Call it a second-trimester creative bug, a wild hair, or a spring weather itch. Whatever it is, it got me in the mood to give an outdoor space of ours a fun glow-up! I tackled this DIY Painted Sun-Ray Wall Art in one weekend, and I love how it turned out!
We got a playset for the kiddos at the end of the summer season last year. That led us to create an entire play area, complete with mulch and our other outdoor equipment. I want the space to be inviting for adults and kiddos, and there is an old lean-to sitting behind the area. It was calling out to me for a little TLC!
I’m not sure how I came up with the sun-ray idea, but I love how it all turned out. I was debating between a rainbow or sun-rays. The rainbow seemed a bit too child-like for the vibe I was aiming for, so I went for the sun-rays. I’m so glad I went with my gut on that!
As I was searching for a how-to-guide to get this project done, I came up short. I couldn’t find anything to help me out, so I just had to wing it. My hope is that this post will help someone else (you?!) who would like to tackle an easy DIY painted sun-ray wall art project like this!
How to create a DIY Sun-Ray Wall Art
1. Find Inspiration for your DIY Sun-Ray Art Design
First, gather some inspiration pieces. As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t find a how-to-guide or post specifically for this project. Instead, I found photos of what I was aiming for.
After a couple of different Google searches, I landed on a few pieces that really spoke to me and what I envisioned for my project. Google will give you results from a variety of websites. I found most of my inspiration shots from Etsy and Pinterest.
2. Identify Your Space
After getting our play area all set up last fall, I wanted to add a bit of pizzaz to bring it all together. This old worn down lean-to sits directly behind the play-set area. The end wall was the perfect space to bring some permanent sunshine to our lives!
I was also drawn to the fact that this wasn’t a huge wall. It’s 13′ wide x 8′ tall, and because it’s a lean-to, the roof sits at a downward angle. This made it really easy for me to tackle without a ladder (just a step ladder) or help. But I also like that it was just big enough to make a good statement in our backyard!
You could do this project in so many areas! Think of your outdoor spaces, as I did. Or consider something like this inside your home – like a playroom, end of a hallway, accent wall in a bedroom, office space, etc. The possibilities are endless!
3. Choose Your Color Scheme
For ease and cost-effectiveness, I stuck with two colors for my sun-ray design, plus a white paint and primer combo as the first layer. You can do whatever your little heart desires!
I’m definitely glad I painted the whole wall white instead of leaving the blue tin as the base. This really made the sun-rays pop. I’d also mention that the darker colors will take many more coats to cover the white than the lighter colors will. It took a solid 3-5 coats of the darker orange to cover the white evenly. The lighter peach color could’ve been good at one coat, but two coats really covered it all well.
For my colors, I knew I wanted warm tones. I also wanted the color scheme to complement our play-set area, especially the cedar tone of our play-set! The colors I went with really fit the bill. I’ll admit, I was unsure as I took the lids off the cans, but always remember the colors dry a little deeper.
Valspar Paint is what I used for this project, as that is what our local hardware store carries. I got one gallon of the Medallion Exterior Flat White Paint & Primer. This was plenty for two coats, and I have about a half gallon left over. Then for my sun design, I started with one quart each of the Medallion Exterior Flat Cinnamon Sunset (darker) and Sweet Orange (lighter).
I had plenty of the Sweet Orange (with some leftover), but I ended up needing another quart of the Cinnamon Sunset because it took more coats to cover, and I had more square footage in that color. In hindsight, I would have switched the colors on my rays, so that I’d have more of the lighter color than the darker. I think I would have been able to make that work with just one quart.
Tip: I learned something very important during this project and I want to pass it along to you. I got my original paint from our small local hardware store that carries the Valspar Medallion brand. When I needed another quart, they weren’t open, so I went to Lowe’s. Turns out, what Valspar sends to local, small hardware stores vs. big box stores is very different.
Lowe’s didn’t even carry the Medallion brand from Valspar. The gentleman helping me said I should go get it from the hardware store again because the color would likely be different since all of their codes and formulas are different. Keep this in mind!
