The Tree on My Wall

Detail of the Tree on the Wall

My neighbor invited me to a home decor party that her daughter was giving at her house.  "Kind of like Tupperware," she told me.  "You know, Pampered Chef-ish.  Games, prizes, she sells you stuff to decorate your house."  I was broke and certainly not very interested in buying stuff that other people might use to decorate their houses, but hey, games and prizes?!  I'm there.  Besides, it's the neighbor code thing.  You go to her daughter's decoration party, she buys your kids' cookies or candy or whatever Scouts or school or choir is selling. 

The party was not that wonderful, but it was such an inspiration to me design-wise.  Removable decals, oh my, the things I could do to my walls, even as a renter!  I went through the catalog and realized that not only could I not afford most of it, I wasn't very impressed with the designs they had to offer... except this one tree, a beautiful tree with its leaves blowing off down the wall.  It called out to my heart, and I wanted it really, really badly.  It was $119.00.  There was no way, absolutely and finally, no way I could have that.

I bought some little bugs, a couple of flowers, spent 20 bucks that I explained to my husband in our budget talks as "neighborhood goodwill money," and tried to forget that tree, its leaves floating down the living room wall.

Leaves blowing off down the wall

I saw other cheaper alternatives over the years at Dollar Tree and Michaels and Wal-Mart and tried them, but we found they dried up and fell off eventually, and besides, there was nothing like that tree.  Two moves and five years afterwards, the tree was still there, rooted in my heart.  A little less broke and with a lot more energy, I started researching how I could get what I wanted the way I wanted it:  Cheap and easy.

After spending some time on Pinterest and Etsy, it occurred to me that the crafters selling those beautiful removable decals had to be getting the materials from somewhere, and using the magic Google, I discovered H & H Sign Supply at http://www.hhsignsupply.com, the go-to guys for removable decal wall/craft vinyl in bulk!

I cannot say enough good things about this company.  You can buy their removable vinyl in small amounts to try it out, which I did at first.  They have it in all colors, though I am partial to the shadow stencil type black.  You can buy it in big rolls, which I most recently did.  One of the coolest features of this wonderful E-store is "$5 Dollar Fridays."  It doesn't happen every Friday or even on a schedule, but sometimes they have a sale where all UPS shipping is $5, no matter how much you are buying.  This is a huge honking savings when you are purchasing a 2-foot wide, 30-foot long roll of vinyl.  It's not a light thing to ship.

This is the type I chose after much researching into which ones work best for painted plaster walls:  Oracal 631 Removable Wall Vinyl.  I got a sample pack.  

The Tree on the Wall

The removable wall vinyl is a wonderful craft item.  My whole family enjoyed playing with it. I had to learn to think about the sticky side, to make sure my shapes would be going the right way.  I found it was best to cut it out and then tape it to the wall with masking tape to see if I liked it before actually sticking it on. 

I went ahead and ordered a 5-yard roll of 1-foot wide black, and I got to make my tree.  It took me most of a day to cut it out and put it together, but I had been planning it for a while in my head, where it was going to go, how it was going to look.  I made it happen, cheap and easy, and my heart was full of warm contentment.

Then, of course, we moved again a few months later and off it came.  I can testify to the fact that it comes off very easily and leaves no damage behind.  I do suggest, if you're a renter or unsure at all, that you try a little sample and leave it on for a week or so just to make sure that it comes off easily and neatly from your particular wall.  I found it was actually possible to take it back off and move it even after applying, especially with the leaves and other small things, but the big trunk and branch pieces were difficult to keep in one piece and flat when removed.  I believe it would be possible to take small shapes off and put them on the backing for storage, for holiday stuff and the like, but I have not tried it.  The only irritating part was taking apart a dandelion that I had made in many pieces.  In the future, I plan to not use little tiny pieces ever again.

The Pain to Remove Dandelion at lower right

The tree has come and gone, but now we are in a new place (where we are hopefully going to stay for a while), and I have 60 square feet of black vinyl ready to be made into new wonderful removable wall decals and a house full of mostly blank walls.  I got it on sale at 2.70 a yard for the 24-inch wide roll AND shipped on a $5 Friday, so I made out like a bandit.  Here I have only scratched the surface of the amazing materials they have to offer.  Go check out their site and prepare to be inspired!  Having the tree was awesome, but the potential for making something new is the best feeling ever as I am sure you know.

Look for more removable vinyl projects here in the future.  I hope you enjoyed my first blog and that there will be many more to come!