Patent Application
20070065618
Throughout history, humans have sought to enhance the aesthetics of their surroundings by the use of decorative items. Such items have included such diverse elements as wall paintings, tiles, tapestries and two-dimensional art, to name a few. In many instances, such decorative elements become a relatively permanent part of the environment in which they are placed, remaining on display for years on end. In contrast to these long-term decorations, some decorative items are intended to be of a more transient nature.
Surfaces of these surroundings may be formed with or have applied thereto a variety of different inlays or coverings and the like. For example, horizontal floor surfaces may be formed by decorative mosaic tiles or may be covered with rugs of varied colors and patterns. Ceiling surfaces are known to be painted, and it is known that ceilings can be painted with elaborate artwork. Vertical wall surfaces may be covered with paint, wallpaper and the like, and artwork may be hung from such vertical surfaces. Vertical surfaces may also be decorated by cloth hangings, such as tapestries or other cloth materials. Junctions between vertical and horizontal surfaces are sometimes decorated with elaborate moldings, and objects of art may be placed throughout the volume created to further enhance the environment.
Temporary decorations, on the other hand, are desirable in order that the decorative theme be readily changed. For example, the decorations in a child's room may be changed as the child matures and has rapidly changing interests. Another example is the changing of decorative themes for holidays and festive occasions.
Placing temporary decorations on the vertical walls of a room, though, is heretofore not without its disadvantages. Since the weight of the decorative panel must be supported by the vertical surface, such panels are often adhered to the walls by tape, more permanent adhesives or suspension hangers. Where tape is used, its presence can detract from the aesthetic appearance if exposed. In any event, removal of the adhesive material often damages the wall or the paint thereon. Suspension hangers, on the other hand, require attachment of a mechanism to the wall either by nails, screws, adhesives or other attachment means. This again perfectly damages the wall surface requiring repair.
In an effort to avoid this problem, some tacky adhesives have been developed in the form of putty-like materials, but such material tend to harden and lose their adhesiveness over a period of time. In addition, these putty-like materials sometimes lack the adhesive strength to support all but the lightest of articles. After time, these materials may react with coatings on the surface so that their removal may damage the wall surface.
Accordingly, there is a need for articles of manufacture that can secure to vertical wall surfaces, ceilings, floors, doors, windows and the like in order to provide decoration therefor and which articles may be easily rearranged, interchanged and/or replaced. There is yet another need for such articles to be of such nature as to not damage the wall surface in any way upon removal. There is a further need for kits employing such articles either to allow a “do-it-yourselfer” or to allow children to interact with the decoration of their surroundings. There is still a further need for improved methods of decorating wall surfaces.
According to one aspect of the present invention, new and useful articles or manufacture are provided which can be used to decorate vertical wall surfaces.
According to another aspect of the present invention, decorative articles are provided which are easily arranged, interchanged, and/or replaced.
It is another aspect of the embodiments of this invention to provide decorative articles that can mount on a vertical wall surface without damaging that wall surface upon removal.
An aspect of some of the disposed embodiments is the provision of a kit which can be used to create a correlated decorative theme for a living space.
Still a further aspect of some of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide articles that may be modified by the user in order to decorate his/her surroundings.
A still further aspect of this disclosure is to provide improved methods of decorating wall surfaces.
Decorative articles according to the present invention are adapted to be placed on a support surface. In their broad form, the decorative articles in some exemplary embodiments include a front sheet formed of a first material. A layer of tacky material is secured to the front sheet thereby to create a decorative panel. This decorative panel has a peripheral edge shaped to convey an outline of a selective decorative image to an observer. The front sheet thus has an exposed surface that includes graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the decorative image formed by the outline of the decorative panel. The tacky material is selected so as to have sufficient adhering capability to support the weight of the decorative panel when the decorative panel is placed on a vertically disposed support surface yet not damage the wall coating upon removal. A backing sheet may be provided with this backing sheet removably secured to the layer of tacky material on a side thereof opposite the front sheet.
The tacky material used in these embodiments may be a thermal plastic elastomer such as a micropore copolymer. The front sheet should accept graphics printed by an ink printing process and may be selected from a group consisting of flocking, woven fabric, vinyl and paper. The backing sheet may be selected from a group consisting of paper and plastic.
