Retro Room Mural (RRM)

Not long ago I decided I really needed to up the cool factor to my son's bedroom. It had always just been a plain old blue. He has always loved Mario so we decided that would be a good theme to go on. I had seen the wall clings but they just didn't quite fit what I was looking for. We needed something bigger that tied in more of the room. I finally stumbled on the idea of just painting it right on the walls. I decided if all else failed, I could just paint back over it again. He started playing SNES Super Mario World when he was 5 and loved it even though he quickly beat it several times. So I thought that would be a really cool retro theme for his room. Plus its totally unique and cool as well as being simpler to do than the new high-res Mario. I tried to take some pictures through the process that I will use throught this Instructable. Hopefully this Instructable will give you some ideas and tips to help you along. I didn't track it but I spent probably $30 - $50 on this project and probably spent a good 15 - 20 hours working on it off and on for a couple months. Pretty much the only cost was on the Home Depot sample paints, they were perfect for this project. I used the Behr and Gliden 8oz sample paints that are tintable to any color you can find for about $3 or $4 each. I did opt for the quart size for the green because there was so much of it and I didn't want to run out.

Materials:
Camera
Paint
Paint brushes
Pencil
Laser level

Optional but VERY helpful:
Laptop
Projector

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Step 1: Step 1: Pick your theme

The first step is to decide what you actually want to do. Sometimes this is the hardest part. My son loves Mario, so that made it pretty easy for me. The tough part for us was to figure out what version of Mario to use. After studying online images of various versions, I decided that the older NES / SNES versions were far easier to replicate for a non-artist like myself. Graphics back in the 80's were not nearly as complex as they are now. Everything you see is the original NES version so I went with the SNES version to be different. This version was far simpler to draw out and paint also. Try to plan ahead when selecting your theme. A highly detailed and realistic / 3D looking images will be much harder to replicate. 8-bit and 16-bit video game images are fairly simple with very few details and shading.

Hallmar says: Jul 21, 2011. 2:02 PM

Fantastic idea!!! I will build a room like this to my son in the future. Nice childhood you son have now.

jptrsn says: Oct 21, 2010. 4:08 PM

Very cool! It looks great, and it's nice folks who can't paint a straight line are able to do it, too!

One tip: the eraser-type cleaners (you know, the white sponge with the blue back) are really good at removing pencil/pen/marker from wall paint. However, they actually scour off a thin layer of paint, so do it lightly if you need to clean up any pencil marks.

piaferre says: Oct 17, 2010. 12:31 PM

loove the pipe door!

Rainbow_Misteor says: Oct 16, 2010. 1:46 PM

interesting indeed im gonna try this for my kids when im older :D

illdoyourdrugs says: Oct 15, 2010. 1:37 PM

Great work man! I'm a little jealous.

NRoberts (author) says: Oct 15, 2010. 6:43 AM

Thanks for all the comments, glad everyone liked it. It was alot of fun and turned out better than I expected. Right now its mainly just one wall, but it does wrap a little to the second wall (I'm not completely done there yet). However, he is already coming up with other ideas for his other walls. I have a feeling there will be more to come with this! Thanks again everyone.

mary candy says: Oct 15, 2010. 3:49 AM

coooollll !!!!!!

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l8nite says: Oct 14, 2010. 10:11 PM

that turned out GREAT ! !

valhallas_end says: Oct 14, 2010. 7:48 PM

Brilliant. That is an absolutely fantastic job. Good call on the projector, too - I've used this method to blow up and rescale drawings (for posters, etc. - I am not much of an artist beyond an 8.5" x 11" size paper), but never thought for a mural. Very cool.

Does this scheme wrap around the whole room, or do you plan to extend it? I can only see the sign on the last picture on a kitty-corner wall. You could also create custom 3D objects to "pop" your mural - make those coin boxes or coins above the door into lighting fixtures or something useful and creative!

Major kudos.