For the last two weeks, I have been transforming kitchens, both previously hidden by hideous wallpaper, circa 1992-ish. I think I mentioned the first job. The baby blue flowers on white with dusty pink hearts was an exhilarating joy to pull off. It came off in sheets, so it was fast and easy. Just like I like it.
I've since moved on to my next victim. This particular wallpaper was put on a bit more professionally, in a truly custom home, so my guess is they used the right glue and wanted it to stay on. And then subsequent homeowners tired of the dusty pink with southwesty green brush strokes. People are so fickle, aren't they? They first painted over the wallpaper with a Pepto Bismoly pink. And then something we're calling "custom-mix mauve." Oh, the horror of it all. Painted Groove to the rescue.
Here's a picture of how the wallpaper started lifting off. This is why the husband agreed to let me come in to do my magic. 
Let's just say that this removal job is more like cleaning teeth than it is creating a beautiful custom finish with all my incredible talents. I told Lavenderchick I feel like a dental hygienist. She was kind of jealous, being a picker and all.
I'm actually working up a sweat getting off some of the paper, along with two or six coats of paint. It's really tedious but for some reason I totally dig this kind of thing. The transformation is going to be spectacular. This is how the walls are going to look when they're finished. This photo is from the powder room nearby. The basecoat will be the same, SW Nomadic Desert, but I plan to skip the metallic glaze in the kitchen.
5 comments:
Okay...so you do fabulous work - there is NO doubt about that. Do you know how to stain concrete floors, or anyone that does? Mac and I are wanting to pull up our carpet and do it, but we're a wee bit scared. Help us, S!!!!
It would be worth a vacation day from work to peel wall paper! Oh how I love to pick and peel... Could do it for hours.
Can you imagine how much fun we would have spending a day together peeling wallpaper! It makes me laugh just thinking of it...
T, Lavenderchick just revealed to me that I actually know boyz3mommy. So anyway, I do have some information on stained concrete. Email me your address and I'll send it to you. I don't have it on emailable form anymore I don't think.
macandtina@yahoo.com
how easy and cheesy is that? :)
LOVE your blog, love your WORK (play?)! Too bad for you I'm out of state, and out of funds, siphoned away by calls to Keen (don't ask) and the final stages of an 8 year make over on a turn-of-the-century house. Just had to vote - these bathroom walls are BEAUTIFUL! Subtle and elegant, rich, dramatic but soft and calming, and unlike so many faux treatments (even by the priciest pros), does not shout SPONGE PAINTING! DABS of COLOR!
I want to be in rooms this beautiful.
Love your furniture too. 'Go Bucks' is brilliant!
Thanks for the Max Lucado title. Could it work as much magic without a retreat? I would like to give my husband this book, but am afraid it's not a book to give a man, even though he needs to find the next (totally different, more fun, creative, and rewarding) phase of his working life. But if you say 'common life' to a man, he might feel like a failure, so much of their identity stems from their careers.
Thanks for all of the inspiration here! I go forth renewed to try for the 3rd time to white wash/sponge blue bathroom walls to look the way it feels when you hang laundry outside on a windswept morning in May...milky sun, watery sky, wet arms, and the smell of soap...
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