Now this was a fun job! Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School contacted us about doing a Wall of Wisdom in one of their new stairwells using different materials and different layers. The picture below shows what we came up with.
Our design had to cover over 30’ wide and almost 16’ tall. The printed pictures ended up 60” from point-to-point, the wooden pentagons were 48” point-to-point, and the green acrylic was 24” across.
We started with pictures from around the campus. These are the core of the design. They represent all areas of the school’s mission: Empowered by God’s Word, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School educates, encourages, and equips God’s people for life and for eternity. We decided to print those pictures on a special vinyl made for rough walls. Because of the laminate we used, the pictures look like they were painted on the walls. This is a very cool look. This also gave us our first layer. The second layer are 48” wooden panels with sayings of wisdom engraved into the face of the panels. We used a process of back filling the engraved words with black paint. A very elegant look. The third and final layer was random green acrylic pentagons fastened to the wall on 1” standoffs. We used two different colors to add to the random look.
The installation took two men and about 16’ of scaffolding. We started by installing the vinyl prints directly to the rough concrete block. We used both a heat gun and a foam roller to cause the vinyl to stretch and adhere to the mortar lines and the concrete block.
The wooden panels are attached with 6 studs that are drilled into the brick wall and attached with construction adhesive. These panels are installed to stay in place for a very long time. We also used two-sided adhesive tape around the outer edge of the panels to make sure that the panels stayed put.
The acrylic panels went up with ½” screws drilled into anchors. The standoffs are a brushed nickel finish and hold the panels about ¾” off the wall.
This job took about 3 days to completely install but the final look was well worth it. If you have a custom design or are thinking that you might like to do something like this, please give Optimum Signs a call at 262.289.9481 or email us at info@optimumsignswi.com.
