DIY Rainbow Painted Wall and Little Girls Room Reveal

Learn how to make a beautiful rainbow painted wall in your home or child's room. These easy step-by-step instructions will walk you through making a watercolor organic rainbow on your wall.

I have a little niece who is crazy about rainbows and unicorns. She's been telling us she wants a girls rainbow bedroom for some time now. So one day her mom and I started cooking up a plan to create a rainbow painted wall. In less than one day we changed the look of her room to a bright, happy, and cheerful place. Check out the final results and more tips at my 5 Cute Toddler Girl Bedroom Ideas on a Budget post.

Rainbow Painted Wall

I have painted many murals on a wall but surprisingly I have never painted a rainbow on a wall. I had a strategy inside my head and I was keeping my fingers crossed it would work. So, let's get started painting a rainbow on a wall by shopping for supplies.

DIY Rainbow Wall Paint & Supplies

To begin you will need to pick your colors or you can use the color I have already matched. These rainbow paint colors were matched up with a piece of art we found at Hobby Lobby called “Sweet Dreams”. I used sample sizes by Behr paint at The Home Depot.

• Behr paint Fruit Cocktail (use sample sizes on all rainbow paint colors & grab samples to match decorations)
• Behr paint Taffy Twist
• Behr paint Little Sun Dress
• Behr paint Wintergreen Dream
• Behr Paint Reserve
• Paint brushes (we got one brush for each color at the dollar store)
• Cup of water
• Paper plate
• Pencil
• Large eraser
• String
• Push pins
• Measuring tape
• Level

Now that we have gathered supplies for this rainbow painted wall let's get started talking about the background of the rainbow.

White or Neutral Wall Paint Color

Before you start painting a rainbow on your wall make sure your wall is white paint or neutral base color. If you want your wall to look like our little girl's room you will need to paint it white. We used Alabaster White by Sherwin Williams. This is a great white color that is softer on the eyes.

Once you have your wall painted and it is dry let's begin drawing the rainbow on your wall.

How to Draw a Rainbow on a Wall

This part is probably the most challenging part but once you have figured out some numbers then you will be over the rainbow. Grab your measuring tape and measure the width of the wall. Once you find the center make a mark.

If your wall is 8 feet tall and you want your rainbow to look like mine then measure up from the floor 30″ and make a make. I wrote the letter C here.

Then measure up to 35″ and make a mark. That is the top of your rainbow.

Next measure from the lower center mark over 35″ and make a mark. That is how far your rainbow goes to one side. Do the same on the other side and make a mark. If your rainbow is too wide for your wall then all you have to do is determine the width and then use that number to mark the height.

If you need your rainbow to be higher up then move your bottom center point up.

Now you have five colors in this rainbow design and each color is 6″ wide and you have white space in between the colors that are 1″ wide. That is a total of 35″ from the top center of the rainbow to the bottom. Do you see where I got the 35″ number from?

Next using your ruler or measuring tape measure down 6″ and make a mark from the top center of the rainbow. Then measure from there 1″ and make a mark. Then another 6″ and so on until you get all five colors.

Drawing a Raindow on a Wall

Now for the fun part — drawing a perfect arch. Tie a long string to a pencil on one end and using a push pin secure the string to the letter C on the wall. Or you can have someone hold it as we did.

Start on one side and hold the pencil at a perfect 90-degree angle and keep the string taught while you draw an arch line. Lightly draw on the wall. Do not make a dark line. Trust me you will thank me later.

Start and stop at a horizontal position. Meaning when the string is straight horizontally like the line of the horizon stop drawing there.

Once you have the rainbow arch drawn take a level and a draw vertical straight line for each color. Now that you have all the lines drawn you are finished with the challenging part and ready to paint.

Painting a Rainbow on a Wall

Now for the fun part of painting a watercolor organic large rainbow on a wall.

Begin by dipping your paintbrush in one of the rainbow colors of paint and put it on a paper plate. Then dip your paintbrush into a cup of water. Only dip the tip of the paintbrush and remove the excess water on the side of the cup and place the water into the paint and stir it around.

You should have slightly watered-down paint on the paper plate. You don't want your paint to be too runny or it will run down the wall while you paint it onto the rainbow but you need it loosened up so it gives the water effect.

Keep a roll of paper towels handy just in case it starts running. We had that happen a few times.

Begin painting the rainbow stripes. It is okay if the paint doesn't look perfect because remember this is an organic rainbow and a watercolor look.

While you are painting make sure to stay on the inside of the pencil lines. When you are finished we will be erasing the pencil line. You can see the line if you paint over it and you will not be able to erase it after it dries.

Once all the paint colors have been applied let it dry overnight before you erase the pencil lines.

And now you have a beautiful organic rainbow on your wall or in this case a bedroom wall.

