I recently got a MacBook Air. Julie has one too, so we’re constantly mistaking hers for mine and vice versa. This seemed like a natural opportunity to stick a decal or ‘skin’ on our laptops to tell them apart.
I’ve never really been a guy who puts stickers on, well, anything. I’ve never had them on my car or binders in high school and never on a laptop, either. There’s nothing wrong with them–I’ve just never had the impulse.
I wanted to make a custom skin from a photo I’d taken. So I spent a while trolling through my Flickr account and settled on this one (click for bigosity):
I wrote about taking that shot–it’s from Malta. So, too, is the photo on Julie’s laptop.
More or less at random, I chose Unique Skins, and placed an order. It costs $20 per skin, which seemed pretty reasonable to me. The skin arrived last week, and here it is on my laptop:
I’m pretty happy with that result. That photo doesn’t really do the colours justice, but they feel quite true to my original capture.
I asked around on Twitter, and a couple of people recommended Gelaskins as an alternative, Canadian vendor of custom skins.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
very, very pretty
Air and I also have identical MacBooks (really identical — same model, same year, same colour), but mine is more beat up from heavy use, and I have one tiny sticker on the edge to keep part of the plastic trim from peeling up. That’s the main way we can tell them apart.
Very nice skin though. I’ve never been inclined to skin or besticker my computers either, although I’ve entirely coated the cases for one of my guitars and my snare drum with stickers. Somehow it seems more appropriate for rock ‘n’ roll gear.
@derek: Guess what you sticker depends on what instrument you’re best at — for me, it’s definitely the keyboard. 🙂
I’ve recommended Gelaskins, even before I knew they were Canadian. I had a Gelaskin on my Macbook by Nanami Cowdroy – specifically “Ink Pond” ( https://www.gelaskins.com/image.php?ImageID=121 ).
Unfortunately, it didn’t protect the laptop from an errant jar of pickles. I’ll likely pick up a new one when I get my replacement next month.
Wow that actually looks really good! When I first read your post I thought it would look horrible…. but I am pleasantly surprised.