The writing is on the walls....

We have an ENORMOUS wall in our kitchen that has been sitting all bare bones since we painted it back in May.  We really had not been able to decide on any one thing to go on the wall, and Ryan isn't a fan of visual clutter, so multiple things for the wall that we could both agree on just were not happening. 

I had seen these Wall Quotes in Target, and after much thought, finally decided to give it a try....

Ryan pretty much told me this was "my project", but I asked him for his help anyways.  The first step was to tape the scroll provided in the container to the wall (well, after finding just the right spot, of course).

We used painters tape because Ryan was worried anything stronger would pull the paint off the wall.  It worked nicely.

The next part was to rub the lettering with the little credit card applicator provided in the container, which doesn't sound too difficult, but it is was a bit boring.

After rubbing all over the lettering, you are supposed to peel off the white backing (or fronting?) very slowly and carefully.  As you can see in the picture below, we had some difficulty with that.

No biggie though!  After a  bunch of  "STOP! WAIT!!" were yelled, we started over and this time Mr. Muscles got in on the rubbing action.

Ryan put more elbow grease in the rubbing and together we carefully peeled back the backing again.  This was the most tedious part of the process because every few letters, there would be some "non-stickage" going on.  We would just go back, rub REALLY hard on the letter, and then peel back again slowly.  In the end, we had a beautiful, almost custom-looking addition to our kitchen!

We are thinking of getting some simple trim from Lowe's and framing around it, just to offset the words from the wall a litle more, and of course, to jazz it up! :)

As for why it was so difficult to get the letters off the first few times, despite us meticulously following the directions, you got me.  Here are a my theories:

1. We have latex paint (or something like that) in the kitchen.  Perhaps because it is a little more glossy, the letters needed more coaxing to stick?

2. This item was $16.99 at Target.  Not cheap, but not expensive either.  Perhaps the more costly models are more reliable when first installing them?

I'll find out soon enough as we were so inspired by this project and how it really jazzed up the kitchen that I ordered a piece for the living room from Uppercase Living.  I'm actually headed out to an Uppercase Living catalog party, so who knows- I might get REALLY inspired and have more stuff to jazz up around the house soon!