Ceiling and wall mural Combinations 

Custom Ceiling and Wall Murals – My Experience, My Process, My Purpose
By Artist Shane Turner

When I paint custom ceiling and wall murals, I do it with a single intention. I want the space to change. Not gently. Not subtly. I want the room to shift so completely that when someone walks into it, they no longer see a wall or a ceiling. They see a world. They feel depth where there is none, light where none exists, and presence where only paint has been placed.

My journey with murals began at a young age, and even then, I recognised the power of extending artwork from the wall onto the ceiling. That transition point, where vertical becomes horizontal, is where the true illusion starts. When the flow is done intentionally, the mural doesn’t sit on the surface. It becomes part of the architecture itself. It changes how people move through a space and how they perceive it.

One of the projects that shaped my approach to realism more than any other was the enormous ceiling mural at Villaggio Mall in Qatar. Some areas were twelve meters above the floor. Others were twenty-four. Hydraulic lifts carried us into positions where the size of the ceiling overwhelmed your senses. Standing beneath it once it was complete, the scale did something that photos could never capture. It felt real. It felt believable. That project became a benchmark for me. From that point on, every mural I created had to achieve its own form of realism, no matter the size or subject.

Another mural in the same school was the Asgard entrance, where clouds rose from the walls and flowed onto the ceiling. I used that transition to give the room far more depth than the architecture provided. Those ceiling clouds were not decorative. They were structural. They existed to change the way the room felt and to expand the story of the mural outward.

But the most complex part of that school project came from the ceiling above the staircase, where I challenged myself to solve a problem that most viewers never think about. There were eight completely different vantage points from which the ceiling would be seen. Every entry point, every exit, every turn on the stairs offered a different angle. In traditional 3D illusion murals, the artwork works from one single camera point. Anyone who has seen the viral “3D floors” online needs to understand that the illusion only works from the camera’s perspective. Stand anywhere else and the illusion collapses into a distorted image.

To create a ceiling that worked from eight vantage points simultaneously, I had to rethink everything. Instead of one major distortion, I created hundreds of micro-distortions spread across the entire ceiling. Each one was subtle, almost invisible, but collectively they allowed the mural to feel 3D from multiple angles. In certain spots, a slight distortion was unavoidable, but I compensated by creating focal points that pulled the viewer’s attention exactly where it needed to go.

This ceiling was meant to take eight days. It became nearly three weeks of daily work because the challenge became too intriguing to walk away from. I wasn’t simply painting a space. I was engineering a visual experience so that no matter where a student stood, they would feel the illusion working for them.

My favourite moments in mural work come from the fine adjustments that most people never notice. Sometimes a shadow painted in the right place transforms an entire ceiling. Sometimes a small adjustment in colour temperature shifts the depth of a corner. These details matter because they anchor the illusion. They turn paint into presence.

I experiment constantly. Not every idea succeeds on the first try. Some sections are painted over several times. I remove things. I rebuild them. My time is not the valuable part of the process. The effect is what matters. I will chase the effect until the mural gives me the response I’m looking for, because that moment — that shift in the room — is the real reward. When someone walks into the space and feels something they did not expect, that is the moment the mural becomes alive.

Painting ceilings and walls is not simply about technique. It is about intention. The purpose is always the same. Transform the space. Respect the architecture. Control the viewer’s eye. And create an experience that leaves a lasting impression long after the person walks away.

This is a mural I create on the ceiling of a gents toilet area... 

Every space carries its own emotion. Some rooms lift you, some drain you, and some feel forgotten the moment you walk out. What I’ve learned through decades of painting custom ceiling and wall murals is that paint can completely rewrite the emotional tone of a space. It can lift a hallway, reshape a staircase, or turn a blank ceiling into something that feels alive.

When I transform a wall or a ceiling, I’m not decorating it. I’m altering how people feel when they enter the room. Realism, depth, and flow are tools to influence movement, mood, and atmosphere. I’ve seen students stop in their tracks at a staircase, adults look upward in silence, and entire rooms change character the moment the mural settles into place.