How to Make Clouds on a Painted Ceiling

Paint clouds on your ceiling.

Painting clouds onto a ceiling can be a fun decorating technique in children's bedrooms, especially if there is already an outdoor mural on the walls. Clouds are very forgiving, allowing you to incorporate mistakes into the design while you work. Because of this, the end result appears organic and natural. This tutorial assumes that your ceiling has already been painted, so you will only need two colors of paint: white and the ceiling color.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Tarp
• Stepladder
• Low-tack painters tape
• Safety glasses
• White paint
• Paint brushes
• Ceiling color paint

Instructions

1. Sketch a few concepts for your cloud layout on paper. You want to avoid obvious patterns and too much uniformity in the shapes and sizes. Select your favorite sketch to use as a rough guide.

2. Lay a protective tarp on the floor beneath your painted ceiling.

3. Set a stepladder under the ceiling. You will move this ladder regularly as you work.

4. Apply low-tack painter's tape on the walls around the border of the ceiling and onto any light fixtures. This will protect these areas from the paint.

5. Put on a pair of safety glasses to protect your eyes against paint drips.

6. Dip a 2-inch paintbrush into white paint.

7. Tap the corner of the brush repeatedly against the ceiling, building up rounded cloud shapes. Keep the size and shape of these clouds random. Don't stress over mistakes; just incorporate them into your design.

8. Allow the paint to dry. This should not require more than a few hours.

9. Dip a brush into paint that matches your ceiling's color. Wipe most of this paint back off on the lip of the paint can.

10. 

    Look to the shapes found in real clouds as inspiration for this step.

    Gently tap the ceiling paint around the edges of the clouds to soften them. Tap the paint inside the cloud as well, creating rounded shapes and structures.

11. Allow the paint to dry overnight, and then remove the painter's tape.