on not wallpapering

I am, I have to admit, terrified of wallpaper. It all stems from our second house and trying to rip what I thought was one layer out of the room that would become Evie's. It was not one layer. Or two. Or three. It went on and on and never really, even with all the tricks, sprays, tools and scraping, came off entirely. I vowed, somewhere amidst pulling tiny shredded bits of paper off that wall for hours on end, that I would never, NEVER hang wallpaper in my house. If not for me then for the sake of some poor woman fifty years from now who just wants to paint her daughter's rooma nice calming shade of minty green. It wasn't a hard vow to keep since I didn't like wallpaper anyway.

Except then I did start liking wallpaper. It's Orla Keily's fault. I'm a sucker for anything she makes and I have been for years. Including her wallpaper. Especailly her wallpaper.

But once I became a wallpaper fan I realized that the wallpaper I like tends to be of the $100 per small roll variety (of course) and that does not sit well on a tight, diy renovation budget.


A few years ago I solved both my wallpapering problems by wallpapering a 4x4 panel and hanging it on the wall. I can buy (or get as a Christmas gift!) one little roll of ridiculously expensive wallpaper and hang it on my wall without, you know, hanging it on my wall. IT worked brilliantly and we've loved having that giant Orla wall hanging since. But it wasn't quite right in our current living room. Not the right colors, not the right size. A big room needed a bigger panel.

Will and I puttered around on Pinterest until we found this funky, mid century modernish wallpaper and sent away to England for a single roll. Will built a new 4x8 panel and I spent yesterday wallpapering that. It's not technically "hung up" yet. Just leaning against the wall. We are mid drywall and paint on that wall so I don't want to put a nail into the wall until it's done but already I like the added color, and the fact that it goes all the way down. And the fact that I did not have to wallpaper the wall. Not that that's entirely out of the question. Because there is this cool paper I found for the book nook, empty frames for the kids to decorate....which would be fun...if I can bring myself to do it.