After moving 1100 miles from home, my wife had a space for her own home
office. I wanted to give her to have focal point in the room as well as bring a piece of our old home to our new home. Thus the inspiration of the wall map mural. Coming from Denver, CO, the downtown district can be iconic (if you have lived there for any length of time) and the proximity to points of interest are relatively close to each other. Here is a quick overview of what I did.

Step 1: Inspiration

Here is what I used to make this happen

Projector: I used the Cinego D-1000 by Texas instruments. I don't believe this is even made anymore and i got it at Radioshack at least 10 years ago. (ahhh the memories) It has an VGA input, so I had to get an HDMI to VGA adapter to make it work.

Tape: I used 3M safe release tape in two sizes .94" and 1.88" widths

Exact-o Knife

A stiff scraper with an old sock to really push the edges of the tape to the wall. This is to prevent bleeding along the edges.

For the maps I went to the website Snazzymaps.com. They let you edit the colors of Google maps. I used it to make sure that there was a clear, contrasting line so it would be easier for me to see the difference in the lines.

Paint from Lowe's (This was for my wife... so dealer's choice on the color, "purple hills" #1001-5B). A 3/8" nap roller and a paint edger.

Some helpers who are fascinated with helping you complete your project.

Step 2: Line Up the Wall and Tape Away

Line up your map on the wall. I wanted to be sure I got iconic places that help represent the city area... I had to move the projector back 20 feet away from the wall. The size of the map was perfect, but when the projector gets that far away, the lines defining the streets tend to get blurry. Take your time and have fun.

Coors Field, Mile High Stadium, Pepsi Center, Union Station to name a few. I will add these at a later time. I want the paint to really cure before adding tape on top of it.

...and let the taping begin.

I used the .94" tape for most of the streets. I used the wider tape to cover more surface area then carved out the streets, curves, and off ramps with an exact-o knife.

My wall is twelve foot wide by eight foot tall (including the crown molding and base molding)

Make sure your helpers are solid, because you can't do it alone!

Step 3: And Theeeeeeenn..

All you need to do is paint and peel. Make sure you get a good coat of paint on before your peel your tape off. This will equate to less touch ups later. Also make sure you are peeling off the tape while the paint is still wet. If you let it dry, you stand to peel the top color off.

As for the painting I used Valspar paint in a fancy purple color and a 9" 3/8 nap roller. I also used a fancy paint edger so i wouldn't get to much paint on the trim or the side walls.

I had a lot of fun doing this for my wife and she loves it. Now I am ready to conquer more murals using the art of tracing!

NO AND THEN!!!!!!!