Today I’m sharing how we made the giant dot mural in our studio. It is a really simple process to make, all we used was acrylic paints and giant sweet potatoes. I based it off of this project I made with potato dots from a few years ago. In our studio upstairs there is a big room with floor to ceiling windows. One wall we needed to leave blank for photoshoots but I wanted some sort of mural on the other wall. We want to have craft nights and classes (announcements coming soon!) and so it needed a little somethin’-somethin’ besides a blank wall. In the future I want it to always be changing and have different artists come paint it but for now we have our giant dot wall and we love it. The details for making your own are below.

Materials Needed: Acrylic Paints in every color (extra white paint for mixing), 4 Giant Sweet Potatoes (choose some that are similar in size and have a round shape in the middle), Large Ruler, Pencil, Paint brush, Paper Towels, Tin Foil (we like using this for our palette and to mix paint on.)

Step 1: Prepare the Wall. First measure evenly from the floor to get straight lines and mark them with tape. Our dots were about 3″ wide and we decided we wanted them 2″ apart. Take the ruler and the pencil put a little ‘x’ every 5″ until the whole wall is covered like a grid. (Don’t make giant marks because you can see them through the lighter colored paints.)

Step 2: Plan your Paint. Decide how many colors you want to use. (We used 22 total.) That included lots of colors we mixed by hand. Then count how many dots on the wall you will have (bust out your 3rd grade math skills.) We had 528 dots  so 528/22=24 dots of each color. It helps to know this number as you are painting because you can randomly paint your dots on the marks until you’ve painted the 24 dots. It helps keep the coloring consistent so you don’t paint too many of one color.

Step 3: Paint. Cut the sweet potato in half and make sure it looks round. (You can compensate a little if its a little off-shape as you are painting by twisting.) Take the paint and spread it out onto your palette. Mix in a little bit of water to make it a better consistency. Start stamping! Once you are done with one color move onto the next until you’re finished. After each color stand back and do touch ups with a paintbrush.

Step 4: Dance in front of your awesome polka dot wall.

This project took two people about a day and a half to do this giant wall. So grab a friend to help you! Also PRO TIP: The sweet potatoes get moldy if left overnight so have extras on hand.

Photos by Oh Happy Day (Forgive the iphone photos–it’s all I had!)