12 Real Melbourne Murals, From a Japanese Laneway in Brighton to a Student-Painted Wall in Boronia

Melbourne didn’t invent the laneway mural, but it’s hard to find a city that leans on the format harder. Hosier Lane draws tour groups on a Tuesday afternoon, and half the city’s best hospitality fit-outs sit down a bluestone lane with a roller door at the end of it. So when we went back for a second batch of finished, photographed Melbourne commissions to follow our first Melbourne mural round-up, laneways were exactly where several of the best briefs turned up – alongside courtyards, schoolyards and one very committed backyard renovation.

The twelve projects below are all new. Each comes from Book an Artist’s Melbourne bookings, verified against a real invoice, a real payment record and a real finished photograph. If you’re weighing up Melbourne mural artists for your own wall, here’s what people are actually commissioning right now, and what it costs.

Melbourne laneway murals: restaurants and hospitality

Two of this round’s best briefs came from the hospitality side – a laneway leading nowhere in particular, and a staircase wall that greets every customer on the way in.

A Japanese streetscape down a Brighton laneway

A hospitality group asked muralist Mitch to turn the outdoor corridor of a Japanese restaurant in Brighton – the walkway linking the indoor dining room to the back courtyard seating – into a full streetscape: neon signage, lantern-lit shopfronts, a sushi stall and a Melbourne skyline dissolving into the scene at one end. It’s a commission that only really works as a full wall-to-wall laneway wrap, and at a five-figure budget it was the second-largest job in this round’s pool.

A goddess and a peacock at a CBD dosa restaurant

Dosa Hut, a South Indian restaurant in the Melbourne CBD, wanted a mural near its entry stairwell that would do double duty as a photo spot and a statement of identity – “preferably a woman’s face,” the brief said, with the rest left to the artist. What went up is a large-scale portrait in full bridal jewellery beside a peacock, painted to a budget in the low-to-mid four figures, right where every customer waits to order.

Backyards, courtyards and one pool the owners were about to sell

The single biggest budget in this round belongs to a house, not a business – proof that a mural can be a genuine sale-prep decision, not just decoration.

Repainting a pool corner before putting the house on the market

The brief from a Viewbank homeowner was blunt: the mural already wrapped around their two-wall pool corner was “a bit childish,” it had faded, and the house was going on the market. Mike repainted the whole corner as one continuous scene – a giant hibiscus-and-poppy bloom rising out of a sun-yellow disc, reflected in the pool water, with lily pads and a monarch butterfly on the return wall. It’s the single largest verified budget in this round, on the theory that a beautiful backyard sells a house.

Two courtyards, two very different scales

At the other end of the price table, two Melbourne courtyards show how far a mural budget can stretch either way. In Fitzroy, Melanie asked artist Manuel for “murals that include a landscape” on her courtyard end wall; he delivered a bold, fauvist-toned hillside in under a week, at short notice:

“Manuel was such a pleasure to work with during the entire process. He was quick to give us design options initially and was really accommodating with painting the artwork at the last minute when we had a short timeframe. We love our new artwork, it’s incredible and has changed our entire house.”
– Melanie, verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Across town in Yarraville, Rachel gave artist Yuka a much looser brief – “nature, flowers, blossoms, colourful” – for a much smaller courtyard wall, and got cherry blossom branches trailing across yellow brick for a project that came in at a few hundred dollars:

“Yuka is a talented star, a complete professional, and a true artist! She saw our vision and executed these beautiful cherry blossom branches on the wall in our courtyard. We couldn’t be more pleased and have already received so many compliments.”
– Rachel, verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

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A garage door and a backyard fence, both bright and both botanical

Two smaller residential jobs rounded out the backyard category. In Carlton North, Nicolette handed artist Ana a corrugated garage door and a simple brief – “flowers as hero image” in bold blue and magenta – visible every time she looks out from inside the house:

“From start to finish, working with Ana was a joy. She created the most amazing mural for my space – it turned out better than I could have imagined! I know it will bring me happiness for a long, long time.”
– Nicolette, verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

In Clifton Hill, artist Alex painted a native banksia-and-butterfly scene across a backyard pool wall in the same bright, saturated palette – bold colours, native flowers and two Australian butterfly species picked out in careful detail.

Two Melbourne schools, two very different processes

Both school jobs in this round came from the public system, and both show a different way of running a school mural brief.

