The Truth About Wall Decals – I Finally Redo My Daughter’s Room

Entry #1404, July 23, 2012

A few months ago I posted on my Facebook page that I was looking for clever ways to redo my six-year-old daughter’s room. She loves the ever-so-pink walls that were like this when we moved to our 1986 home two years ago. So I had some great suggestions to use stencils to paint polka dots, and I even had a great company – Cutting Edge Stencils that sent me the perfect stencil kit to create and paint the polka dots.

I had great visions of my daughter’s room looking like this! Nice polka dots… well plans changed…

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Well a few weeks ago my daughter tells me she doesn’t like polka dots! Urrggh! Wasn’t too happy, so I had to send the stencil back and think of Plan B. So I remember seeing some beautiful wall decals that I absolutely loved. With her looking over my shoulder at the computer we decided on a dark chocolate brown tree with green and pink flowers. Let me first start off by saying:

Know what you are getting into before choosing a wall decal that has 100 pieces!

This is the idea we were thinking – but it was pricey so we decided on a different kind with just trees and leaves.

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Here are a few tips I recommend to you before deciding on a stencil (and where I made a few mistakes!)

1.) Depending on how large or tall your mural is, you will need a second person. While you can do it yourself by holding it in place with blue painters tape (like I did). An extra person will keep your arms and neck from getting tired.. he he.. yes I am a little sore today!

2.) The mural I chose was a 6′-0″ tall tree with flowers, lots and LOTS of flowers. I didn’t realize each and every part of the mural was separate. I think I was envisioning groups of flowers on one backing. No, they were all separate which made the job hours longer than I anticipated.

3.) I recommend cutting the flowers out into smaller clusters, so they are easier to transfer to the wall.  you also will need a credit card, or I used my daughter’s “Brave” card from Subway.. he he…

Cut decals into smaller manageable sections

4.) Luckily, my daughter was out of town with her dad this weekend so I had plenty of time. Next, ensure you understand the directions. The white backing paper and transfer paper totally confused me. I kept getting the stencil to stick to the white backing and not the transfer paper! So I decided to take a picture of how it should look. The stencil should be face down against the transfer paper so you can stick it to the wall.

The transfer paper is the “wax paper” looking paper on the left.

5.) Also, the tree came in 3 sections, but honestly I had to cut it into smaller pieces because removing the backing (white paper) while keeping the huge tree in place was a feat all by itself. With two people this would have been much easier. You can see in this picture I didn’t have the top half of the tree lined up and so there is a gap between the branches on the left. Thank goodness I have flowers to cover up my error. 🙂

See to the left of the one green flower? That’s where the top and bottom pieces didn’t line up.

Sorry that photo is so dark, this was during my “not happy with myself stage” – I’m so anal!

7.) Once the tree was up it was time to put on the flowers.

Use the card to flatten the flower against the wall so it stops sticking to the transfer paper

Smooth out wrinkles with your credit card or a squeegee

8.) 4 hours later, I had finished the project of transforming my daughter’s room with a “simple wall decal mural”.

I have to say that I am VERY pleased with the outcome. I just learned a lot about how to choose wall decals for the next time!

All the hard work was worth it!

I wanted more flowers blowing… but the wind was out of my sails!

Most importantly, my daughter loves her new room!

Please let my experience serve as a “DIY Reality” show for you. Factor in time, additional people if necessary and be patient. the end result will come, but don’t start this project when you have anything else planned for the day!

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