Best Paint for Outdoor Mural

If you’re an artist or an art enthusiast, adding a mural to one of your walls could be the perfect personal touch to your space.

Best Paint for Outdoor Mural

However, without the right type of paint, translating your vision onto a masterpiece on the wall can be quite a challenge. Outdoor murals, especially, not only require paints that are easy to work with and mix but are also durable and weather-resistant.

If you’re having trouble finding the right paint for your project, here’s our recommendation when it comes to the best paint for outdoor murals.

Chroma Mural Paint Set

Chroma’s paints are engineered specifically for painting walls and are a go-to for most mural artists. This beginner pack has six basic shades—you get six sixteen-ounce bottles of yellow, black, blue, red, white, and green.

Best Paint for Outdoor Mural

The paint itself is bright, retaining its vibrancy when transferred to the wall and giving you a beautiful result. The paint is also water-resistant, highly pigmented, and provides excellent coverage.

Pros
  • Water-resistant and lightfast, which means that your mural is going to be long-lasting.
  • Can be used for internal and external murals.
  • Can be used on a range of different mediums, from wood to concrete.
  • Colors are easily mixable without any prior preparation required; if you’re not mixing them, you can also easily use them straight from the bottle, enabling quicker painting.
  • All colors are ACMI AP-approved, which means that they’re non-toxic to both children and pets.
  • Easy to clean on the surface as well as to clean up after the project.
Cons
  • Some artists may find the consistency of the paint unsatisfactory and not easy to work with.

Picking Out the Right Paint

Finding the right paint for your mural isn’t a Herculean task if you know what you’re looking for. The following tips will help you when picking out paint for your outdoor mural.

Best Paint for Outdoor Mural

The Type of Paint

An outdoor mural is going to be exposed to all sorts of weather conditions, from pouring rain to blazing sunshine. You need paint that’s not only going to look good, but is going to withstand all the forces of nature it encounters.

Acrylic paints are the best choice for outdoor murals and a professional favorite. They dry quickly, are weather-resistant, and also bond really well with surfaces (including masonry and cement), which means that they last longer.

The Type of Wall

The canvas is just as important as the tools! If you have a highly textured, uneven wall, normal paint may not cut it. Instead, spray paint might be a better option as it can get into all those nooks and crannies better than the usual paintbrush.

Local Weather Conditions

As mentioned, your mural is going to be exposed to tons of weather elements, depending on where you live. Your mural should withstand these.

Most paints will offer only generic weather-resistant properties, but if you have more of one weather condition prevailing throughout the year than others, you may want to invest in paint that’s equipped to withstand this (for example, if you have humidity or sunshine throughout the year, your paint should be resistant to fading and chipping).

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Seal an Outdoor Mural?

Sealing will provide an additional layer of protection for your mural. An archival varnish is a great option, as are acrylic polymers topped with a wax varnish layer. Avoid urethane varnishes, as these could turn yellow with time and are hard to paint over.

How Long Will My Mural Last?

Acrylic paint, if properly applied and sealed, can last up to ten years outdoors.

Can You Use House Paint for Murals?

While latex paint (used to paint household interiors) works for underpainting, the best choice for murals would still be acrylic paints.