Spicing Up My Drab White Walls on a Budget!

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Alright, so as most of you know, I live on a large military base in base housing. You are allowed to paint your home if you choose, however,  you do have to paint it back to the oh so drab starch white color when you move out. I personally decided not to paint. I didn’t want to waste money on paint and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of having to repaint when we move. …AND in the Military, you never really know when you’re going to have to move!

I despise white walls.

…So with that said, I have hung up lots of pictures to try to distract from those white walls. Well, last week I was browsing Amazon and came across these Tree Branches Peel and Stick Wall Decals. They were and still are priced at $18.13. They also have 5 star reviews. Anyway, I thought for $18 I’d go ahead and try them out. I was a little worried, though, they would arrive and not quite look like they do in the pictures. I’m not at all artistic either, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to stick them on the walls and actually make them look decent.

Well, take a look:

I was pretty impressed with myself! 😀 My Hubby was even proud and at first he actually thought I painted the tree! Little did he know it was just a bunch of stickers. I would highly recommend these to anyone looking to spice up drab walls!

I am in NO way affiliated with this company. I am just giving an honest opinion about a product I really like!

Join The Discussion

Comments 69

  1. Mini

    AC Moore also carries these, and with their 50% coupons its always a great bargain. I have used them in the kids room as well in our living room.

    • KENIA

      Mini could you said where did you get the coupons?

      • Amy

        You can print them directly off of the AC Moore website! It’s a 50% off one item coupon. 🙂

      • Mini

        Kenia,
        Just go to acmoore.com and click on the coupons and specials link and then use your zip code. It should bring up the closest stores plus a link to coupons. Our store had them for retailing between 19.99 and 29.99 before coupons. So 50% off that was a great deal. You can get it various designs, quotes, children’s themes etc. We have one in our kids room that says “always kiss me goodnight” !!!

  2. KENIA

    Pretty! you made excelent job! I had been looking for something like that to use on my baby nursery room!, Do they came in diferent colors?

    • Collin

      Hi Kenia,
      Yes, they have lots of styles and colors on Amazon. Just search wall sticker or wall decals and you’ll see an array of products. I’m tempted to get some of the cute flower wall stickers for my daughters room!

  3. Olivia Smith

    Wow, Collin, that looks amazing. I will definitely have to check these out….. if I can do it anyone can since I am not artistic whatsoever!

  4. Tara

    I hated the blah walls we had in our base house as well at our last duty station. We never painted, but I know friends who did and they were able to go to Self Help on base and pick up the “base housing paint” for free before they had their final inspection. The Self Help might just be an Air Force thing though, I don’t know much about the other branches.

    • Jessica K

      Even self help varies from AF base to AF base. When we were on Columbus, you could get paint, round up, miracle grow, $100 flower voucher yearly, etc. It was amazing. But, we’ve lived on several other bases where all self help has are those mosquito dunk things. It’s worth looking into though!

      • cicmommy

        wow!! $100 for flowers would have been nice for when we lived on base!! We got grass seed and cheap o furnace filters.

  5. tevagirl0516

    Love the tree! Looks great right there. I didn’t want to paint my bathroom, but it was sooo stark in there, so I hung a sheer curtain from a tension rod above the toliet, now my bathroom has a pretty splash of red, without the pain of trying to paint red over white.

    • Collin

      Oh I LOVE this idea! hmmm… now you got me thinkin! 😉

      • vicki

        another option I used to do for apartment walls, and I did this on a picture window that faced the neighbor’s house too, is to buy a jug of liquid starch (under $2 if i remember correctly) and soak any fabric (or fabric cutouts), wring it out, then just smooth it onto the wall like you would wall paper or an applique. you just want a rag or sponge to wipe off any that sqeezes onto the wall. when you go to remove it, you just peel it off and wipe the wall with water. worked like a charm and lasted years! i even did a piping border around the fabric in the window!

  6. Chandra

    Looks fantastic! I really love that. Do you know if when you remove the stickers from your walls would they take off any of the paint? Or leave any hard to remove residue?
    I am moving in to an apartment and we’re not allowed to paint or even hang anything on our walls… this would be super fantastic for making the place look nice and interesting if it doesn’t leave any damage on the walls when you take if back off!

    • Amanda

      I have several of these throughout my home and I have never had them remove the paint on our walls in our new home. We have a textured wall in our home, so it can be more difficult for them to go on nice and smooth. Hope this helps 🙂

      • Christy

        Hi Amanda,

        Our walls are VERY textured and I can’t even get them to stick and stay put … they keep falling down. Any tricks to try? Thanks!

        • Melissa

          Christy, I bought a Cars themed wall sticky wall paper and also some colored decals for my son’s bedroom, my walls are extremely textured!! I put them up and they fell right away… until I pulled out my stapler!! I used regular color staples… it worked great… but I know they do sell colored staples that you can try to match the decal you are using… Hope it helps!!

