Whelp, I’ve gone and done it again - a subtle yet very tropical two-tone mural (well, maybe three if you count the wall). painted using my extra smooth Zibra triangle brushes.
This time it was a bathroom that you wouldn’t think was drab considering the bright green and pink tile, but was definitely missing some of the lush tropical vibes nestled directly outside of my parents’ South Florida lake house.
This is a very wild ‘Before’, but at least you can see both the green tub and sink, as well as just how much pink is in there too!
First I had to measure and design everything on my iPad. The bathroom walls were already grey so we wanted to stay in an achromatic scheme so as to not even attempt to compete with that pink. Ha! As if we could.. 😅
We settled on a series of vines in a midtone and the monstera and adonsonii deliciocasas in a slightly lighter value to create a sense of distance without getting into any more detail than a silhouette.
Good thing my mom is also so darn artsy because she had a projector and a huge roll of newsprint for me to enlarge and transfer my drawings to the wall. I have used projectors for murals just straight onto the wall in the past, but there isn’t space in a bathroom to back up far enough, so this technique was perfect. (See my exact transfer technique in the video below)
The first layer was vines over the shower and in the door corner (not shown)
After transferring the first cartoon (ie. outline drawing), I realized it would be much faster to paint the leaf shapes whole, then go back and paint the holes on like dots using the original wall paint color, rather than paint around each hole. I wound up needing to paint 2-3 layers on everything so I’m glad I discovered that method really early on!
Painting the big monstera leaves was definitely my favorite part (even though I had to do those three times for full opacity!), not only because it was a delightful challenge to make them look dimensional without using any outlines or value shifts, but because the triangle brushes are sooo smooth and dreamy and hold so much paint! This is not an ad, but if you find yourself attempting any kind of accent or mural wall, I highly recommend Zibra triangle shaped brushes. They’re not expensive at all and will save a ton of time.
Shout to my mom too for prepping and repainting some of the wall space for me :)
Here’s the finished product! This first pic turned out too warm, but you can see the accurate shades below.
Here’s the full process vid in under 2 minutes.
Last but not least, my studio mural done about a year ago, with awesome shelves built by my hubby:)
2.4.2026
