Holidays Interrupted :: My Night with the Vinyl Application from Hell

Ah, bless the holidays!  Everyone's bustling around planning for celebrations, going to parties, wrapping gifts.  It's the best time of the year.  To add to the excitement this year, my best friend was nine months pregnant and looking like she was going to pop at any moment.  Much to our surprise, she actually did!  Four weeks early!  She delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl and joy was shared by all.

In my friend awesomeness, I offered to take care of their household affairs while my best friend and her husband were in the hospital with their bundle of joy.  Just the usual - feed the cat, baby-ready the home, pick up a little.  While I was straightening up, I found a tube lying by the front door from Surface Inspired.

Back Story: My best friend was sweet enough to let her husband plan the nursery.  He was all about this vinyl tree to put on the wall.  He found it online (on Etsy, I believe) and it was the centerpiece of his design.  He picked out all the colors and was really excited about it - super cute.

So, seeing this tube sitting on the floor made me a little sad.  Being four weeks early, naturally, the nursery wasn't exactly ready for Baby's arrival.  I figured I'd offer my vinyl application services as a surprise to my two closest friends and took on the task of putting up the precious tree.  This decision was made around 8:00PM.  Plenty of time to get it done before bed!

Then I opened the tube...

What...the...hell...

Why were there so many sheets?  That doesn't look like a tree.  What's with the sheet full of flowers of the same color?

I've never done a vinyl decal of this magnitude.  The finished product was to look like this.

Now, I thought those lovely flowers and butterflies would be mapped out on a single sheet.  You know, peel back the paper, put it up, *swipe, swipe* with the application tool - bing, bang, boom!  Done.

Nope.

Each flower and butterfly had to be CUT OUT of a sheet and applied INDIVIDUALLY on the wall.  Whaaaaaaat?  Not at all what I expected.  But the product was out of the box.  I had committed.

Putting up the tree trunk wasn't so bad.  Being about 8 feet tall, the trunk and branches came in multiple pieces, thankfully and thoughtfully numbered.  The company also included an amazing tutorial on how to hang longer pieces using a tape hinge technique.  GENIUS!

That's where the genius of the design ended for me.

I still had a bagrillion flowers and butterflies to get on the wall in some arty-fartsy manner.  At this point, I had put up the tree and cut out the flowers and butterflies from the sheets - an hour or so into the project.

I hung the inspiration photo on the wall and got creative.  By "creative", I mean, copied it exactly.  I got this much on the wall... and I needed a break.

Here were the elements at play:
It was late on a Sunday.
The tree was about 2+ feet taller than me.
So. Many. Small. Pieces.
Holy Arm Workout.
See that crib?  Unmovable.
Oh, did I mention the textured walls?

Dear Baby,
This is why Aunt Jenni drinks.

In fact, I took this picture just so Baby could fully appreciate my pain.  Thank God for wine.  

After four hours of placing flowers and butterflies on the wall, straining over a huge crib, drinking a bottle of wine and destroying my hand with an application tool, I finally finished.

 Not too shabby, if I must say so myself.

Now, to be clear, the product from Surface Inspired was amazing!  The vinyl was so easy to apply and has held up beautifully on the textured walls.  Highly recommended!  Check out their shop on Etsy here.

I just don't think I'll be putting up any more vinyl designs anytime soon.  :)