THINK.
AGAIN.
We just finished up a rather exciting wall project that had nothing to do with drywall. Instead... brick. Here's the finished project. (Note: we did the wall mural itself -- not the bulletin board placed on top.)
In short, here's how it went down: a thin, peel & stick vinyl was carefully applied to a wall with some heat and pressure. The result is a clean, vibrant display that has a painted appearance.
In long (and picture form), here's how it went down:
We first had to remove the bulletin board to make way for the print. After that, we wiped down the wall to remove any dirt, dust, etc. that could allow bubbles to form or the print to weakly cling to the wall. The high school walls are pretty clean & smooth, so this didn't take too long.
After that, the fun officially began. We very very very carefully applied the first panel, and used heat guns and a series of rollers to adhere it in the grooves.
Just a few of the rollers we used.
Disclaimer: This heat gun was not loaded with any heat during the capture of this shot.
And on to panel #2. Just like any other mural, we made an overlap with the seams of this mural, but didn't double cut this time. Because the material is so thin, the seams are virtually invisible (trust me, we lost them several times).
By the time we got to the third panel, we were feeling fairly confident. The most challenging part at this point was maneuvering around the windows to make sure the print remained straight and the lines of the design lined up.
After the panels were up, the main goal was to makes sure every groove was accounted for, and no bubbles were on the wall. And after that, it was time to put the board back up.
The final product. After this, we stepped back, took a deep breath, and said, "Oh, yeah."
From start to finish, it took about 5 hours, which is actually exactly what we were expecting. In all, it was definitely one of the more tedious projects, but also worth the time. The mural has a really cool painted look to it, as if it's not actually made of vinyl at all. You'll have to check it out for yourself, but here's a closeup to give you an idea:
Several have asked what type of brick works best for this material. Answer: just about anything that's dry & not crumbling apart! We've tried it on a rough, course brick, as well as smooth, painted brick. The only difficulty might be the depth of the grooves. For grooves between the bricks that are super deep, we have to take a mosaic approach to things, and simply cut out the grooves, leaving the print on the flat part of the brick (it makes for a pretty cool effect). But in general, if it's dry, clean, and hard, we could probably tackle it!
Personal opinion: this was probably one of the most exciting projects to put together and install. Maybe I'm just a biased Tiger alum, but probably not. It was awesome.
Tigers, I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments below, and show people who think it might be cool!
Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.
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