In several embodiments, the graphics are such that at least one or more graphic elements appears as an extension of the outline of the decorative panel onto the exposed surface of the front sheet. The decorative image may be selected from a group consisting of real animals, imaginary animals, cartoon characters, logos, celestial bodies and symbols.
The disclosed embodiments of the present invention may also be used to form a kit adapted for use in decorating surfaces. Here, a plurality of separate decorative panels are each correlated to a selected common decorative theme. Each of the decorative panels includes a front sheet formed of a first material and a layer of tacky material secured to the front sheet. At least one of the decorative panels has a peripheral edge shaped to convey to an observer an outline of a selected decorative image corresponding to the common decorative theme with graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the decorative image formed by the outline of the decorative panel. Moreover, at least some of the decorative panels in the kit include graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the common decorative theme. Again, the tacky material has sufficient adhering capability to support the weight of the decorative panel when the decorative panel was placed on a vertically disposed support surface.
In this kit, a plurality of the decorative panels can each have a peripheral edge shaped to convey to an observer an outline of a selected decorative image corresponding to the common decorative theme and each has graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the decorative image formed by the outline of the respective decorative panel. It is contemplated that all of the decorative panels can include graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the common decorative theme.
In the kit embodiment, the tacky material may again be a thermoplastic elastomer such as a micropore polymer. The front sheet can again be flocking, woven fabric, vinyl and paper. Moreover, at least one of the decorative panels includes one graphic element that appears as an extension of the outline of the decorative panel on the exposed surface of the respective front sheet. The decorative images again can be selected from a group consisting of real animals, imaginary animals, cartoon characters, logos, celestial bodies and symbols.
In another embodiment, a kit is provided wherein a plurality of separate decorative panels are provided. Here, each of the decorative panels includes a front sheet formed of a first material with the front sheet of each decorative panel having graphics disposed thereon that are operative to convey boundaries of portions of a respective decorative image to an observer with exposed areas demarked by the boundaries. A layer of tacky material is secured to the front sheet. This kit then includes a plurality of markers of different colors. Each of these markers include a colored substance capable of being applied to the front sheets within the exposed areas so that a user may selectively color the exposed areas with such colored substances thereby to complete the respective decorative image. A container is then provided that is sized and adapted to receive the plurality of decorative panels and the plurality of markers.
The embodiments of the present invention contemplate a method of decorating a room having a wall with a wall surface. This method can employ any of the steps inherent in the described embodiments. In this broad form, the method includes the step of providing a plurality of separate decorative panels each correlated to a selected common decorative theme. Here, again, the decorative panels each include a front sheet formed of a first material and a layer of tacky material secured to the front sheet. At least one of the decorative panels has a peripheral edge shaped to convey to an observer and outline of a selected decorative image corresponding to a common decorative theme. Graphics are disposed on such decorative panel with the graphics correlated to the decorative image formed by the outline of the decorative panel. At least some of the decorative panels can include graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the common decorative theme. The tacky material can again be selected to have sufficient adhering capability to support the weight of the respective decorative panel when the decorative panel is placed on the wall yet which is releasable from the wall without damaging the wall surface. The method then includes the step of adhering the decorative panels onto the wall by means of the tacky material thereby to cover selected areas of the wall.
These and other aspect of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention will become more readily appreciated and understood from a consideration of the following detailed description taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention broadly relates to decorative articles, kits and methods that may be used to decorate a surface in an easy, convenient manner. Such decorative articles can take a variety of forms and can either be completely finished and “ready to use” or can optionally involve artistic input from the user. In any event, the decorative articles according to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, as well as the method and kit incorporating the same, involve the use of decorative panels which are self adhering to most surfaces but which can be readily removed without damage to such surface.
