a really long story about stenciling and wallpaper

22 July 2015

 Here is the long, drawn out story on the upstairs bathroom:
 
bathroom with wallpaper
 
I wanted a fun, graphic design on the wall and I have wanted to stencil for a long time. Stenciling is by far the most economical bang for your buck on an accent wall.
I bought the stencil, I bought the paint, watched some how-to videos and was excited to begin.


Soooo, even after lots of practice on poster boards, this is what my stencil looked like:
stencil 320 sycamore
 
You know how you try something and realize that it’s not for you? I knew the bleeding lines would drive me crazy and that it would me a REALLY long time to get it right and I would go bonkers. And probably have to go over it again and again to love it. So, I listened to myself and painted over it and looked at other options.
 
I had seen some wallpapers that I loved, but they were so expensive! After lots of sifting through ugly wallpaper samples online, I found one that I loved and was not too pricey and I honestly just chose this company because they are in Utah and I thought shipping would be faster.
 
I measured, did the estimate how much you’ll need calculator thing and it said that I would only need a double roll. $68 was do-able! But then they add in a handling fee, and shipping and it was more like $85. Still, not too bad for a fun statement in a room. Plus, it said it was pre-pasted, and I had used the pre-pasted beadboard wallpaper many times before and (kind of) knew what I was doing.
 
The roll came in the mail, it was exactly what I had hoped for, except I brought the instructions out and it was telling me how to apply wallpaper paste. Whaaaat? It was supposed to be pre-pasted….I called the company, asked them and they said it was an error, it was NOT pre-pasted and apologized, no discount though sorry and they were going to change it on the website.
 
I had to put it off for a few days because you know what a feat it is in the summer with all of the kids home to make a trip to the hardware store for wallpaper paste!! I got the paste ($15, this is adding up) but then I found a bunch of bushes and plants on a crazy good discount, but they needed to be planted right away, so that took a few more days.
 
I began, and found that pasting wallpaper is not hard, and it was going up beautifully, I was excited…until I ran out with about 8 inches left from the edge!!! Nooooooooooooooo! I was so mad that I didn’t even take a picture, but all of my guests can attest that it was unfinished.
 
wallpaper large lattice carey lind
 
I had so wanted to finish before school got out. I ordered ANOTHER roll ($85 because I had to pay shipping & handling again) and THEN it was June and probably the busiest month of my life. My family came and we played, we had a temple cultural celebration (I work with the young women in our church -- best job ever), ran a half marathon that my sisters talked me into, went on trek with our youth church group in Wyoming (we recreate journeys that our pioneer ancestors took) hiked a mountain for girl’s camp, then my husband’s family came for our family reunion, and it was just non-stop.
 
The second roll of wallpaper came and sat in my room for a month, things calmed down, and then I finally took an afternoon to tackle it. I rolled it out and noticed it was different -- it seemed thicker. The packaging was a little different and I read these directions and realized this one was pre-pasted!! What . the . hey?? I don’t even know. Maybe they used to be pre-pasted and now they’re not, or vice versa? I look on other sites and they say pre-pasted, I don’t know. I really don’t, and I don’t have the energy to care or find out. I put it up, the pre-pasted was easier, and glory hallelujah the pattern and color were exactly the same.
 
Moral of the story: call and check before you order. Are you sure it’s pre-pasted?? While they’re on the phone, make sure you have calculated correctly and have enough. Don’t stencil.  I have some if you want to try it out first! DIY is not all it’s cracked up to be sometimes. But look at what we learned. Pah!
 
Tomorrow I’ll show you how to wallpaper with wallpaper paste, but we had to get the story out of the way first, right??
 
Happy Wednesday~
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