Colorful Mosaic Wall on the cheap!!!

scrapbook paper mosaic wall

Like a lot of people, I live in an apartment. The type of apartment complex that doesn’t allow painting of any kind. I really try to jazz up the blah eggshell walls with color, whether it be colorful artwork or colored lampshades that cast a hue on the wall. Well, I wanted to step it up a notch with my décor beyond that and do something totally different with my bedroom wall that would make visitors come in and say, “Wow! You did that?” And the cool thing is that I did it all for under $20! Yep, for $20 bucks you can get a totally rockin’ wall that is full of color and will brighten up any room!

What do you need?

– Multicolored scrapbook page packs (I purchased mine at Target and 50 sheets came to a pack; I purchased 2 packs)
– Aleene’s Tacky Dots (available at Michaels)
– tape measure

So, I’m not going to do a full-blown step by step tutorial, but I’ll give you a very easy rundown of what I did. I measured out the length of my wall, then I figured out how many square 12×12 pieces of paper would fit into that length. I picked out 9 different colors from a multi-color pack that I liked and placed them in a random fashion. Starting at the top, I horizontally placed the paper (to adhere to wall I put dots in the four corners of the paper and pressed). I then began on the next row. My goal was to not repeat two colors in a row vertically or horizontally. It was a challenge, but not that hard once I started doing the mosaic. I tried to not get too many colors together or have similar colors sitting next to each other. I wanted it to look like a mosaic of color that looked random in placement and aesthetically pleasing overall. Does that make sense?

Honestly, I’m not a by the book/measurement kinda girl, so a lot of this was eyeballed. Oh, and word to the wise. The dots need to be carefully removed. If you tug the paper off the wall, the Zot will remove the paint (OOPS!).

I’m really with the way it turned out and am excited to finally show it to you!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Comments

  1. says

    That is fantastic – I love it! I’m moving into one of my university’s off-campus houses this fall and I think this might just be in store for one of my boring, bland ‘you’re not allowed to paint in here’ rooms! 😀

  2. says

    Wow, it looks fantastic! We live in a rented apartment and hope to buy soon but the place needs a makeover in the meantime – this might be the very thing it needs.

  3. says

    I’m so glad you guys like this! I’ve been putting off showing it for weeks, cause I was waiting to show off the look with new pillows, but I’m glad I didn’t wait.

    I think you could use poster puddy, but it will prob. leave residue on the wall. It did when I used it in college.

  4. Keri Tate says

    They make adhesive dots that are removable. I use them all the time on painted and wallpapered walls. It’s fabulous, secure until you want to remove them and then easy to take off the item you hung.

  5. says

    Thanks everyone again! It isn’t laminated. I think the photo just makes it that way. Kristen: Thanks for noticing. I have gotten a lot of comments on there! Keri Tate…thanks for the info. I’ll have to look into that!

  6. says

    This is absolutely wonderful and very aesthetically pleasing. I think that this interests us all so much not simply because its cheap or DIY, but because its an unorthodox way of primping up a blah wall!

    Thanks for sharing!

  7. says

    I used to do this in my dorm with rubber cement (comes off most walls but beware glossy finishes) and free carboard posters from the record shop. Of course back then they still have a few lingering records so the posters were 12 x 12 to reflect the size of LPs. I’d change em out fairly often as new stuff was being thrown out.

  8. says

    Thanks guys so much! Too date, this is my most popular post i’ve ever posted! That’s super exciting to me 🙂

    And thanks so much Heather!

  9. says

    wow!! very smart and I thought you’ve used expensive things for this–but after reading your instructions–wow!! why have I not thought of that…very nice–I’ll do it for my daughters’ room…thanks for the idea

  10. says

    This is really an awesome idea. I was trying to think in my head how I was going to paint my wall like this, and then I read that it is PAPER!! YOU ROCK!! I am getting out of my jammies and going to Target now!!!!
    Thanks for the awesome idea!

  11. says

    I tried this last night, and I was so excited… the room looked fantastic–for a couple of hours… when I woke up the next morning, only a couple of papers were still on the wall. The rest fell down. What would be another thing to use besides those glue dots? The papers don’t stay stuck to them!
    (check out the finished results by clicking on my link)

  12. says

    Okay, so I figured out the problem–I used Glue Dots brand instead of Zots brand. Glue Dots aren’t half as sticky as Zots.. So I’ve redone the wall, and they seem to be sticking a lot better. 🙂

  13. Anonymous says

    My friend and I were recently talking about how modern society has evolved to become so integrated with technology. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.

    I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside… I just hope that as the price of memory decreases, the possibility of transferring our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s a fantasy that I dream about all the time.

    (Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://quizilla.teennick.com/stories/16129580/does-the-r4-or-r4i-work-with-the-new-ds]R4 SDHC[/url] DS NetBlog)

  14. Anonymous says

    Sorry for my bad english. Thank you so much for your good post. Your post helped me in my college assignment, If you can provide me more details please email me.

  15. Jane Chandler says

    LOVE IT, Alexa!!

    Just a thought, but I wonder if the spray adhesive intended for “re-positionable, non-permanent hold” might work for this project? (the kind you can use for photography, graphic art, etc..)

    You’re awesome!

  16. Anonymous says

    If you use the permanent zots, you can blow dry them with a hair dryer and when they heat up they are simple to remove.

  17. says

    What did you use for the criss-cross network you have here? Tape, ribbon? It looks great. I might even do this on a board and hang on the wall to cover up an ugly window behind my bed. Thanks!

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