Sweet Jungle Dreams

For the past few months, right on waking up every morning, I’ve been wishing hard for a room with a view. It started just after I got back from South America, where I’d been sleeping in a gorgeous rooftop hammock under some insanely fragrant flowering vines (and a mosquito net, of course). By comparison, the blank walls of my new rental property are looking mega bland!

In light of all that, I’ve been vaguely in the market for some kind of custom wall covering for my sleeping quarters – something that can keep the feel of my trip alive in my imagination. I was picturing some big removable wall decals in the shape of giant leaves, or maybe a forest green wall hanging.

Well, yesterday I was idly searching the internet for home decor of this ilk when I stumbled on a concept I’d never heard of before: digital wallpaper printing. In Australia as I know it, wallpaper is not that common a sight. I’ve always a bit of a penchant for it, though – I love the way it takes up the whole surface of the wall with any given variety of loud pattern.

From what I was reading, it sounds like it’s possible for me to take one of my girlfriend’s incredible landscape photos from our trip (I have one in mind) and reproduce it in large format as a wall covering. The icing on the cake is that there’s a whole bunch of crazy materials that it can be printed on, including a self-adhesive one that’s removable and designed for DIY installation… which means there’s no reason I can’t get this all up in my rental. Booyah!

My mum will probably think it’s a bit over the top, but who cares? I’ve been looking at our photos with increasing regularity since we got back, because they stir up the same waves of freedom and adventure that I felt when I was where they were taken. I can’t think of a vista I’d rather wake up to every day, so plastering my walls with it makes perfect sense.