It started with a blank wall...

My kitchen has long been in need of some sprucing up, and a couple of weekends ago I decided it just couldn't wait anymore. First I moved the refrigerator into the dining room to free up some more space (in a small apartment, it's important to be a little open-minded about what belongs where). After that I painted my cabinet doors green, from the hospital-white they had been before. This weekend it was time to add the finishing touches and to do something about the large, blank wall where the fridge had been.

I first got excited about these Blik wall decals when I put up the bamboo design in my living/bedroom area. The design I chose for my kitchen is called Byebi, and is based on a Threadless t-shirt design.

The decals come in pieces and must be applied layer by layer. After aligning the 2 main images of the birds on the wall, the rest of the details went on fairly easily. The toughest piece to physically handle was the one of the branches, since all the little dashes wanted to stick to the paper backing.

The orange details went on next, followed by more green. I love the gear and sprocket details.

Since there was really no way I could hide the electrical conduit running across the wall, I decided to have a little fun with it and paint it the same green as the cabinets. This is an idea I've played with a lot in designing my apartment: hiding things in plain sight. For instance in my living/bedroom area, I use a couple of stacked up retro suitcases to store my knitting stash, and my dog's crate doubles as a cool modern side table. I thought the straight lines and boxes of the conduit were a nice way to frame out the elaborate scrolls and swirls of the wall graphic.