You know the area around your bin?  You know how filthy the wall gets no matter how much you try to keep it clean?  Well this has been a bugbear of mine for quite a while now.   I mean look at it!!!  Ick.

While making over our kitchen table it came to me.  Oil cloth on the wall!!!  (More on the kitchen table in later blog posts) A clean easily wipeable surface that can give colour and personality to an otherwise DULL wall.

As we already had a red bin, I thought some kind of red oil cloth would go nicely.  Our particular corner has the bin AND the dishwasher in it.  So you can only imagine the state of it…

I first measured the whole area, both walls, up to just below the counter top.  I went shopping and decided on a lovely red spotted oil cloth and headed home to figure out how on earth I was going to stick it to the wall…

A method came to mind which I use whilst making blankets.  I do a fair amount of sewing.  I have recently made two baby blankets for friends.  (I say made, I mean finished one and the second is lying in my sewing box waiting to have bias binding added).  So for these projects I had purchased adhesive spray.  This spray attaches fabric to various surfaces.  It is used to attach fabric to the inner foam to keep it all in place whilst sewing.  But it doesn’t make the material stiff or anything.  I don’t know if this will work long term but I thought it would be a good starting point.

So, I measured the first wall.  And cut a piece to size. I did it in two steps because I wanted a clean finish in the corner behind the bin.  Then I sprayed the back of the material and the wall.  Waited for about 30 seconds to make it “tacky” then stuck it to the wall.  That makes it sound easy.  It wasn’t….

Trying to get it straight and stuck without bubbles was a problem.  I recommend having two people to do this bit.  Although I did it toute seule (fancy french for on my own).     Girl Power!!!!!  To be fair my husband was putting my daugther to bed so unless I asked the cat to help….  I had visions of Tom stuck to the wall and unhappily meowing beneath the polka dots…  I trudged on alone.  Jeez it sounds like I’m tackling the Antartic!

I was SOOO pleased once I got it on the wall.  I needed to add more adhesive around the edges to make sure it stuck.  I used a trusty used gift card to push out the bubbles. Using a rotary cutter I cut through the corner to give a clean line.

I then repeated on the other wall.

Ta DAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Now I have a fully wipe clean wall.  BOOM!

Before and After shots in case you had forgotten.  What do you think?