Collect photographs of real clouds as models when painting a cloud ceiling.
A cloud theme, especially when utilized on a high ceiling, brings the sky indoors. A soft cerulean backdrop dotted with wispy and puffy floating clouds is beautiful in a nursery, child's room, small salon or dining room, or even a guest bath. While there are some drawbacks to painting overhead, including sore muscles and paint spatters in the eyes, the result of this neck-stiffening labor is a heavenly, handpainted decorative ceiling. Prior to painting, collect photos and paintings of clouds and study their shapes and colors for inspiration.
Instructions
1. Prepare the room for painting. Remove any movable furniture and place drop cloths over any flooring or remaining furniture pieces in the room. Set up a ladder or scaffold to work from. Line the top edges of the walls with painter's tape to avoid drips and smears on the walls.
2. Paint the ceiling blue. Use a soft, sky blue color to create a dreamy, floating cloud effect. If you are painting over a white ceiling, one coat of blue paint is fine. Allow the paint to dry completely.
3. Pour white, indoor, matte-finish, water-based paint into a paint pan. Use water-based paint because overhead painting is messy and water-based paint cleans up easier than oil. Wear a painter's cap to protect your hair from drips.
4. Dip a damp sea sponge into the paint and lightly sponge the paint onto the ceiling in a cloud shape, working from the center of the cloud outward. Clouds are more dense and opaque in the center, which means your paint should be as well. Place the first, large cloud slightly off-center in the room.
5. Locate larger clouds randomly around the ceiling and accent them with some smaller clouds. Determine how "cloudy" you want your ceiling to be; use a photograph of a real sky to create a balance of large and small clouds.
6. Press a piece of clean, damp cheesecloth against the paint to soften it. A quick and gentle on and off dab against paint that isn't yet dry will lighten it and blur any hard lines. Barely touch the cheesecloth to the paint to avoid smearing your clouds.
7. Use a clean, dry paintbrush to further soften the edges. A dry brush will pull paint in the direction your hand is moving. Place the brush near, but not at, the edge of the cloud and "pull" the paint at the perimeter of the cloud outward into wisps.
8. Step down and examine the work from time to time to ensure you are balancing the vista of large clouds with smaller clouds. As the paint dries, re-sponge the centers of the clouds with fresh paint to build them up and make the clouds look realistic.
9. Use a dry, round-headed brush to dab pale pink, lavender and blue paint, almost imperceptibly, onto the center sections of the larger clouds. Keep the paint light by collecting only a small amount of paint on the dry bristles. Tap the brush against the painted cloud to add particles of color to it without forming any definite shapes. You don't want polka dots, just some tint. These colors add density and realism to the clouds when they are seen from below.
10. Apply a coat of clear matte lacquer to the ceiling once the clouds are dry. Apply one quick coat in uniform strokes without going back over any areas of wet lacquer. Once the lacquer is dry, remove the painter's tape from the walls and enjoy the vision of delicate clouds floating across the room.
Tags: water-based paint, against paint, blue paint, ceiling cloud, cloud outward, clouds with, into paint