Summer of ideas: Wall decals

When we decided on a place to live last year the main reason I agreed on this flat was because the previous residents seemed to have done such a good job doing up the rooms... making me forget what was actually outside our front door! The girl who lived in my room had used a clever decorating trick, wall decals. Keeping the landlord happy (no paint, no marks, no nothing when peeled away!) and giving some personality to the usually plain white walls of student residences.

Having got my research on looking at all things nursery and after feedback from tutors suggesting I should find a way of using my drawings as back drops for ceramic objects... I stumbled across some really sweet wall decals for kids rooms. I already have a love for screen printing and illustration, it seems a no brainer to try creating my own. PLUS it would be a change from the usual Dec Arts choice of wall paper design which to me feels restricting and I did try out ceramic decals.. so it all feels relevant!

Searching DwellStudio's online store I found these... customers have complete control over colour and scale and can add/subtract icons they want, completely customisable! The site also offers a tool to show what the decals will look like on customers own walls before buying. The scenes can easily be transformed by adding DwellStudio's creature photo frames, giving me ideas for how I could feature ceramic objects with my own designs.

LittleLion Studio is a graphic design shop specialised in children's universe. The studio manufacture nursery decoration items (namely wall decals) and also license original designs through microstock, meaning their designs are downloadable at a price and can be used for all sorts of purposes.

Each decal tells a different story whether it's a day at the zoo or a picnic in the woods. These are just a few, new designs are added depending on the seasons. You can even buy a stick on christmas tree with all the trimmings if you don't fancy picking up all those needles when your cat goes searching for baubles to play with.

All of this has got me quite excited, I think I've missed the fun I had with print but I wouldn't want to just stick to wall decals... as shown above, that's been done and done very well! All of what I've found has been very simple block images.. I'd look to something with more depth like a whole new room within a wall. I really want to find a way of combining this kind of decoration with 3d form, and hopefully suggest a new approach to interior design. That's a big hope I know!