New Kitchen Wall Decor - a great snowy day project

Here we are again in the middle of winter... LOTS of snow... and plenty of snow days!  Well, I kind of enjoy them!  As long as everyone is safe and sound, that is!  We usually use our snow days for something different - different routine - for sure, sleeping in, etc.  So here is what I did on a recent snow day:

NEW Kitchen Wall Decor:

My 3rd Grader with her "wonderful" reading skills, did a first read-through, "Never trust a skinny crook."  Yep, that will work too =). 

This wall saying assuages my guilt at this horrible time of year when I am supposed to be losing weight and hating every minute of it!

This was the larger size of this Kitchen Wall Saying - 20"H x 16"W

It doesn't show in the photo, but I have a apple/basket/birdhouse border at the top of the wall.  The red matched perfectly with the red in the border!

The walls in my kitchen are textured boards.  Since the walls are rough, it was a little trickier to apply this wall saying.  Basically, the rougher the surface, the more patience you need at application.  So I have a few tiny spots that didn't adhere properly or may have gotten a little stretched.  But they don't show and I am positive it will not fall down. 

In this spot, I will be testing how easily it is to clean.  I don't have a hood above my stove, so I know this wall area can get splattered or greasy quite easily.  But this vinyl is washable, so no worries there.  I will just need to be careful not to hook a loose spot.

Tips on Indoor Wall Vinyl Stickers and Decals

This is what I REALLY want you to know... when you read that the decal you are thinking of purchasing is "high quality glossy vinyl and will last for many years", you are quite likely purchasing from a sign company that is using the same vinyl to market to the indoor home decor buyers as they are using to make their outdoor signs. Continue reading for more details:


The word vinyl is used across a wide arena of products.  The vinyl we are talking about is a thin sticker, made of vinyl, that is a similiar thickness to 3 coats of paint.  Vinyl stickers or decals have been used for many years already for outdoor signage and banners along with vehicle lettering.  In the past few years, wall art has become popular as indoor home decor.  Here's the difference:  vinyl used for outdoor retail signs need to have stronger adhesive to withstand the rigors of temperature and precipitation changes.  Most outdoor vinyl is considered almost permanent and can take a large amount of work to remove.

So when we compare that to our indoor home decor...  We DON'T want permanent wall stickers in our homes.  We need to repaint, touch up or add new wall paper every so often.  So the stickers need to be removable without harming the wall, leaving behind pieces or taking a huge effort to remove.

So INDOOR vinyl was designed and made available.  Indoor vinyl has a matte finish so it blends with your walls and looks like paint.  Glossy vinyls are almost always outdoor vinyl as a vinyl used for retail signage needs to be bright and eye-catching. 

Indoor vinyl has an outdoor life of 2-3 years but an indoor life of 6-7 years.  There are dozens of different types of outdoor vinyls but most have a outdoor life of 6+ years.

Indoor wall vinyl has been designed to be removable.  In most cases, you can just pick a corner with your finger nail and peel it off.  A few factors that apply when you are removing the indoor wall stickers -1) the longer it is on the wall, the harder it is to remove.  -2) If the wall sticker was placed on fresh paint, it will take the paint off with removal.  The paint should be allowed to cure for 1-2 weeks at a minimum.  To always be on the safe side, use a hair blow dryer to heat up and release the adhesive when you are removing the wall sticker.

We specialize in INDOOR wall vinyl used in home decor.  You may visit us at Wall Decor Plus More for a wide variety of wall art and stickers for your home!

Working with Wall Vinyl Decals/Stickers - some problems you may encounter and their solutions

 This post will help with troubleshooting as you apply your wall vinyl decal and even after the application.
First off, be sure you know how to apply your decal.  Read the instructions included and if you are confused (which is quite common!), watch the how-to video at our website.  Most of time, seeing is the better option to understanding.

Some common problems you may encounter with your wall sticker or decal: 

1.  Bubbles or wrinkles show up after you have applied your sticker.

           Solution:  Continue to smooth the bubble down each time you notice it.  Wall Vinyl is easily stretched so it may have been slightly stretched during application.  Also it may have gotten a wrinkle from shipping and it "remembers" that.  After a few times of smoothing the wrinkle down it will start to adhere to the proper place.

2.  It looks like my vinyl decal or sticker is starting to fall off the wall.
          
          Solution 1:  It is HIGHLY unlikely that it will actually fall off.  We use top-of-the-line vinyl and continue to test in our own homes.  I have NEVER seen a decal, made with our brand of vinyl, fall off the wall.  I  have seen a few instances where the edges look loose on close observation.  Generally this is from applying your decal to a bumpy surface, like knockdown textured walls or similiar textured walls.  So continue to smooth that wrinkle and it will soon be gone.
          
         Solution 2:  There is a slight chance your wall/surface was not clean enough or was too cold.  If the surface was not clean enough, there isn't much you can do to remedy this.  You can keep smoothing it down to see if you can eventually get it to adhere better.  If it is because your surface was too cold, most likely you had a VERY difficult time getting it off the transfer tape in the first place.  So now you should heat up the surface with a hair blow dryer and thoroughly but carefully smooth the entire design down.  This will make for a much better application.

