Category: House Fix up

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White Washing the Family Room

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Ahhh…bless you Pinterest, for sparking my imagination, when sincerely–I was happy with the brown paneling.

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Ok, well, happy isn’t completely, one hundred percent honest.

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I don’t mind admitting that I am just so thrilled to be in the place where I have some kind of house–at all–that it doesn’t really matter to me if it isn’t entirely perfect. I’m grateful and happy to make do.

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But after spending a bit of time seeing the “Dark Paneling Makeovers” that are on the internet everywhere these days, I will admit–a few coats of white paint wins. Hands down.

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It has taken a bit of doing though. Primer, more primer, and then several coats of paint. It will indeed be perfect when we’re finished.

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And going from this…

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to this–as unfinished as it is…

is a huge improvement. Wouldn’t you say?

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I’m deeply grateful to my kind and generous worker bees who seem to have so much happy energy.

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Thank you. Thank you.

It’s going to be awesome!

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That~ahem~Wallpaper

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Once the Bald Guy got the insulation off the ceiling the next big deal was this ancient wallpaper. Crazy stuff–I’m telling you. It was probably beautiful in it’s day, and not a particularly cheap kind either. But it made the room so dark and foreign looking to me.

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I did a ton of research on exactly what solutions would take it off with the least amount of drama and I finally found a natural site that promised good results with just a few ingredients.

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We planned a whole day around spraying on a vinegar and water mix and letting it soak. But first I had to take off all the fixtures. The light switch covers were actually very pretty…up close.

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And these little pull chain heater vents were just so cute I wanted to leave them.

But we forged ahead and got all the hardware off the walls. Then April said, “See if you can loosen any of the paper from the bottoms before we spray.”

I grabbed a tiny corner of one panel and lifted it up gently. To my surprise, the whole strip just came off in one piece –from the floor to the ceiling!

I tried it with the next panel and sure enough–without spraying or soaking or ANYthing, the paper came off in perfect sheets–like it had never been used at all.

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Seventeen minutes later we had a lovely, dry, snow white wall just waiting to be painted. It was hilarious!

So, we’ve moved on to the taping plastic everywhere and painting phase.

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In the meantime…

Anyone want some wallpaper?

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Hardly ever been used.

HAhahaa!

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