I had the pleasure of transforming a dark and dim toilet block in my childhood park- Tusmore Park over summer, a place I spent most of my childhood. Growing up a 20 second walk from this amazing space, I have spent many an hour playing in this space as a child, and know firsthand how dark and grimy public bathrooms can be- and the ones at Tusmore Park, whilst neat and tidy- were not exactly the most inviting of spaces.

This park is visited by families from all over the city, and with its brand new wading pool renovations finally completed, it made sense to apply for a Neighbourhood Grant with the Burnside Council to spruce up a space that meant so much to me- and hopefully will for my son in the future too.

This is what the bathrooms looked like before:

As you can see, it’s a bit drab. And a perfect target for those pesky tagging and graffiti fans.

So I sent through an application to the Burnside Council to do something about it. I was encouraged to apply for a your Neighbourhood Budget Grant which was voted and accepted. Once this happened, then it was up to the voting panel and the community to have their say. All of my designs I draw up on Procreate, and only after a visit to the site first, so I can get a feel (literally) of the walls, the surrounds, and the neighbourhood. It helps me get ideas, brainstorm colour palettes and visualise what I would love to see on the wall as a viewer (enjoyer).

I had four mockup options on the table:

In the end, design number 2 was chosen, and so then it was time to show the council what it was going to look like on the walls, for the final approval of the local residents. Again, the magic of procreate for mural mockups for the win.

The time then came once all boxes were ticked, and approvals were given, to lock in a date, and get to planning. Id used Taubmans paint previously and knew they had a delicious range of purples, however I also really wanted to use some British Paints- they’ve got some delish blues and greens. The quality of the paint matters. A lot of the time, if I am honest, I have had to purchase the more inexpensive paint but have found that multiple coats are requires because its opaqueness was a problem. High pigment paints ie. the rainbow colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple require more pigment and less white = more opacity. Want the paint to be more opaque? Go more white. Pastels can be helpful in this instance. OR, you can buy higher quality paints like Dulux, Resene etc. Hot tip: Dulux greens are so far my fave. I am yet to get my hands on some Resene, but my mural friends insist its the best in the biz.

Anyway, back to the details. All the paint in these types of murals has to be outdoor, weathherproof/sunproof paint, and the surface you are painting on needs to be prepped properly. Cleaned, any old or loose paint removed, primed if already open and porous or bare. This wall (luckily) was already painted grey (the perfect undercoat colour) so all I had to do was give it a good clean.

I roundede the troops and we booked in for what turned out to be the hottest week of Januray- and the last week of school holidays. We had three 40+ degree days to contend with, so we got in early, and finished before the full heat of the day.

Because of the smooth walls, minimum prep work and help, I was able to bang this mural out in 3.5 days. My sister and assistant extroadinaire, and my beautiful partner helped me with this project- and I think we nailed it.

I was 5 months pregnant at the time so especially in the heat, I had to go easy. Lots of breaks were required, as well as fluids and food (another post on how to paint a mural in the heat coming soon).

Have a look below at how it turned out, and let me know what you think!

The feedback has been so good and Burnside Council even wrote an article about it in their newsletter- you can check it out here.

If you would like to see your local neighbourhood brightened up - contact your local council and email me gen@genadntonicart.com to see if we can make magic together!

In the meantime, go and have a look at the toilet block in Tusmore Park for yourself, and enjoy its beautiful surrounds xx