Boring Bedroom Wall Fixed with Contact Paper

Living in a leased apartment sucks when you can't paint your walls. You can only hang so many pictures and the white finally can get to a person. I wanted to cover my walls with removable decals that can be moved once I move out. But I discovered they are so expensive for the smallest decal and as you can tell...I wanted a large part of my wall covered. So after searching the internet for a couple weeks I read a blog about making your own wall decals with contact paper. Yup! The same stuff you use to line your cabnets in your kitchen. It is removable, movable and doesn't leave a mark. Oh did I mention - CHEAP! (Of course you want to test it in a spot you can see before you go hog wild on your wall. ) I wanted to do a dark solid color so fo finding black contact paper in Phoenix was impossible. I finally had to order a huge roll from Amazon - but it was totally worth it. I got a massive roll for around $35. Almost the same price as ONE decal online. I had more than enough to test out ideas and do as many walls as I have in my aparmtnet. If you have a free afternoon and a creative side - give this a try. All I did was create a couple patters of swirls and flowers of different sizes on thick paper and cut them out. (If you are not as creative as me - lol - try finding stencils or patterns online that you can copy.) I then rolled out the contact paper with the back facing up. I traced my patterns and cut them out. Out of the whole process, cutting all the pieces took the most time. After I cut out enough pieces, I grabbed a step ladder and a credit card to use to smooth down the contact paper. Then I simply started to place them on my wall. Serious - it is that easy. There is no need to worry about messing up! I would work a couple inches at a time by removing the backing and smoothing down with the credit card. The beauty of contact paper it is movable. If I didn't like where I put a piece, I simply pulled it off and stuck it somewhere else, smoothing it down with the credit card. I got the contact paper in the corners by simply by placing the piece in the corner and smoothing out. I have had the decals up for a couple weeks now and I have not had a single issue with the edges curling or falling down - and my apartment can get up to 100 degrees when I am not home - the beauty of living in the desert. Of course I cannot take credit for this idea. I must give props to the the DIY site I found it on. Here is the link to get the step by step on how to do the contact paper decals by "britsteiner" http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Vinyl-Wall-Art/