Frugal Babe

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Giving our boys the world

June 11, 2014 By Frugal Babe

We’re not usually procrastinators when it comes to projects, but this one took a while.  Back in January, I ordered a world map wall mural when it was on sale on Zulily (normally $100, I got it for $40).  And then it just sat in its box for five months.  We had never hung wallpaper before, and I think I was a little daunted contemplating the process.

Also back in January, I bought wallpaper paste and a little tool to smooth out the paper.  Those also just sat here for the last five months.

Yesterday I decided we needed to just get on it with it.  Partly because I was tired of thinking about it, and also because I’ve come up with some other inexpensive but awesome home projects that I want to try (inspiration here and here), and I couldn’t justify starting on a new project when we still hadn’t even begun this one.

So yesterday evening, we dove into the wallpaper project.  We started around 6pm, and finished around 8:30 (at which point, I began making dinner…. good thing it’s summer vacation and the kiddos were able to sleep until 8am this morning!).  This is the wall in our boys’ room now:

Zulily wall mural

 

The whole thing went really well.  It was a bit tedious, but easier than I had imagined it would be (a reminder that when I’m procrastinating on something I’ve never done before, it’s probably going to be easier than I’m imagining.  New things always seem more daunting than they really are!).  We found that the easiest way to smooth out the paper was to use our grout float, which we already had thanks to a few tiling projects over the years.  We put down a drop cloth on the floor, laid the paper out on it and used a paint roller to apply the paste to the back of the paper.  The map came in three sections and the trickiest part was getting the edges to line up, but we think it looks pretty darn good – you don’t notice the seams unless you’re looking for them.

We opted to align the mural with the top of the wall, which puts the bulk of the map in the upper section of the wall.  We thought about moving it down a bit, but we decided this positioning gives the boys more flexibility with furniture in that room, especially as they get older and their furniture changes.  For now, there’s a toddler bed against that wall, so the whole map is visible.  But we wanted the map to be high enough that a larger bed or other furniture wouldn’t obscure much of it.

Anyway, the boys are thrilled with their new wall, and our older son has been asking all sorts of questions about the stuff he’s seeing on the map.  And my husband and I are thrilled that we’ve finally finished this project!  I’m not a fan of having unused supplies sitting around, and I had left the ones for this project sitting on our dresser in an effort to make sure I didn’t forget about the mural.  But that meant that our dresser had a jug of wallpaper paste on it for months.  I am very glad to have a nice clear dresser top again!

Now I get to order a little can of stain and see how our bathroom vanity looks in a darker color.  But I am not allowed to leave the stain sitting on our dresser for five months…

Filed Under: home improvement, kids 3 Comments

Comments

  1. Zambian Lady says

    June 12, 2014 at 8:49 am

    Good for you! I can only imagine how helpful the map will be as a learning tool for the boys. I also find myself procrastinating when I am not sure of how to do a task only to realize that it is easier than it looked.

    Reply
  2. Frugal Vegan Mom says

    June 12, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Love it! I’m also terrible at starting things I don’t know how to do… it’s like some complex where if I don’t know it’s going to turn out well, I’m scared to try?

    Reply
  3. bogart says

    June 13, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    Looks great! We got a big US map, paid to have it drymounted (I forget details, but the drymounting cost more than the map) and nailed it to our son’s wall with 4 roofing nails. Works fine, but not as “cool” as your approach and surely more expensive. Plus, I do wish we’d gone for a world map — oh well!

    Reply

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