3.  Can you apply to a textured or bumpy wall?

            Solution:  Yes, you can.  Here are some things to remember:  The smaller the vinyl decal is, the more PATIENCE you need as you apply the sticker.  Again, this is something we have tested in our own home along with friends and family's homes.  We have the usual textured walls here in our new part of the house.  I have applied growth charts to these walls.  Growth charts with their tiny inch marks can be the hardest along with tiny lettering.  That was about a year ago - they are still up with no signs of wrinkling at the edges or bubbles showing up.  Basically, if you can get the vinyl design adhered the first time, it will be adhered just fine and you are good to go =)!  Our wall sticker shapes are the easiest to apply to textured or bumpy walls.

This will be something we will continue address here - I don't want to bore you with a LONG post =)!

ABC Wall Vinyl Lettering ~ Kids Room ~ Dr. Suess Decor

Shopko has an adorable bedding set in their baby section.  It's called Trend Lab Dr Suess 4 piece crib set. Here's the link: www.shopko.com/baby.  It comes in primary colors so it can be used for a boy or girl.  Since vinyl lettering is such a hot trend today... Wall Decor Plus More designed some Dr. Suess ABC wall stickers to match this bedding!!

You get the full alphabet in uppercase letters along with 2 lowercase letters.  The wall vinyl letters come in your choice of 4 colors.  We have it pictured here in yellow, red, ice blue and lime green.  The olive green may also coordinate well with this Dr. Suess crib set. Alphabet wall stickers would be great in a toy room or in any child's room as wall decor.

You will cut up these letters and rearrange them. They would look neat as a border scattered around the room.  Or they could be used to decorate the dresser or other furniture in the baby's room.  Wall Vinyl Stickers can be applied to any smooth or semi-smooth surface.  Simple application tips are included with each order along with an application tool. 

Wall Decor Plus More uses top-of-the-line indoor vinyl.  This means that your vinyl will look like a beautiful paint job plus it will NOT harm your walls.  Indoor vinyl stickers implies that it can be removed without taking paint or wallpaper off your walls.  Be sure to let your paint cure for 1-2 weeks before you apply these stickers - if you don't, the paint may peel off with the vinyl stickers.

Wall Vinyl Stickers/Decals on Glass ~ Using Picture Frames

Here's another idea for decorating with wall vinyl....

Placing vinyl decals or stickers on the glass of photo frames!  Most everyone has old photo frames stashed away waiting for a good use.  Or you can find various frames at the dollar stores, too.  Here's how we are going to use those photo frames: adhere wall vinyl sayings or lettering on them!

If you want a different color frame, you can take them apart and spray paint them - black is a popular and easy color to use.  You can throw away the backing of the frame.  If the backing is attached to the frame, you can add some flair by placing scrapbook paper inside as a background for your vinyl lettering or design.

Now you want to glue the glass into the frame.  I found that hot glue from a hot glue gun works best.  But you need to be quick with the hot glue as it can cool and get hard before you get all the way around the frame.  Wood glue and Gorilla glue work also but can end being messy looking.  With the hot glue gun, you can pick off the parts that show after the glue has cooled.

Now for your vinyl design.  Be sure to order the vinyl design "mirrored" or "reversed".  We will be applying the vinyl decal to the BACK of the glass so you are not pressing against the new glue job.

IDEAS:  what should you apply?  We just made the word "FAMILY" in various fonts for my sister-in-law to fit into 5x7 and 4x6 frames.  She bought the frames at the dollar store, spray painted the frames black, and inserted little screw-in hooks into the top.  The benefit of using various fonts: easy to apply as you don't have to worry as much about lining them up perfectly.  Then she ran ribbon through those hooks and attached them all to a decorative rod.  SUPER CUTE!!

Another vinyl design we applied to glass would make a GREAT baby gift.  The baby's name, date, and weight along with a cute saying.  This was in a 11x14 frame.  When you order your vinyl design from Wall Decor Plus More, you may request a box be placed around the design in the exact size of the frame.  This will make is SUPER easy to line it up straight when you are applying.  Check out the video on our website that shows you how we used this method when applying to a mirror.

After we had the saying applied, we added a few .5" dots to brighten up the black frame.  You can see the frame with no backing, when hung on the wall, has a neat 3-D look, with the lettering leaving shadows on the wall.

Be sure to contact us at walldecorplusmore@goldenwest.net if you want some design ideas!

New site published... Plus our FIRST SALE!!!

Our new site is published!!!  www.WallDecorPlusMore.com   SO EXCITED for this big milestone!!  We have added LOTS of new items to the site: zebra items, flower decals, block wall name, etc!  Check it out now!

So... now our FIRST SALE!!!  ALL polka dots are on SALE...  $5.75 a sheet (regularly priced $7).  Choose from 1", 3", 5" dots or 2" Variety and 6" Variety.  Here the link to the polka dot page.

Follow this blog closely!  All sales will be annouced here and on our Facebook page.  Since we have designed our new site, we will be offering sale items on a regular basis!

Also, since we designed our own site... we welcome any feedback.  Please let us know if you know of any links or pages that don't appear to be working correctly.