My husband loves history and loves talking about different locations around the world and hence I thought it would be a good idea to display a map at a corner in my home. For the map, I had a specific wooden style in mind and wanted the map to match my Japandi/Scandinavian theme. I also wanted the map to be as accurate as possible. Luckily for me, I managed to find my desired wooden map online!
In this article, I will share with you the steps I took to ensure that my wooden map suits my home well and also stays attached to the wall at all times, without the need to use screws.
1. First, get your map from a reputable store online
To minimise the risk of getting a broken map or a less than desired map, you should get your map from a reputable store online. A safe way to do this is to get your wooden map from a store with a lot of good reviews that seem legitimate.
Where did I get my wooden map from? I got a map from this shop called Sikorka Maps on Etsy. Sikorka Maps is a company that is based in Poland. The reason why I got this particular map is because it clearly shows all the major lakes and rivers in the world. There were also plenty of reviews saying that the map I got was the most accurate one they found online.
I thought that the extra money spent (as compared to what I could have spent on a platform like Taobao) would be worth it due to the accuracy of the map. Scroll down to the end of this article to see my verdict of the map!
On a side note, my map took about 3-4 weeks to arrive, so do take note of this if you are thinking of getting a map from Sikorka Maps.
2. Decide on the best map size for your wall
Since the wooden map will cost a few hundred dollars, it is important to be very certain about the size of the map you want for your wall.
What size did I get?
The size of the map I got is 180cm in width, which is about ⅘ the width of my wall. I was dabbling between the 200cm width and 180cm width map and eventually decided on the 180cm width map because I was afraid that the 200cm would be too large. I am happy with my decision as the map turned out to be the exact size I wanted!
To have that nice big map effect, I definitely recommend you to get one that is at least 180cm width.
3. Choose the colour that best suits your home
There are 4 types of colours for you to choose from – Natural, Oak, Walnut, Rosewood. I chose the colour ‘Oak’ because it suits the colour scheme of my home best. I actually had a hard time choosing between ‘Natural’ and ‘Oak’ but i decided to go with oak in the end because I really like how the oak colour looks against a dark gray painted wall.
4. Get a good brand of adhesive tape
What brand of adhesive tapes should you get? To play safe, you should opt for the most trusted brands out there. The most famous brands when it comes to adhesive tapes are 3M and Gorilla Grip. If you have a bigger wooden map, get those tapes that are wider in size.
I made a terrible mistake of initially thinking that a cheaper adhesive tape should be fine. Needless to say, a cheap random tape AND not pasting the tape properly led to some of the map parts falling out and dropping on the floor. Hence, in order to not deal with such a time-wasting and money-wasting ordeal of needing to repaint the wall, buy more adhesive tape and putting the map back up again, do yourself a favour and get a trusted brand of adhesive tape.
5. Paste the adhesive stickers in the correct angle
How to NOT paste the adhesive tape on the map?
Image: How to not paste adhesive tape
I initially made a mistake when pasting the adhesive stickers. I did not know that there was a method to pasting the stickers such that they would hold the map stronger in place. When I first pasted the adhesive stickers on the map, I thought it was okay to paste the adhesive tape is all sorts of directions and hence, I pasted the tape in an irregular manner. A few days after I pasted the stickers, the largest part of the map (which is where the Asian, European and African continents are at) fell off the wall. The adhesive stickers attached to this part of the map also peeled off some of the paint from the wall. It was a really ugly sight (Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the wall to show you how ugly it looked).
What is the correct way to paste the adhesive stickers?
Image: The correct way to paste adhesive tape
After doing some research, I realised that there is actually a method to pasting adhesive stickers. You are supposed to paste the adhesive stickers vertically instead of horizontally or irregularly. The reason is because aligning vertically helps to even out the distribution of weight.
6. Take note of the height you want to paste the map
Image: Map in my study nook area
The height of the wooden should not be too low or too high. It should be just right. A good guage to know what is ‘just right’ is to place the bottom of the map just above the centre of the wall, just like how I did for the map in my home.
The reason for this placement is because doing so will ensure that the map is at eye level for most people.
7. Set aside 3-4 of time to focus on putting up the map
Do set aside about 3-4 hours to focus on properly putting up the wooden map. For my case, both me and my husband worked together to put up the map. It took us a good 3 hours to put the whole thing up. Here is a timelapse of us putting up the map (Unfortunately, the timelapse stopped halfway because my IPAD fell).
My Review Of My Wooden World Map
What is my verdict of my map?
I am in love with my wooden map due to many reasons. It matches my interior design theme, it helps one learn about the world better, and it has also been a great conversation starter. It has been a couple of months and my map has not fallen off the wall yet. I will update this again space after a year! The 3-4 hours of effort to put up the map also makes me appreciate the map a lot more.
Who should get the wooden map?
If you have 3-4 hours to spare, have a nice blank wall in your house and have an interior design theme that is Scandinavian, Japandi, Boho, Eclectic, Retro, Earthy, Minimalist, this wooden map will fit beautifully in your home. Even contemporary or mid century styles will be able to carry this wooden map well.
Who do I not recommend get this map?
If there is no blank wall in your home, and if you do not have a whole lot of patience to put up the map, this wooden map is not for you. Due to the texture on the wooden map, this map also does require a little bit of vacuuming now and then. Hence, if you want to minimise your home cleaning as much as possible, you should think twice before getting this map.
Also, if you want a 100% accurate map and you will get annoyed that the map is not 100% accurate, this wooden map is not for you. There are some countries (Singapore. Taiwan, Philippines, Antarctica) missing and certain parts have minor inaccuracies (eg for my wooden map, some countries are joint together when they should have been separated).