Comments on: wall

Question: wall

adrober — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:46:35 -0800

I have a giant blank wall in my new rented bedroom and I'd like to do something awesome with it, but nothing permanent so I lose my security deposit. What should I do?

By: plokent

plokent — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:53:19 -0800

blik surface graphics

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:55:28 -0800

I once turned a wall of my bedroom into a giant photo collage. Tape up big sheets of paper first so the pictures aren't taped to the wall, then start cutting them out--magazines are good, and a lot of times you can get those giant books of photography from the super-cheap discount tables at Border's or Barnes & Noble. I found it worked best to start at the top and work my way down.

By: Gucky

Gucky — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:59:30 -0800

Is it white? A Digital projection TV!

By: kdar

kdar — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:59:54 -0800

It's fairly normal for people to paint their rented bedrooms. Many landlords repaint after a tenant leaves, anticipating things like this to happen, and do it without dipping into the security deposit. As long as whatever you're doing will be covered by a normal coat of paint, you should be free of problems. (And even then, you can get a reasonable approximation of the original paint to cover your modifications.)

Ask your landlord, but painting should be fine.

As for cool things to do, I've seen:

- Painted silhouettes of yourself/your friends in various poses
- Giant, blown-up images that were printed on a color printer on standard paper and carefully assembled to create the illusion that they were one large printed image
- Various license plates/other found things
- Foreign coins (though these tend to fall off)
- Playbill-type things -- if you're in NYC, you should see these all over the place

By: amro

amro — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:00:27 -0800

Paint a mural on it? Of course, your work of art would be tragically temporary since you would have to paint over it before you move out.

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:03:43 -0800

overhead projector + transparency photocopied out of a cool coloring book + pick your own color scheme = life-sized awesome mural. couple coats of high-hide white before you move out and everything is punky brewster. you can find neat pattern books in a lot of different styles, shop around.

alternately: chalkboard paint!

By: djb

djb — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:05:47 -0800

Rasterbate it

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:08:28 -0800

post-it mosaic

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:12:04 -0800

Moon Pans

By: katemonster

katemonster — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:18:54 -0800

Fabric wallcovering using starch

N.B. I have never used this and would be concerned about bugs being attracted by the starch. But it seems like a cool idea.

By: cgs

cgs — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:37:57 -0800

magnetic paint

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:38:01 -0800

Get photos from thrift stores, yard sales, etc, and start to build a wall - use tacky stuff to put it up randomly or in nice rows or whatever.

By: zek

zek — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:40:14 -0800

Paint with laundry detergent and use a blacklight. Once you take the blacklight down you won't see anything.

By: HiddenInput

HiddenInput — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:40:33 -0800

I've seen people buy wallpaper-based, whole-wall pictures and then glue them with spray adhesive to some foam core and tack that up on the wall. This way they can take the mural or whatever with them when they move out and don't damage the wall by putting wallpaper up in the traditional fashion.

By: bleucube

bleucube — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:46:13 -0800

In college I put a bunch of those trippy taperisties up.

By: bleucube

bleucube — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:46:51 -0800

Wow I meant Tapestry

By: jimfl

jimfl — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:50:32 -0800

I always wanted to make a bunch of cardboard tiles in various geometric shapes and attach them to the wall in such a way that they "float" off the wall a few inches, with gaps between them, then install colored lights behind them.

By: pwf

pwf — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:03:56 -0800

Second the rasterbator. Just did it myself, looks pretty good (though I butchered it with my cutting). Most printing paper is flourescent too, so a nice big blacklight combined with a rasterbated image makes for a bad ass dorm room =D

By: !Jim

!Jim — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:18:57 -0800

Personally I'd put up a whiteboard. A giant, classroom-sized whiteboard. *drools over whiteboard goodness*.

Then again, I'm a college student, and an engineering one no less, so maybe that's just me.

By: diamondsky

diamondsky — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 19:13:51 -0800

If you like the idea of the Blik wall adhesives mentioned upthread, but don't see a design you like, you can also check out the ones at Dvider. Modern Seed has some other of the wall graphics, too, including some that are chalkboards. Those could be great if you're at all artsy. If you want one of the removable stickers of a favorite quote or poem, you can check out Wonderful Graffiti or Wallwords.

I originally found these links when I was reading Apartment Therapy, so you can always browse there for additional ideas, as well.

By: orangemiles

orangemiles — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:29:40 -0800

Army wives used to talk about putting up big sheets of fabric on the walls in base housing-- inexpensive and you can take it with you without leaving a mark. Soak the fabric in starch, wring out so it's damp, then apply like wallpaper. Google instructions before you do this-- I've never done it myself.