Atlas Accent Wall

The Chirping Frog
by The Chirping Frog
This wall has been begging for a makeover for years. I've been ignoring its pleas, until yesterday that is.This space is the boy's loft area, for a couple more years anyway. I gave my son a couple options and he said, "I could live with maps." Sounds good to me. A $7 atlas and a variety of other supplies I already had and I was off and running. Now to change out window treatments and play with the rest of the room- fun, fun!
This is the wall. We had a much smaller t.v. when we built the place nearly seven years ago and there was another cabinet in the built-in. When my husband re-configured he "marred" up the wall pretty good. It's been years but I finally got around to doing something about it.
First, I divided out the pages of my atlas into piles. I wanted to make it like a jig-saw puzzle. Each state in it's completion but not just lined up in a row. It worked out pretty well. Some of the states are wide and some are narrow pages. Made for an interesting design.
I started mid-way up the wall because I was also puppy-sitting and she was into everything.
I did all full map pieces first (including those that died into the wall or entertainment center as long as they were larger pieces). I came back later and filled in with left-over pieces.
I used regular wallpaper glue and just put it on the wall in small sections at a time, because the paper is so thin I did have some wrinkling. For the most part if I was careful I could get the kinks out but you really can't work with it too much or you just tear it up. I have a few pages that were unforgiving and I just went with it. What's a few wrinkles? They don't bother me and the worst of it pulled out as it dried.
Nearly done...a few areas to fill in yet.
I want to change out the curtains now and add a little something extra to the design.
There are touches of red in the maps, so I'm really leaning towards red drapes with a metallic leader (pulled from the stars). We'll see. Who knows...once I hit a fabric store I could find something fabulous and completely change my mind.
I added the stars using a cookie cutter for a template. I simply outlined them with pencil and filled it in with metallic paint. I really love the stars. I still have some to add before I can say I'm completely finished and I'll probably seal the wall with something since it has no protective coat at all.
The Chirping Frog
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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