    • Erin

      Looks great Collin. Chandra, I have used them before in the kids room and it said it will not remove paint, etc. Of course it did. I got them from Target. But some may not. But the ones I got, when I removed them when the kids got older, yes it left the marks on the wall in shapes of animals, because that’s what the stickers were, ha. Oh well, I put a dresser in front of them and hung some stuff, husband never knew, haaaaaaaaa!!

      • Aneta

        Are ya sure that’s not from the paint fading from the sun? Like when people have been living in a house for a long time and go to move, but there are picture frame shaped squares on the walls? xD

        • BORN2RUN

          i got some from target as well that were suppose to come to be stick and pell and they pulled the paint off really bad….even into the dry wall…..Erin said all brands may not do that but it was a huge patch and repaint job when we moved and my husband was NOT happy 🙂

          • BORN2RUN

            oops peel

          • BORN2RUN

            ok i suck today…i meant to say like Erin said…lol 🙂

          • Kristina

            I have used Roommates for all four of my boys’ rooms and they’re great! They DO NOT take off any paint, as I’ve moved them several times to reposition them. I’m not sure if that particular company makes stickers besides characters from movies, but they have been a super easy and cheap way to give my boys the “cool” character rooms that they wanted.

  7. Jesi

    Looks great Collin! i know what you mean with the dreaded white walls, my husband and i bought a house 3 years ago and painted every room! we will probably be PCSing in year but we have already decided wherever we go, base housing, apartment, etc we will paint the walls, if we have to follow the miitary for the next 14 years our home will be OUR home, even if we have to take some time to paint 🙂 we just HATE white walls!

  8. Robin

    Keep talking.. I could use some decorative ideas.. Lol

  9. mary b.

    another inexpensive idea is to purchas plain white canvases in various sizes and then choose one of your accent colors~ find three shades of that color and paint the entire canvas one color, another one another color and so on. You then hang them in an artful way some horizontal, some vertical, on one wall in a collage like pattern and voila! instant art and color!

  10. Jessica K

    I was a military spouse for 10 years (until last year). We often would paint just one wall or put a stripe of color around a room. I can’t handle those white walls either. And actually, the Air Force never really used white … always a dirty white. Yuck! Decals are great. So are Wallies.

  11. Meghan

    Hey Collin- Looks awesome!! I don’t know if you’ve heard of Uppercase Living, but they sell vinyl expressions and embellishments for your walls. I actually sell them myself because I LOVE them so much- we literally have some in every room of our house and it really enhances the rooms. 🙂 Since I was going to buy so much for my own house, I figured why not sell it and hook my friends, family, and church up as well! 🙂
    I was going to do a giveaway on my blog in the next few weeks, so I just had to comment when I saw your post! 🙂 If you want to look at the catalog (meghan.uppercaseliving.net— no “www”) I’d be happy to give you my discount if there is anything you like.
    One of the things I love about Uppercase Living is their expressions come in lots of colors, but each one can also have a few colors IN it, so it can add a huge splash of color.

  12. katie

    Great idea. I had thought about getting scrap thin wood and covering them in wallpaper to make my own art. I want really big pieces to cover large white walled areas.

  13. topchief2

    I’ve dealt with the painting after leaving the apartment dread, and I never want to do it again. This will be cool for when we own a home

  14. Stephanie Werner

    Looks great!! good idea!

  15. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    Very cute, great way to give the room an extra kick, without the big job painting!

  16. Eden

    Looks GREAT Collin! How creative! Does anyone happen to know anything about the Easy Instant Sticker brand on Amazon at all? I saw a CUTE one on there, but wasn’t sure if the quality was good. Anyone used them before?

  17. Dee

    I’ve seen these decals at TJ Maxx and Home Goods for good prices so if you have them in your area, check it out! Unfortunately, it is a hit or miss situation with those stores…

  18. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    I actually bought ones at ross for 5.99! They have all kinds in the home section! Everyone loves them and they always ask if I painted it on the wall!

  19. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    I think that looks great. I showed it to my mother who just recently bought and older home and was lookin to spice up the walls and she loved it. Thanks for the idea,

  20. Hazel

    A cool decorating idea that I’ve seen (but have not done myself… yet!)… Is to paint a canvas board your accent color and then stick the wall decal to it. My husband’s cousin did a teal background with a white decal. It looked like it was painted on!

    • Sierra

      Love this idea! I have never thought of this. We are in a temporary place and my daughter’s room needs a splash of color. I had thought of vinyl wall art, but didn’t want to buy it for only a couple of months of use. If we do this, we can take it with us!

