As expected, the weather hasn’t been ideal for photos but I’ve done my best. My IKEA Expedit is now finished and all decorated with decals from Spoonflower. I really love it!
The two cupboard doors have sections from Arctic and Antarctic maps from the 1920s, which I found in my pictorial encyclopedia. I love the colours and the Unexplored areas and how the furthest point of all the Antarctic expeditions are marked.
For the drawers, I used my own zig zag polka dots pattern and made a version using the yellow and blue from the maps, plus a similar shade of pink.
It all worked out perfectly. The IKEA drawers and cupboards are all 33cm square, which fits fine on a 15″ decal. For the maps, I scanned them in and then cropped them to the right size leaving a white margin, so that I could be sure they’d look good. For the polka dots, I just covered the whole decal and cut out the right sized pieces for the drawers. That was a bit annoying as the decals have rounded corners so I had to measure them from inside that. If I did it again, I would probably make the shapes with a border for cutting.
Application was really easy too. You just wipe down the surface with a damp cloth, leave it to dry and then apply carefully. It’s easy to remove and reapply if you go wonky and there’s a plastic squeegee included for smoothing out any bubbles. I didn’t get any bubbles but it was handy for the corners. I just poked holes where the door knobs went and screwed them back in. The whole process only took me a couple of hours and most of that was measuring.
It was expensive though, since the decals are $15 each, but they’re great quality and look like they’ll last a long time. I’m really pleased with the finished thing and it really makes it unique and totally me. You can see bigger pics on my Flickr, if you like.
I made the map colourway of the dots pattern available in my Spoonflower shop, so you can buy it on decals or fabric if you like. I have a few trimmings left, which I’ll definitely be using for something else.
