I didn't make it to the uppercase living party, so I wasn't able to see an actual in-person demonstration of installation. Let's just say that made things interesting, but at least I have some in-type suggestions for you!
When I made my purchase there was a buy one get one free promotion going on, so I picked up a couple of extras that I didn't have a specific place in mind for. Then of course this big old empty space above our bed came to mind.
My biggest issue was that our bed isn't centered on the wall because of a dresser we have off to the right. This presented quite the conundrum to me until Matt made the obvious suggestion of just centering the quote on the wall, and we can always move the bed later. Why didn't I think of that?!
I gathered all the tools I was going to need, the instructions, a pencil, tape measure, scissors and tape, a level and the application tool (which can be substituted with a credit card or something similar). The only thing that isn't shown here, that I could have used, is an extra set of hands! Something to keep in mind if you're applying a larger sized expression.
Next came the centering. I measured the entire length of the wall, minused the length of the expression and halved the final number. That gave me the amount of inches that needed to be on either side of the expression. After that I measured from one wall to that halfway point and marked it with pencil, so I knew that was where the edge of the expression should go to be centered on the wall.
Then I lay the expression out on a flat surface and put the level on top of it, drawing a line from one tip of the guide triangle to the other, so there was a straight line across the expression to help me level it later on.
Now I needed to figure out at what height to place the expression. I was leaning towards only a little bit above our pillows, about the level of the top of the lamps but leaving enough room that if we decided to add a headboard somewhere down the line it wouldn't cover it.
I taped it to the wall on the two sides. Then I moved it up and down and stared at it for roughly 24 hours. That wasn't exactly my intention, but while I was dealing with all of the above I was stopping every two minutes, trying to keep Desana from grabbing the tape measure or scissors. Life with kids! Makes it hard to get anything done.
I consulted with Matt over the height, he wanted it much higher on the wall than I did. I figured some of that probably had to do with our height difference (he has at least 6 inches on me). So I took to facebook. Both Shawna and my midwife (yep, she delivers babies AND gives home decorating advice ;)) sided with me on putting it at eye-height. So I measured from the floor to roughly the height of my eyes, which ended up being surprisingly higher than I expected, as you will see.
Outline the corners with pencil, then do it another three times as you change your mind and move it around!!!
Once I decided on the height I got out the level and held it even with the line I had drawn down the center of the expression, then made little adjustments in height until it showed as level. Finally it was time to get to sticking it on the wall. I had followed the instructions and firmly run the application tool thingy over it a whole bunch of times, and did it again once it was in position on the wall. I decided to go with the hinge method which was taping it to the wall at the top of the expression and then folding it upwards, and slowly peeling away the backing.
This was pretty tricky. Because of the style of the expression there were certain letters that were sticking so it was slow going. I have to say yet again, if you're planning on putting up a lengthy expression, save yourself some stress and get a friend or someone to help you out with it.
Once I had the backing away, all the sticky stuff was exposed, so I slowly lowered it and smoothed it against the wall. I used the application tool thingy (thingy is a handy word for when you really don't know what something is called) to make sure it went on smooth without any air bubbles. Then it was time to pull away the top layer, leaving the words on the wall.
That was much more difficult than anticipated. My biggest advice at this point is to go r.
..e...a...l...l...y... s...l...o...w...l...y... and keep the application tool thingy handy as you will more than likely have to use it again. I had to many many times.
Finally, stand back and question your irreversible height choice. Oh wait! That should have said admire. ;)
Live simply - Speak kindly - Love generously
Nice and simple. As you can see, there did end up being plenty of room for a maybe someday headboard.Obviously the final step is to erase any of the pencil guidelines you might have made on your wall. Yep, you guessed right, it's on my to-do list. One of those anti-procrastination days I'll get around to it!
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