  21. bri

    Here’s a tip from our military and apartment living days. You can purchase colored sheets or material, drench in liquid starch and then press on the wall.
    To remove you just pull down and wash down the walls to get any starch residue off.
    Simple, easy and can be done on a dime!

  22. lovesadeal

    https://www.wallwords.com/

    Love the tree- take a look at this website, they have some pretty cool things (I’m not affiliated with them either, but have used their product in the past).

  23. Qpon Saving Mommas

    That’s cool because now you can use it as a holiday tree too! Valentines day add hearts and write reasons why you love each other. Thanksgiving, make leaves and write while everyone is thankful or what there thankful for. You can do this w/ many holidays. I don;t know maybe you have already thought of that, lol.

  24. fran

    Good job, Collin. The wall looks nice 🙂

  25. Igot5ltlboyz

    Dear Collin,

    That looks great!! I just had to chime in here. My Dad was in the USAF for 26 years. We lived in base housing in the states, and offbase/onbase overseas. I DIDN”T know people painted their walls and wall-papered until we moved home (Sweet Home Alabama) for good!! White walls (especially when they’re painted with flat paint) and 4 kids don’t mix well. Looking back….my poor Mother. Bless you & all you do!!

  26. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    Check out etsy.com for a huge variety of wall decals. I bought one for my daughter’s nursery last year with her name on it. So cute.

  27. merima

    Kohls has these on sale… they are $15 and look great..
    if you have the 15% off even greater…..

  28. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    Love the tree Collin. Very cute!

  29. Collin (Mrs. Hip)

    Awesome Job

  30. Pamela J

    I have done a few of these on my walls. I bought a larger tree that looks great but needed two people to put up. It was a little tricky because it was large. They add so much to a room and you can find a large variety online. I also put some designs on both sides of our king bed. Adds height and looks expensive.Anyway, Looks good Collin.

  31. luckygirl

    I have this SAME tree on my wall. I love it!! I have a huge round clock on the same wall, it looks like the tree is growing around it. It looks awesome! You have great taste Collin if I do say so myself. And these stick really good, and you can reposition your art work or take it with you if you move I love them – I want another one for my other wall. I alwasy get compliments on it, LOVE IT!!!

  32. Claire

    I was just at IKEA today and they have about 10 different decal designs for 9.99. And they are all really cute. FYI

  33. Kimberly

    Colin- last time we lived in base housing, I found decals at the Dollar Tree for my daughters room! They were large pink and green circles. I did a pattern over her bed that was super cute.

    • Mini

      Yup, they have these in a smaller sizes at our Dollar Tree too. We decorated our entire playroom for the kids with different ones

  34. Donna

    Check out the web site dezignwithaz.com they have all sorts of decals in bunches of colors.
    the site has a color wheel that allows you to see different colors on your wall color. Have ordered a few times from them and very happy

  35. Kelli

    Collin- I did the same thing for my LOs nursery- we’re a military family AND I have the same trunks in your pic 🙂

  36. Dee

    Collin, great job! I had the same idea when I wanted to do a contemporary/oriental type of decor in my living room. I wanted a cherry blossom type branch with tiny red flowers. I ended up going to Lowes and getting two cans of the sample sized paints and painted them on. They turned out pretty neat! I LOVE the idea of tree art on walls 🙂 I’ll jhave to send a pic!

  37. Amanda H.

    Love the tree! Another thing you could do is find some fabric you love (shower curtains, bed sheets, thrift store finds, it really doesn’t matter) and create art. Just make a frame out of some scrap wood and staple gun it around it like a canvas. You could also get an empty canvas frame from Hobby Lobby or Michael’s using a coupon, of course!

    • Dee

      The Fabric over canvas is fun to do! I did this too 🙂 Came out beautifully!

  38. jen

    My 13 year old daughter bought butterfly decals at Dollar Tree. She has them “swarming or flying around her room about 3/4 up from the floor. They are very cute. She even moved them from our old house 2 years ago and they re-stuck with no problem.

  39. Kim

    I know Uppercase Living is a little more expensive but alot are removable/reusable too! Also right now its 15% off 40+ purchase…not coupon code neccesary! If you wanna look at an online catalog https://kimfunke.uppercaseliving.net will allow you to view or customize anything. I love love love this sort of thing!!

  40. Elise

    It looks great!

  41. Kandice

    Stampin Up sells the vinyl decor as well. I have several in my house and love how easy they are to use.

  42. Shebella

    Absoultely beautiful!!

  43. Collin (Mrs. Hip)
  44. Alicia

    Have you thought of putting up colored fabric/sheets with liquid starch? It goes on as if you are wallpapering but comes right down and leaves the walls in perfect shape. Just wash with soapy water. If you google you will come up with some how to articles for sure. The liquid starch is NOT the spray starch…It comes in a jug like bleach does (but a smaller jug usually). Its sort of difficult to find.

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