by Linda Ann Nickerson

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

MURAL MAYHEM

Have your little Picassos created an unplanned mural in your home? What can you do to remove crayon, pen, pencil, marker or paint marks from your painted walls?

ADDRESS THE ARTISTS.

First, go ahead and send your little would-be artists to their bedrooms or corners, if you must. After all, children do need to learn to create artwork on appropriate materials. Loving, but consistent, discipline is certainly appropriate in such a case.

While your creative children are serving their sentences in time-out, you can attack those crayon marks on the wall. (If your children are old enough to assist, you might choose to assign the clean-up task to the guilty parties.)

REMOVE THE EVIDENCE.

Several strategies are available for removing crayon, pen, marker and other marks from your painted walls. (Be sure to test each technique on your paint in an inconspicuous spot, such as behind a piece of furniture.)

If you have eggshell or semi-gloss paint on your walls, the marks should wipe off fairly easily with soap and water. Spray-on glass cleaner may help. Additionally, you might try a little baking soda on a damp sponge. White walls may be scrubbed gently with whitening toothpaste to remove marks.

FLAT-FINISH PAINT CAN BE TRICKY.

If you have flat-finish paint, you will need to try a few creative alternatives for removing crayon, pen, marker and other marks from your painted walls:

Spray on Goo-Gone, and most sticky or oily marks disappear. It even has a fresh orange scent, which makes the house smell and feel cleaner! This product comes in your choice of squirt and spray bottles.

WD-40 works very well for this. It even comes in a No-Mess Pen for direct and precise application.

Mr. Clean has a similar product, called Magic Eraser.

You can find these products at Lowes, Menards, Walgreens, Winn-Dixie, and dozens of other stores.

Finally, if you have leftover paint from that room of your home, you can certainly touch up that area until it's time to redecorate. First, put a coat of primer over that area. When the primer is completely dry, you can follow up with matched paint. Try to do a whole wall, if possible, instead of a geometric shape over the marks.

OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE.

Consider yourself blessed, if you have artistic and creative children. Still, you may need to offer your youngsters a few alternate opportunities to express their talents.

Why not toss a drop-cloth on the floor and set up a painting easel? Some families choose to hand chalkboards or dry erase boards in children's bedrooms or playrooms. How about trying some finger-painting or chalk-drawing outside on a warm day?

By providing constructive and acceptable creative outlets for your artistic children, you may prevent any further unplanned murals, so you can alleviate the need to remove crayon, pen, marker and other marks from your painted walls again.

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