DIY Wall Decor!

Michael and I have lived in Germany for 6 months now and we have been staring at blank, boring walls the entire time. It's time for that to change! We've quickly realized that with baby Mikey on the way, now it probably our only change to get our home in order before he arrives. I could not be more on board with this idea, as my inner OCD freak is crying out at the sight of our home! Our first project, DIY Wall Décor.

I've seen wonderful wall decals millions of times that I love, and I've even purchased a few, but living in Germany makes it not only difficult to receive that stuff, it makes waiting on your "stuff" to arrive absolutely miserable, so I decided to create some of my own wall décor.

We recently decided we want to install a breakfast bar instead of putting an actual dining table in the space we have for a "dining room". With the way military housing is set up, it's really just one big square room that they expect you to fit a living room, dining room AND office inside. NOT HAPPENING! So we looked for as many ways to save space as possible, and born was the idea of the breakfast bar. (Full credit to Michael, he was the brains behind THAT operation!)

Since the bar will be up against a wall with no window/view whatsoever, we had to put something there! We haven't decided if we want the bar to face inward toward the wall, or outward toward the living room. It's still a work in progress .... which is why there are no pictures of the bar. Coming soon!

Either way we decide to mount this bar, we need something on this wall. Que the tutorial -

DIY WALL DECOR!

First I decided what I wanted to put on the wall. This was probably the simplest step, but it took the most time. There are so many options! Once you decide, I found the images and fonts that I wanted to use on my computer, found average old computer paper and traced my letters STRAIGHT from the computer screen. Easy peesy lemon squeezy!

Next, I cut out the letters I had chosen. Don't freak if the lines aren't perfect. You will be able to fix this later.

After cutting out the letters I found the perfect placement for them on the wall. They moved around about 1,873 times before I got it "just right!" Tape those babies up there and make sure you LOVE it before you start painting.

After I taped my templates on the wall, I started taping, again. I taped the outline of each letter and then removed it from the wall. If your lines aren't perfectly straight from cutting out the letters, this is the step that can fix that. Be certain that your painters tape is straight.

I had chosen a 2 level design, so I taped a box beneath my letters as a template for my second level. Because I have done this a few times, I was comfortable enough freehanding this part. I chose a cursive font which would have been impossible to tape, so I just hand-wrote the words on the wall. If you are not comfortable with your ability or do not like your handwriting, find a font you like and practice. And then practice some more, and keep practicing until you are comfortable enough with it. I practiced quite a few times before slapping it up on the wall, here are a few of my trials.