In order to introduce the decorative articles, methods and kits according to the present invention,
Solar system 20 is formed by a “sun” panel 22 an earth panel 23 a “Jupiter” panel 24 a “Saturn” panel 25 and additional panels 26 representing the remaining planets of the solar system. Border panel 30, on the other hand, is an elongated strip disposed on wall surface 10 parallel and proximate to ceiling 16. Border panel 30 has graphics thereon that is here illustrated as enlarged stars 32 and comet images 33. Accordingly, the decorative images in the form of stars 32 and comets 33 are correlated to the decorative theme of the solar system 20. Poster 36, on the other hand, is a rectangular panel that may have, for example, the decorative image of a musical performer 38 illustrated thereon. It should be understood, however, that the exact nature of the decorative theme and the decorative images provided by the decorative articles is virtually unlimited.
In order to understand, in part, the structure of a representative exemplary embodiment of a decorative article according to the present invention, Saturn panel 25 is illustrated in greater detail in
With reference specifically to
In this construction, it should be understood that the composition of the layer of tacky material 64 should be sufficient to support the weight of the decorative panel when placed on a vertical wall surface without detachment, but it should also be of a composition that will not damage paint, wallpaper or other surface coating of the wall surface when removed. Tacky material 64 may be any convenient thermal plastic elastomer, such as a micropore copolymer. Such micropore copolymores utilize surface tension technology and are of the type such as available from Haartz Corporation of Acton, Mass.
Front sheet 62 can be any suitable material to which the tacky layer may be bonded, such as a flocking, woven cloth or fabric, vinyl, or paper. Typically, the tacky layer 64 is mechanically bonded to the front sheet 62 by means of heat and pressure, as is known in the art. Due to temperature considerations, front sheet 62 should be able to withstand the heat (approximately 350° F.). The graphics may be applied to a formed article after assembly of the front sheet 62, tacky layer 64 and backing sheet 70. Since the graphics are applied to the front sheet, its composition should be such as to accept conventional ink printing processes, such as screen printing or digital printing. Taken into account with the need to withstand high temperatures, one especially suitable material is woven polyester. Backing sheet 70 may be selected from a group of paper and plastic. When constructed, the outline or peripheral margin of the decorative images may be die cut or platter cut, depending on selected manufacturing techniques.
A second exemplary embodiment of a decorative article is illustrated in
Likewise, a third exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
Turning now to
With reference to the foregoing, it should be appreciated that the decorative article according to the present invention can have almost an unlimited variety of decorative images. For example, the decorative image can be selected from a group consisting of real animals, imaginary animals, cartoon and fictional characters, logos (such as college or professional sports teams), celestial bodies and symbols. By the word “symbols” it is meant that any notation that conveys an idea such as numbers, letters and words (in any language), mathematical notations, punctuation marks, musical notes, musical symbols (such as musical clefts), and the like are encompassed by the term.
Moreover, with reference to
With continued reference again to
Turning now to
It is contemplated, then, that a user, such as a child, may apply a coloring agent, such as paint, crayon and the like, to the exposed front sheet of the decorative article to color in these exposed areas 150-156, as desired. The user may then, if desired, may apply the decorative panel 120 directly to the wall or, optionally, cut out the shape of the peripheral edge to remove the boundary areas 126 prior to application of the image to the wall. In the later case, once cut, portions of the graphics are correlated to and form an extension of the peripheral edge in the manner of that described with respect to
As is illustrated in
From the foregoing, it should also understood that the exemplary embodiments discussed herein contemplate a method of decorating a room that has a wall with a wall surface. Here, the method can include any step inherent in the exemplary embodiments. Broadly, the method includes a first step of providing a plurality of separate decorative panels each correlated to a selected common decorative theme wherein each of the decorative panels includes a front sheet formed of a first material and a layer of tacky material secured to the front sheet. According to this method, at least one of the decorative panels has a peripheral edge shaped to convey to an observer an outline of a selective decorative image corresponding to the common decorative theme with graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the decorative image formed by the outline of the decorative panel. At least some of the decorative panels, according to this method, include graphics disposed thereon that are correlated to the common decorative theme. The tacky material for such panels is selected to have sufficient adhering capability to support the weight of the respective decorative panel when the decorative panel is placed on the wall yet which is releasable from the wall without damaging the wall surface. The method then includes the steps of adhering the decorative panels onto the wall by means of the tacky material thereby to cover selected wall areas.
Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described with some degree of particularity. It should be appreciated, though, that the modifications or changes may be made to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention without departing from the inventive concepts contained herein.