4. Gather Supplies
Here are the supplies you need to tackle this easy DIY painted sun-ray wall art:
- Paint (I used Valspar Medallion)
- Paintbrush/roller
- Paint pan/paint cup
- Paper Towels
- Screwdriver
- String/twine
- Pencil
- Painter’s Tape
- Garbage sack for garbage
I used a cardboard box to contain all of my supplies while I was working. This also kept debris from getting into the paint since I was outside working in the elements.
5. Clean & Prime
As with any painting project, you’ll want to make sure that you clean the surface you’re about to paint. Since my wall was outside and I didn’t need things to be perfect, I just went over a few areas that had grass or cobwebs stuck on the tin.
My wall after two coats of white exterior paint and primer.
Once your surface is all cleaned up, it’s time to get your base layer of paint/primer on. I did two coats of white paint and primer and it covered really well. You also want to keep in mind that this layer of paint isn’t going to be very visible once your sun-ray design is painted on. There’s actually a minimal amount of white shown in my finished product. So my point is, make this step of the project quick and easy – it doesn’t need to be perfect.
Note: It was during this step that I realized having a flat surface would make this project way easier. The grooves on corrugated steel are a major pain in the rear, and I hadn’t even considered that prior to starting. It all worked out, just needed more time and patience than I was anticipating. I thought this was worth a mention.
6. Stencil & Tape Off Your Surface
This part will be the most tedious and time-consuming. I’m breaking it up into a few different steps. *If you’d like to watch a video of this process, I’ve got an entire Highlight on my Instagram page dedicated to this project. Some of this may make more sense from watching and listening to me there. đ
Finding Your Center Marks
Once the primer is completely dry (I’d wait a good hour or so), it’s time to start laying out your sun-ray design. This is where you’ll need your screwdriver, string, and pencil. In order to get a nice rounded half-circle for my sun, I measured out how high I wanted the top of my sun to sit on the wall.
This was 3-feet for my project. I just eye-balled what I thought would look right based on the height of my wall. That will then determine the diameter of the circle. Since I’m going up 3-feet, I knew I’d have a 6-foot wide sun centered at the base of my wall (from my 6 1/2 ft center point).
Once I had that calculated, I stepped back to confirm that the remaining space left on either side and above the sun would be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Luckily, it was, and I moved forward. I made a pencil mark at the center of the base of my wall for reference. Then, I went up 3ft from that mark and made another mark to notate the top center of my circle (see photo).
Creating Your Sun Circle
Now the fun part!
To jimmy-rig a circle-making tool, cut a piece of string or twine to the length you need for the height of your circle (mine was 3 ft.). This cut doesn’t have to be exact but try to get it fairly close. You can cut an inch or so more on each end so that you have surplus for tying around the pencil and screwdriver.
Once you have the string cut, go ahead and tie one end to the pencil and one end to the screwdriver. Next, you’ll stick your screwdriver all the way down into the ground (with the string still attached) at the center of the base of your wall. Now you can hold your pencil end up taut against your wall and it should reach pretty darn close to your top center mark for your sun.
You’ll have a bit of range because the pencil will be able to move up and down a bit in your hand. Holding it steady where you want it, you can begin to trace the outline of your circle by moving the pencil (still holding it taut the entire time, this is kind of tricky) down to the left and down to the right to create your half circle. It may take a couple of tries until you get it figured out, but shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
After you get this marked, you need to create the (white) spacer block between the sun and the rays. To do this, I just held the pencil taut but pointed it about 2 1/2 inches higher than the first half-circle I traced. I aimed to make this spacer roughly the same width as my painter’s tape that I’d be using to create each sun-ray.
Your “sun” is now traced out and ready to be painted, good job!
Taping off your rays
Now that you’ve got your sun traced out, it’s time to start working on your rays. As I mentioned earlier, the ripples on corrugated steel are really tricky for a project like this. It’ll be much easier if you have a flat surface.
I completely eye-balled my sun-rays; there are no exact measurements for this part. I started at the base of my wall on one side and taped off my bottom edge with painter’s tape.
I learned very quickly that in order for the tape to work correctly (not bleed) on this corrugated steel, I needed to ensure I embedded the tape into each groove with my fingers. Press hard and take your time making sure each piece of tape is well adhered to each groove.
