Paper & Walls

Have you noticed all of the wallpaper being featured in design blogs & magazines lately? I just can't get enough of all of the big modern prints that are popping up everywhere, it surly ain't your granma's wallpaper.

When we bought this house a year ago, it was COVERED in wallpaper. Some might have called it "vintage" since it was 40 some years old. I called it, well, gross. It took me weeks (ok, maybe an exaggeration) to score , steam and scrape clean the paper & glue that had fossilized onto the walls.

Here's what the original wallpaper looked like in the kitchen and in the basement stairwell:

Horrific, no? Luckily I didn't have to waste too much water steaming it off, after the 6th hour of peeling, I just used the tears that ran down my sweaty face.

After I recovered from my wallpaper induced PTSD, not only did I slowly learn to love wallpaper, but I also took the plunge! Well sorta, ok, ok, maybe it was just a the inside of a built in cabinet and not an entire wall and maybe just a lampshade or two, but hey...it's a start!

So, the first wallpaper project involved the dining room built-in. The white cabinet in the corner of two gray walls needed a little "pop". The living room in our house is yellow so lining the inside of the built-in with a yellow wallpaper would be an easy way to tie the rooms together.

Before:

After:

One of the things I learned from my dive into the world of wallpaper is that you can't just buy one roll. You have to buy two at minimum. When I was finished with the built in, I still had just about a full roll of this stuff. Knowing that there was no way the husband was going to let me put wallpaper on the, heaven forbid, wall, I had another idea...

The breakfast bar needed two pendants above it to separate the space between the dining room and kitchen. Of course we couldn't find a fixture that both matched the kitchen hardware and wasn't stupid expensive. Finally, I just went to Target and bought 2 lamps with drum shades and sent the husband to Lowes to pick up a pendent light kit. I cut the paper to size and used removable (in case I screwed it up) adhesive to attach it to the shade.

Here's what the breakfast bar looked like before we hung the pendants:

And here is the result:

If you're looking to get some fun ideas about how to use wallpaper but don't have the stomach to commit to a whole wall, check out Wallpaper Projects from The Curiosity Shoppe.

DIY Magazine & DIYideas.com also has loads of fun ideas and inspiration.

I bought the black & white wallpaper in the picture above, I really had no reason to buy it except for think it sure was purty, but when an idea strikes, I'll be ready!

What DIY touches have made your house a home?