A wildstyle wall built with the students, not just for them

Urban College, an alternative secondary school in Boronia, wanted more than a finished picture on the wall – they wanted their students involved in making it. Artist Damian ran a design workshop with the students first, then spent the following sessions painting a large wildstyle piece with them, weaving in a kookaburra, a protea and the students’ own messages alongside his. The school’s own review captures why that mattered more than the paint job alone:

“Damian created a unique and colourful mural for our Urban College walls. He included the students across all stages of the process. Our final piece is astounding and reflects what we do as a school community.”
– Urban College, verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

A kookaburra, a protea and the school colours, briefed by the principal

At Templestowe Park Primary School, the brief came straight from the principal: a large indoor wall in the school’s own colours (dark blue, light blue and orange), an inspirational quote or values acronym, and “some images.” Artist Damien built the whole thing from oversized wildstyle letterforms – a hand holding a paintbrush, a kookaburra on a branch, a native protea in full bloom, and two painted students inside the final letter – turning a corridor wall into the school’s own logo.

Workplaces, gyms and one hand-signwritten warehouse

The last three projects show how differently a “work wall” brief can land depending on who’s asking.

A tiger, front and centre, for a new Clyde North gym

A new gym in Clyde North wanted one thing above all: impact. The brief to artist Sky was short – “bright, exciting, big impact, tiger main focus,” with the gym’s own logo worked in wherever it fit – and left the rest up to him. The result is a roaring tiger head rendered almost photorealistically across the full width of the wall, the kind of thing a first-time visitor photographs before they’ve even signed up:

“Amzing work easy to work with and fast.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

An office wall built entirely out of company values

Education Horizons, a Hawthorn-based edtech company that builds management software for Australian schools, wanted their windowless office brightened up with something that reflected the business itself – its mission, its values and its brand colours, worked into a single wall rather than a mood board. Artist Erika turned the brief into a wall-length graphic built from lettering, icons and colour blocking:

“Erika was fabulous in every way! The project was to create an office mural to represent our company’s mission and values. Firstly, we loved her folio because her art form is unique. If you see her artwork anywhere, you know it’s her. She understood the brief so well, this was evident in her first design.”
– Farhan, verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

A logo hand-signwritten across a warehouse, the old way

Not every “mural” on Book an Artist is spray paint and a design brief – some are pure signwriting. A Somerton business asked for its new logo and company name branded across the side of its building; the job went to a signwriting outfit with 35 years in the trade, who hand-painted the logo straight onto the wall in two coats of low-sheen acrylic, no vinyl or print involved:

“A great solution to a tricky, open brief, thanks for all your help Chris. Absolute pleasure to work with!”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

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What did these twelve Melbourne murals cost?

As with our first Melbourne round-up, these are real invoiced ranges built around each project’s actual price – never the exact figure, and never a rate that could be multiplied back out to one:

The spread is wider than our first Melbourne article, mostly because a full laneway wrap and a two-wall pool corner are simply bigger undertakings than a single accent wall – more square metres, more design revisions, more days on site.

How to hire a muralist for your own Melbourne laneway, courtyard or office

1. Say what the space actually is, not just its size. A laneway, a pool corner and a corridor all get measured the same way, but they’re painted very differently – tell the artist how the space is used and who walks through it.
2. Bring your brand or school colours if you have them. Both Education Horizons and Templestowe Park PS gave their artist a fixed palette to work inside, which sped up design approval considerably.
3. Decide how involved you want to be. Urban College built its brief around a student workshop; most of the projects above were closer to “here’s a rough idea, over to you” – either approach works.
4. Ask about surface prep up front. Corrugated iron, weatherboard, exposed brick and rendered warehouse walls all need different priming and paint – get it confirmed in the quote, not after the first coat.
5. Compare a few Melbourne muralists before you commit. Every project in this article came through Book an Artist’s Melbourne mural artist and graffiti artist page, where you can browse portfolios, message artists directly and compare quotes for free.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Melbourne muralist match our existing brand colours and logo?

Yes – several projects above (the Education Horizons office wall, the Somerton warehouse signage, the Templestowe Park PS corridor) were built around a fixed brand or school palette supplied up front. Send your colour codes or logo file with your brief and most artists will build the design around them.

What surfaces can a mural be painted on – corrugated iron, weatherboard, brick?

All three, plus rendered warehouse cladding, plasterboard and exposed brick, as shown across this round-up. Different surfaces need different priming and paint systems, so it’s worth telling your artist the exact material before they quote.

Can a mural be painted while a restaurant, gym or office stays open?

Usually – most of the commercial jobs above were painted around normal trading hours or after-close, and residential jobs are typically scheduled around the household. Flag any access constraints (opening hours, school terms, a house going on the market) in your brief and it’ll be built into the quote.