I gradually worked my way up and around the sun taking my tape only to the outer edge of my sun spacer. I eyeballed the angle for each ray for what I thought looked natural. You may have to take tape off and try again occasionally.
I did stop about halfway up this side and went to the other side and started at the bottom again. That seemed to work well in figuring out spacing as you reach the top center. I did end up placing tape vertically at the top center. That just seemed to work out the best. You’ll definitely want to step back every so often and take a look at things. you’ll know right away if something is off and needs to be adjusted.
Here’s how the first version of tape-off looked. You’ll notice that I did not tape off the circle. That part was going to need to be free-handed (sigh). After stepping back to look at this, I felt there were too many rays, so I ended up taking a couple of pieces of tape off and readjusting others to create fewer, wider rays. I didn’t get a photo of that prior to painting, sorry!
Okay! Now that all of that work is done, it’s officially time to paint!
7. Paint
Gather your painting supplies and get to work! I started with the sun portion of the wall. This took quite a bit of time and quite a few coats of paint. I also was using a small 4″ roller for this and it was not that great. I’d recommend using a brush throughout the process of painting the rays. A thick 9″ roller worked well to do the white paint and primer, but a brush ended up working the best for everything else.
I chose to use my darker, Cinnamon Sunset, color for my sun. I also decided to get all of this color done consecutively so I wasn’t switching between brushes, and washing things out all the time.
In hindsight, I would have switched the colors of my rays, having more of the lighter color, Sweet Orange, and less of the darker color. This would have made things move quicker, and I possibly wouldn’t have ran out of paint.
Once I got my darker color done, it was time to start on the Sweet Orange lighter color.
The Sweet Orange was much quicker to put on because there were fewer rays of it and it covered so much better. Again, using a brush for this made it go much quicker than with a roller.
You can see here in the above photo that I added the green painter’s tape at the base of each ray. This really helped get nice clean lines there so that I didn’t have to worry about free-handing that.
I went ahead and took off all the tape to see how it looked before completing all paint. That darker color just needed so much more work! Once I took the tape off, I had some touch-ups to do. Overall, I was very excited to get this project finished up and just enjoy my imperfectly perfect DIY Sun-Ray Wall Art!
Taking the tape off really allowed me to see what needed the most attention. I went over some of the darker rays again to get more coverage, gave the edge of the sun another coat of paint, and then fixed any bleeding with my white paint. I also went over the edge of the sun with my white paint to get a bit cleaner line. Not perfect, but definitely better!
8. Clean Up & Enjoy Your DIY Sun-Ray Wall Art!
Ahhhhh!!! It turned out so well, y’all! After I painted the wall white, I seriously considered stopping right there. haha! I ended up getting this done over the course of three days. I certainly wasn’t out there eight hours each day but spent a few hours each day working through it. That was much more than I intended, but that’s how DIY’s go, right?
Don’t forget to seal up your paint cans tight, and get your rollers and brushes cleaned out right away. Once things are all cleaned up, you can step back and take a look at your masterpiece.
Here are some photos of the finished DIY Sun-Ray Wall Art that I am so happy with!
I am so excited for the warmer weather to bring up the hosta plants that are in this flower bed. They will cover up the bottom portion of the wall, which will be neat, it think!
I also plan to designate this bed as the “kids flower bed” this year. That way they can learn how to plant and care for their own flowers (they’ll pick them out, too!), and we’ll all be able to enjoy them while hanging out by the play-set area. I can’t wait to see it all come to life!
Whew! That was quite the process, but I did it. I hope you enjoyed this DIY Sun-Ray Wall Art tutorial. If I can tackle it, so can you! My biggest hurdle is always starting, so my advice to you is to just start! You’ll figure it out along the way. Worse case, paint over it and call it a day.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to hear about your experience with a sun-ray project like this! I think they are so cool. And the variations of a project like this are so endless, it’s hard to mess up. đ
Also, don’t forget that you can go watch videos of this process on my Instagram Highlight titled “Sun-Ray DIY”!
To the Chaos!
MG
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