Vinyl Wall Decals
The basics.
What are they?
A decal is basically a big sticker for your wall. It starts off as a large roll of solid colored vinyl. The back has an adhesive specifically designed for walls, making it removable without leaving any residue or damage to the paint. On the roll, the vinyl is attached to a backing paper, which is basically a wax coated paper that allows for easy removal. The entire roll is loaded up into a plotter (or cutter) and the lines of a design are cut into the vinyl. The excess vinyl is weeded out, leaving the design behind. From there, transfer tape is applied on top of the entire design. So you now have 3 layers; transfer tape, vinyl, and backing paper. During installation, the backing paper is removed, then the decal and transfer tape are applied to the wall. Peel back the transfer tape and voilà! You've got a vinyl wall decal.
Why use decals?
Breaking out the paints and brushes is great... if you're an amazing artist and you own the walls you're painting on. Wall decals, on the other hand, give you the appearance of paint without the permanence or the requirement of a steady hand and artistic talent. They allow you to decorate your walls with designs, patterns, or words with ease, and for not a lot of money. Whether it's making a bold statement or adding something subtle, decals can help put that finishing touch on any room. And the best part? When your lease is up or you're ready for a decor change, you don't have to buy primer and repaint your walls.
What vinyl do you use?
We use the industry standard vinyl material for indoor decals. If you'd like to do more research on your own, give "ORACAL 631" a Google. But to make it easier, here are specifics:
ORACAL® 631 Exhibition Cal Matte - This vinyl is designed for short- to medium-term applications indoors; specifically on painted drywall surfaces. It is 3 millimeters in thickness and rated 3 years for durability indoors. The adhesive is a clear, water-based, removable adhesive. For designs with smaller details that require a transfer tape application, we use HT55 Tape, which is a high tack decorative film transfer tape specifically designed for 631 Vinyl.
Who is this Potti Mouth?
Switching to the first-person.
An amateur interior decorator, a professional graphic designer, and a woman with a roller derby alter ego walk into a bar... I'm not sure what the punchline is, but it resulted in PM Vinyls by Potti Mouth Designs.
I'm Kelly, the woman behind the vinyl. And this is the story of my business.
PM Vinyls was originally born from a desire for some custom decals. I walked into a friend's print shop looking for a quote and walked out with a vinyl plotter and nowhere to put it when I got home. It wasn't long before I realized that vinyl wall decals were the perfect marriage of my love for interior decorating and graphic design.
I got my feet wet in the decal business making silly car decals. You know the kind; baby on board, stick figure families, etc. That evolved into larger jobs cutting and installing business signage. These larger jobs allowed me to put away some money and in time, I was able to purchase vinyl stock and launch my indoor line on Etsy.
I opened my Etsy store in 2013, and from the birth of my indoor line in 2014 until 2016, I was able to run my store and do freelance graphic design full-time from home. When my youngest was about 6 months old, I was offered an amazing position as a graphic and web designer at a local marketing firm that I couldn't pass up, so I scaled way back on freelance and PM Vinyls production returned to evenings, where it still lives today. I often miss working from home in my pajamas with no makeup on but rest assured, I change into PJs before heading into my home office to cut orders.
Despite my busy schedule, I still find time to keep up on interior decorating trends. My personal style is Mid Century Modern, and you can see a lot of that reflected in my decal designs. But as my kids grow and develop their own styles, I find myself spending lots of time in the kids' decor isles of Target and finding inspiration in the whimsical designs and patterns.
You might be wondering where the silly business name originated. I spent my pre-mom life bartending, riding Harleys, and playing roller derby under the persona of Potti Mouth Patty. The decision to go back to school to become a graphic designer had a lot to do with wanting to be able to design flyers for my derby league. And that quote for custom decals that somehow resulted in my owning a vinyl plotter? That was for helmet decals for my teammates. So naturally, any business stemming from those circumstances had to pay homage to that part of my life. As an added twist, the "PM" also references night. Up until kids and a full-time job forced me to wake up before noon, I was a night owl. And those decals you ordered from me? Well, those will be cut after the kids go to bed.
