DIY Map Wall
I love maps. I want maps for dinner. I want to wear a map. I have been collecting these maps from thrift stores for a long time just waiting on a fantastic idea to blind side me. Well, Ive been struck. Mostly by pinterest and some extra time because these walls covered in maps are everywhere. But still, I was ready to take the leap.
This is a wall in my craft room. Sad huh? I hate the wall color, it looks ok at first, but start taking pictures and it is immediately orange. And this wall is just blah and it tends to collect piles of stuff like those...gross.
This was by far one of the easiest projects Ive done. I picked out my favorite maps from my stash and started to layout the maps on the floor for placement, but soon realized the floor was way too small for that. So up they went. The only supplies I used were plain, silver thumbtacks from Target.
At the end this wall cost me 10 cent per map and a bag of thumbtacks. Less than 5$
I played around, did some trial and error placements and tried to use as few thumbtacks as possible, for aesthetics and decreasing numbers of holes in maps.
My goal was to overlap them but allow as much map as possible to show through. I found one tutorial I loved (but now can't find it again) that only pinned the tops of maps and let the bottoms kind of dangle, like that one on the top of the Rockies. But they looked liked they were about to explode off the wall at any moment, so I quickly nixed that idea and pinned all but the Rockies map down. I like that it gives it a little texture.
I did my best to work around the light switch, it was challenging to piece those small places in, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I maybe should have started with that in mind, but oh well.
This took me maybe 30 mins from start to finish. I didn't hesitate, I didn't make a lot of changes. I just did it and came out fantastic. I had a few favorite maps in mind that I wanted to be featured more prominently and not get covered too much, but that was really my only requirement. Getting the whole wall covered was the goal and I am in LOVE with how it turned out!
I love seeing all the pins on pinterest of how other people have done their map walls, they are all so different and so fantastic. Maps are made to be loved and seen. What have you done lately with maps?
