Deciding on wall art

Trading Phrases

I knew right from the get go that I wanted some type of wall art to go over my baby's crib. For her first year we planned to have her crib in our room, so it was important to me that her side of the room have a personalized touch just for her.  I had seen so many different options on other baby blogs and I was very excited to jump back on the DIY wagon after a brief break from all the wedding  projects.  We already had lots of wooden letters left over from the wedding centerpieces so I considered incorporating them some how into the wall art, but I was bit paranoid about having anything hanging from the wall over her crib. I worried that anything we hung over her crib might come loose and fall on her.  So when I discovered vinyl wall decals I was thrilled!! I wonder where these have been all my life? I love how easy they are to put up, and remove without damaging the wall or the paint on the wall.   We only planned to stay at our current place for about a year after she was born so a wall decal was a perfect fit for us. And I loved the idea that once we moved, we could change the style and put something different in her room.



I found it really hard to decide what type of decal I wanted, there were so many to choose from. There were monograms, names, inspirational quotes, animals, trees,.. just about everything you could think of and a lot of sites had the option for me to design my own decal.  I started out looking at websites like Right On The walls and Trading Phrases and I really liked what they had to offer, but then I decided to check out Etsy to see what the sellers there had to offer and I absolutely fell in love with the variety they had. 

I went back and forth on this and kept changing my mind, I couldn't decide if I should go for something fun and colorful or keep it understated and chic. On some days I was certain I wanted a simple decal with her name because it would be sweet and personal, then on other days I wanted an inspiration bible text, or a cheeky grinning monkey...  I admit I put way too much thought into it, but I really wanted to choose the right design because I knew she would spend her first year looking at this design and it would be the backdrop for many many pictures. 

After months of indecision I decided to go with the scalloped circle monogram shown below by Tweet Heart Wall Art on Etsy. I just kept coming back to this design. It had a twist of fun to it, with the cute little bird and scalloped edge but wasn't too crazy and childish.

As you can see it comprises of three main pieces, the circle with the letter, the name, and the little bird. These three pieces come separately so you can arrange them however you want. This seller has 40 different colors available for this design which is great. I chose to combine the carnation pink as shown in the Annabella design and the chocolate brown. I had some minor issues with the seller because she initially agreed to send me some test decals so I could practice with it, but then she "forgot". I also felt as though the dots weren't spaced evenly, and one dot was actually missing, or there was just a huge space for no reason. I ended up using the bird to fill the space for the missing dot which annoyed me slightly because I originally wanted to place the bird somewhere else.


Now that its been several months since I first put it up, I actually really love this decal and I think I may order again from this same seller, since she was very pleasant and willing to work with me. What I love best about decals is how smooth they are on the wall, they almost looked painted on.

Below are some of the other decals that made my shortlist, by the summer we hope to have moved into our new place and so she will be getting new decals in her very own room.  I will have to go through the deciding process all over again. How exciting!!

Etsy

Etsy

Etsy

Etsy

Etsy

Etsy

Esty

Etsy