I think it’s so interesting how trends cycle in and out. We all remember the wallpaper in our grandmother’s home and I certainly remember my parents wallpapering our kitchen in the 80s. And then wallpaper was OUT. Like super out, will not be caught dead with wallpaper in the house, out. But today’s design trends, wallpaper is all the rage. So what perfect timing than now to try it out in our new home!
Now, I don’t know whether wallpaper had as many options as it does today and certainly the price points today would have made my grandmother faint. You can go old-school with water and paste, or, the newly popular peel and stick and removable wallpaper.
I will tell you, when you watch the videos on Youtube, putting up wallpaper does not look that hard. HA HA HA Joke was on me! I attempted to put up water and paste paper in our small powder room and it was horrible and a complete waste of materials! This was one of the first projects I was attempting to DIY in our new house. John was completely against it and said I was on my own. I’ll show him, I thought. Yeah, wrong. After about two hours, I was no closer to hanging two sheets of paper than I was before I started. It is definitely a trade skill that should be left to professionals. The crazy thing is, not many people hang wallpaper anymore and the ones that know how, rarely want to do it (because it stinks)! Like for real, I had to call so many people to get someone to come to hang it up in the powder room.
Ah, the powder room. It was quite a sight! The vanity was the biggest offense with its green marble top, white shell-shaped sink, and black faucet. It was then accessorized with a huge ornate gold mirror and some sconces that… well… just weren’t my style…
So naturally, the first thing that had to go was, everything! But really, this powder room is located off the main hall in the house and totally visible when you first walk in so it was definitely needing to be updated! As with most projects, I started with Pinterest to get inspired.
Bonus Content!
So the vanity section of the bathroom was completed before John ever moved into the house (the real first project). But this vanity area is part of a full-bath situation. When the contractor was here to do the laundry room I was also able to squeeze in one more tiny tile project in the other part of the bath 🙂 (so sneaky)
Before:
After:
Wallpapering Part II
Now that I am rehashing all these updates, I realize that I have kind of forgotten ALL the things I did, and so soon after moving in. I guess my husband was right on how I wasted no time!
I believe it was because we were hosting our very first neighborhood supper club that I had to have the powder bath and our master bedroom complete before the party. Anyways, so the Christmas prior to buying our house, my mom had gotten me a beautiful Serena & Lily duvet that I had asked for. But for whatever reason, I had not gotten around to putting it on my bed. Then we moved into our new house and it became the centerpiece for my design inspiration. What I love about Serena & Lily is that they also carry matching wallpaper for many of their designed fabrics. I cannot take credit for this idea as I saw this in their magazine, but once I laid eyes on the design I knew there was no other option!
Our bedroom was already painted a pretty shade of blue so our duvet looked pretty in there already. But when I decided to create an accent wall with the matching wallpaper, I decided to color match the other three walls to the exact shade of blue. This was actually really easy – I just took a sample of the paper to Home Depot and did the color match and it worked out perfectly. Now, the quality and craftsmanship of this paper are nothing like what I put in the powder room. This is hand-painted in England, and thus the cost per roll was a reflection of that. Luckily, I am the eBay queen and was able to get two rolls at half price! But I also knew there was no way that I was going to hang this myself and basically begged my contractor to put it up for me (after that was when he said ‘no thanks’ to doing the bathroom, ha!).
Now, should I ever get sick of this pattern (because that was my mom’s first question during the design phase), I can always switch to a solid white duvet. If [or when] wallpaper goes out of style… well… I will just worry about that when the time comes 🙂
You may have also noticed that the trim in our house is not white, because it shows up especially against that white paper. This kills me. Literally kills me that our whole house trim was done in bone white and over the years I feel like it’s starting to yellow. I didn’t really notice that when we looked at the house because it was mostly empty and there wasn’t anything really white budding up next to the trim. I realllllly want to repaint it but the quote I got was completely insane. The biggest issue is that all the plantation shutters would have to be painted too. So that’s a project for another day… or when we win the lottery! lol
I try to include links for most of the things I share on here. When decorating I try to mix high-end and lower-end materials or pieces. For example, the wallpaper in my bedroom was very expensive (at least for me) but it is also in the room I spend the most time in. The mosaic tile I selected for the powder room was also a little pricier, but remember I found my shower curtain from Walmart? I try to spend more on the rooms that get the most use or on something that has a lot of function and less on things that just aesthetics or extra (I can already hear my mom and best friends getting on me about this statement… I said, I try!).
Eek, I am also most caught up to talk about real-time house projects!
