A Confluence of Thoughts: Finishing details

It’s been two years since we updated the downstairs bedroom…

…and well over one year since I stripped the border wallpaper print from one section of the adjoining bath. I would strip all of the wallpaper off but I swear the person who hung it used super glue for the adhesive. It’s not that it’s just tough and time-consuming to remove, it’s almost impossible to remove without stripping off pieces of the wallboard. I’ve tried the paste remover from Home Depot; I’ve tried using a steamer; I’ve used that goofy scoring tool to ensure the hot water/remover gets under the paper…none of it worked very well. The paper actually came off in 2-inch pieces. It was awful. So after working for well over three hours to remove 16 feet of border and paste, we decided to just paste a new border over the old one in the other section of the bathroom. Here’s what the old border looks like…just slightly dated.

Shortly after removing the border, I headed to Home Depot to pick up a border print that we’d looked at before. It wasn’t until I got home and was ready to hang it, that I discovered the new border was 9-inches deep not 7-inches like I needed. So, that wallpaper went back to the store. Since I didn’t find anything else I liked, I decided to look elsewhere. Jump ahead 1+ years to yesterday. Randy and I were talking about some small remodeling projects we wanted to finish up before his folks arrive next week. At the top of my list was getting that border wallpaper hung. Since Home Depot no longer carries wallpaper in the store and we didn’t want to wait for an order, we headed to Lowes. We found a border that had the right colors and with a print that would complement the bedroom’s warm tropical theme. But best of all, we discovered Lowes is closing out its wallpaper stock. As we gathered our supply, we noticed the sign…border prints were $1…per roll. If you’ve ever priced wallpaper, you know how cheap that it. So for three bucks, we got what we needed; it cost us more to drive there. After verifying the colors would work in the room, we started gathering supplies…that’s when we suddenly noticed Charli was no where to be found. Randy was sure she’d come in the house when we got home. I went out on the back deck and called to her…no answer. So, I walked downstairs but she wasn’t there. I headed back into our bedroom but she wasn’t back there sleeping either. As I got to the kitchen, Randy opened the door to the garage and … Charli came bounding in. She’d evidently followed me back out at some point and I hadn’t realized it. Randy said she was sitting patiently on the step waiting for someone to let her in. She’s such a goofball sometimes! Anyway, here are some pictures from the hanging project. Since we only needed 16-ft of border for this little room, it went pretty fast.

We learned early on in our wallpaper-hanging days, that it’s sometimes better to cut when you get to the corner and start a new strip from there. Otherwise, as it dries and shrinks, the paper has a tendency to pull away from the wall leaving a little gap in the corner.

And by the way, the cut I made is actually very straight; the gray pieces you see are actually leftover remnants from the old border.

I do hate cutting out around corners, though! The walls are never straight and I end up using my quilting rulers and rotary cutter to ensure I get it right.