is when the magnum sharpie comes into play. A few layers of the sharpie, some thinker areas to add depth, and some clean up of the edges gives us this final outcome.

Our dots and dashes are from pure white wall paint with a few coats to get them to pop but some still a little opaque!

It looks like it was simple as pie, but don't be fooled - this mural took 5 hours to complete! After the painting, the addition of a cut out sign was added on top!

THE BEFORE & A F T E R

I'm the happiest I could be after painting this mural. I learned that the image I created for inspiration could not be obtained at the size that I estimated on a computer. Screens are smaller than walls? What?! Sometimes I impress myself and stand back to question "I did that?". Yes, yes I did!