This past weekend I stuck a bunch of really big fish decals on my son’s walls in hopes of making it look a bit more aquatic and fun.
I am pretty excited as to how it turned out. Fortunately, he is, too.
I ordered the decals (stickers? home accents?) through an Uppercase Living party. I didn’t attend the party/ show, but I had heard about the company before and was curious, so I thought I should give it a try.
And, true to my style “just give it a try” meant order about 17 really big decals and hope for the best. (One might think that would mean order one and see if it works. But no… I went for the big time try. I’m glad it worked.)
My husband and I had talked for months about painting a mural on our son’s walls, but I was concerned about doing something too permanent. I think we found the perfect solution.
Applying the decals was not as hard as you might expect, but it wasn’t all too simple, either.
As it turned out, my son’s walls are much more textured than I had ever really thought about. And texturing does not allow for a smooth stick.
Good news: These decals are definitely not permanent. Bad news: Applying them took a bit of determination and if my kids were the peeling-sticker types, these wouldn’t last too long.
So how did it all work?
First I picked out the fish in the catalog. Uppercase Living sells all sorts of cute phrases and images you can adhere to your walls, mirrors, and windows or use for decorative crafts. With the fish, I could pick both the size and color of each fish and also order a mirror image, as I did for a few lobsters.
Once the fish came in, I selected some spots on the walls
And then went to town adhering them by rubbing both sides and pulling off the backing,
pressing the decal against the wall, rubbing some more and them gently pulling off the other backing
I followed the instructions as closely as I could, but, as I said, the walls are really textured, so there was a bit of frustration at a few points. At one point I tried to pull the decal off and apply as a regular sticker. Not a good idea.
After attempting two fish and getting a little frustrated, I sent the children into the next room to watch Finding Nemo.
Without my audience, things went much better and the room began to transform into its own scene from the movie. (Well, sort of.) And, fortunately, even in the places that the decals had adhered to themselves, I was able to smooth it out and you couldn’t even tell I had any troubles.
After the movie, my “helpers” came back and were mesmerized by the new “aquarium” in my son’s room. They wanted to play in there almost all afternoon.
I was happy to finally have completed the room transformation we began last July. And my son was excited, too.
I will confess that using the Uppercase Living decals was not the most frugal choice. But it really worked for us and I love the results. And I love that I can just pull the fish off the walls and not have to repaint when it is time to redecorate.
Seeing this job completed, and how happy it made my son, inspired me to get some work done the next day in my other son’s room while he was still away on a scouting trip with Dad. I’ll try to share more about that change soon.
And it also is making me think about where else I could apply more UL stuff. A scripture on my child’s bathroom mirror? Cheerful notes and images in my laundry room? Hmm. Do I smell a UL party of my own in my future? (I’ve still never been to one!)
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