Surfing home design sites and blogs has introduced me to dozens of cool ideas and products, most of which I can’t afford. I was delighted to discover these wall decals by blik. They are easy to put up, come in every color, and are far enough removed from college dorm décor to purchase. I bought two orders of the cute seagull design in the Re-Stick variety to dress up a boring (and ugly) wall in the kitchen. About a week after I placed the order my seagulls arrived and I immediately went to work. My first mistake is that I failed to read the directions. In fact, even when I got stuck (pardon the pun) I didn’t even bother to dig them out of the trash! Don’t get me wrong—there isn’t much to this project—I should have checked to see if there was some kind of guidance for those of us lacking decal-mounting talent or artistic ability. After placing my birdies on the wall, I’d stand back to discover they looked completely unnatural. Okay, I know what you are thinking: They are red pieces of vinyl; how natural can they possibly look? What I mean is that my representation didn’t resemble any kind of seagull flight pattern I had ever seen. After my second or third unsuccessful attempt, I stood there for what seemed like an hour racking my brain for any recollection of birds in flight. Sure they all fly together, but does the troupe pair off? Travel in mini-groups of three? Overanalyzing took a toll on my decals. Dust, dirt and cobwebs quickly collected on the backs of my poor, itinerant birds, making them a lot less sticky. Here’s my tip: wipe the wall with a dry cloth before you go to work. After I was satisfied (read: exhausted) with their positioning, I called it a night. The next morning I woke up and studied my handiwork and decided that the birds called attention to my unflattering wall instead of camouflaging it. Apologizing to my flock, I peeled them off the wall one last time and hastily stuck them onto my fridge.