How to Decorate a Little Girls Rainbow Bedroom

Yay! We have this amazing statement wall and it is time to do some decorating. But first, there is an awkward half wall in the bedroom corner. To make it feel less odd and more on purpose we went with shelves.

Custom Bedroom Shelves

To make it more decorative we wanted shelves with gold brackets but couldn't find the exact length of the white shelf. Believe it or not, I found it be cheaper to buy this shelf set on Amazon and only use the brackets and then buy wood for shelves.

We cut the wood then sanded and painted the shelves the same color as the walls, Alabaster White. After they were painted I gave them a few days to dry before decorating them.

Little Girls Bedding

When you are at The Home Depot shopping for paint samples grab the paint chips. They will come in handy when shopping for bedding and other things.

Match as close as you can a bed set. We went with a chenille comforter set and accented it with a striped throw at the end of the bed and a sherpa pillow. Children love things that feel good and are soft. The sherpa pillow is perfect for cuddling

Then for a little decoration on the bed, we found this unicorn. My sweet little niece is also crazy about unicorns so this guy was fitting.

Child's Nightstand

It is good for children to have a nightstand or small table next to their bed. Even if you don't have a table you can stack boxes or use crates as a nightstand.

Keep it simple with a lamp and a place for them to place books, box or anything they will love to use at bedtime. This lamp is great because when the light is turned on it case shadow lines on the wall which is fun and it has a dimmer. Lights with dimmers for children are perfect for low light at bedtime or bright during the day.

And the extra space for books is perfect for this little girl's latest favorite book. She tickles me sitting down pretending she knows all the words in this book. She carries on the whole story just by looking at the pictures. So adorable!

Decorating Children's Bookcases

Next, let's work on the bookcases. Because they are mostly out of reach we went with decorating instead of toys. On the top shelf is a basket for mom. This is a great place to store things that are not used on a daily basis and out of the reach of her little girl. Then I painted this cute “Be Kind” sign I found at Dollar General and place it on top too.

The next shelf was the perfect spot a decorative book, a cross, wooden beads, a stack of books to repeat the gold pattern, and a plant. Plants are important when decorating because they will warm up your decor and give it life. We went with an artificial plant for this room.

One more decorative shelf is filled with books organized in rainbow colors and a gold rabbit bank acting as a bookend. Then we placed a rainbow decorating on the end.

Last are two larger baskets that our little girl can reach. These baskets will be filled with items that she uses on a daily basis.

And here are the decorated shelves. It turned out so cute!!

Rainbow Printable Art Print

For the walls, my daughter Hannah designed adorable art pieces for our Etsy shop. This is a great way to get art for cheap. This one says “You are my Sunshine” from that sweet classic children's song. We used inexpensive frames from Walmart to frame them and had them printed at Office Depot.

The other design has Psalms 139:14, “She is fearfully and wonderfully made.” This piece has a cut little organic rainbow nestled at the bottom to go with the rainbow room theme.

How to Make a Rainbow Pom Pom Garland

The last DIY project we did for this little girl's bedroom is a rainbow garland. I have directions on how to make a pom pom garland but to make this a rainbow design all you need is yarn in the colors of the painted rainbow accent wall.

Once I had the pom poms made I laid them out in order just like our gorgeous rainbow wall and threaded them with a large needs onto a piece of yarn I measured out on a diagonal on her mirror.

To hang the garland I used painter's tape on the back of the mirror. This side of the room needed color and the rainbow garland did the trick.

Inspiration Decoration

Last, we hung the inspiration piece. Remember we used this piece of art to match our colors. Well, it found its home over the chest of drawers.

And to make it fun we placed another useful basket, a stack of gold binding books, and topped it with this hilarious girly lama. This lama cracks me up.

It is so important to make a child's bedroom fun and happy. It is also important that a child can touch decorations without worry they will break something. Many decorations in this room came from Dollar General so if it breaks we are not out of a lot of money.

These lanterns found at the Dollar General have battery-powered lights inside of them. Never put candles or anything flammable in a child's room. Battery-powered lights are great for children. You can find them for cheap that any dollar store.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. A rainbow-themed bedroom for a little girl. After we painted the rainbow on the wall we didn't let her in the room until it was all decorated. She was so excited to see it!

Remember if you are doing a child's room make sure everything in the room is safe for them to touch. If their bedroom is also a playroom then use the baskets to store toys. Floor baskets are great too for toys as well as under-bed storage.

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to make a rainbow on a wall and get inspiration on decorating a rainbow-themed bedroom for a child. Here are little girl wall decor ideas that will help you plan her decorations too.

A big rainbow behind a bed is the perfect statement piece of this room and will look great for other rooms like new baby, kids' bedroom, playroom, classroom, homeschool room, new office, and so on.

See how we transformed a preteen room into a boho paradise, including stunning before-and-after pictures, at the post Create a Preteen Boho Bedroom with Minimalist Vibes.

Happy Decorating!