It’s been a while since we’ve published a post but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been working.  The never ending projects and upkeep of a 100+ year old row house still keep many of our weekends busy.

We will soon be finished an external and internal door installation on the ground floor and an exciting TV and laundry room reveal but this week we (me) decided that it is time to pay a little attention to detail.

Our daughter’s room is a perfect example of the transition from child to teen.  There are still lots of childhood paraphernalia hanging around but we’ve recently noticed that dolls and other toys have been surreptitiously moved into the closet.

The room back when it was empty

So we’d thought we’d kill two birds with one stone by making her room a little more “grown up” and at the same time cover a bare wall.

To do this we used a nifty little App called Mixtiles.  With the App you can create 8×8 square photo tiles that are already mounted on a thick foam core and do not need frames.  It also happens to work well with high quality Instagram photos.  One of my hobbies is taking photos of street art when we travel and they were perfect to use for a teenager’s room because they are colorful and urban.

The wall we wanted to cover was over the fireplace mantle.  This wall is original plaster so Mixtiles photos are perfect since they stick on the wall with removable adhesives and therefore there is no damage and no worries about cracked plaster.

First, I took a page out of my spouse’s playbook and planned where to put the photos using a complex mathematical formula.  Really, I just used my 5th grade addition and subtraction skills.

 This will also have to serve as the before photo–I always forget to take before photos!

After we had the placement all set out it was easy, just peel and stick.

And that’s all there is to it.  These photos are great because they are inexpensive and when your teen’s tastes change, it is not a big financial investment to change them.  According to Mixtiles, they are designed so you can remove them and stick them someplace else.  I’ll believe that when I see it for myself!

The teen was very happy with the final product:

We did not receive any compensation or product from Mixtiles, we just liked how they turned out.