Sunday, September 28, 2008

Humans 2, Wallpaper 0

While my parents were here, we took down the wallpaper in the nursery and guest bathroom and repainted both rooms. They look so much nicer! We also have paint for the guest room (aka Eric's room) but haven't had time to repaint that yet.

Dave's computer room/2nd guest room, soon to be nursery
Before



A closeup of the wallpaper border:


Now, especially as far as this house is concerned, this was not awful wallpaper. But it was kind of dreary and outdated, and the height at which they had it hung made the ceiling feel lower. We were surprised at how airy & bright the room felt without it and with a new coat of paint.



Mom, Dad & I cleaned off the copious glue that remained after the border came down, then Dad & Dave repainted it with a Behr version of Sherwin-Williams' Rhythmic Blue.



Dave's computer room/2nd guest room, soon to be nursery
After


That's Dave's childhood stuffed dog Georgie and a new elephant acquisition waiting for the baby. The guest bed & Dave's computer stuff are staying in the room until closer to the baby's due date and after the carpet gets replaced. We are hoping to have a new valance and maybe curtains for the window made from the striped fabric I posted a link to earlier.

Guest bathroom
Before



A closeup of the outdated, flowery wallpaper shortly after beginning tear-down. The wallpaper ended up being a real pain to remove, but ripping off the top layer in shreds was therapeutic!


Wallpaper removal in progress. The top layer wasn't that hard to remove, but it sometimes came off in small sections. To take down the brown papery underlayer, we had to spray it with a vinegar/water/detergent mixture and scrape with a putty knife, then clean the walls with TSP.


Dad & I had a lot of spackling to do. There was just no way to get the wallpaper off without making a lot of dents, but luckily, most were pretty shallow & easy to cover up. I still say that even this state was an improvement over the wallpaper!


Dad repainted in Behr's White Clay & we got a new towel rod, door handles and a Nautica shower curtain to bring in a little more color. It is a small room, so it's hard to get good pictures of it.

Guest Bathroom
After


Look at how clean & wallpaper-free the walls are! Isn't it beautiful?

3 comments:

Neilam said...

Very nice! The nursery does look a lot more open now without the dark strip & wallpaper border pushing down on the room.

Beth said...

yay! less wall paper is a good thing. Did you get to the stuff in the main areas of the house? I know that stuff was your "favorite."

Also, why am I not surprised that the baby has a blue room! You and your love of blue - I always think of you in a blue room. :)

erin said...

You guys were super busy! It looks wonderful and has to be such a relief!