I kind of came across this idea by a “forced” situation. I originally purchased a saying to go in my stairwell via Ebay. I had it up and all was well until about six months ago when the vinyl no longer was sticking. Since we are wrapping up on our full remodel, I know that I put the vinyl down on new construction and paint (the vinyl was also heavy duty outdoor quality). It should have been stuck amazingly well… too well. I contacted the seller and that went nowhere.
I decided to take things into my own hands and trace the outline of each letter/character myself with a pencil, peeled off the vinyl and then paint it by hand. How hard could that be? Famous last words . . .
It was not hard, just VERY time-consuming and a bit physically challenging since I had to have the hubs make me a platform I could use to place a ladder on so I was not reenacting any scene from Cirque du Sole while using a ladder.
The size of the project is about 3 feet long and 18 inches wide. It took about 5 hours to complete from start to finish (I broke it up in 1 1/2 – two-hour increments each day). I used regular craft paint from JoAnn’s.
The walls have a heavier “orange peel” texture to it so it made tracing and painting a bit more challenging than if it wa a smooth wall. I had to do some touch up with the base color of the walls, but all in all I am pretty happy on how it turned out AND to be off the ladder in my 20 foot stairwell.
What I am excited about is now that I have done this, I can now use my Cricut and make vinyl stencils (indoor quality does not stick as strong for easy peeling back off) and do more projects; one in particular is doing some wall designs for the playhouse we are building for my girls. . . more to come on that!