We gift wrapped the dining room

The dining room wallpaper is finished. It almost killed us, but we prevailed. Remember when my plan was to do just an accent wall? After living with it for a couple weeks, we decided the rest of the room looked too stark and incomplete. So we bought more.

We painted the white ceiling light gray and added paper to the other walls. It took two Saturdays and a couple late nights after work to do the remaining three walls, because we are possibly the slowest wallpaper hangers in history. And one of us is an annoying perfectionist. This room has two windows, a fireplace, and five doors to maneuver around, with rosette blocks that stick out on the corners just to add some extra pain and suffering.


Painting the ceiling was a challenge since we didn't want to get paint on the wall that was already done. I had nightmarish visions of turning it into a Jackson Pollack mural, so we tried to tape a plastic sheet over it. The painter's tape wouldn't stick on the painted walls, however; the plastic was too heavy. Alex had a roll of plastic film from work, so we decided to try that, thinking that taping up strips would be easier since they'd be lighter. To our amazement, the stuff clung to the wall with static electricity alone. This discovery was the greatest moment in our entire project. We couldn't stop high-fiving. It was how Ben Franklin must have felt.

With a tiny brush I carefully painted the ceiling along the edge of the wallpaper, and then the rest of the painting was easy. We didn't spill a drop on the plastic. Figures.

Then came the marathon wallpaper application, and here we have it:


It's cozy and pretty and dramatic. I love it. I'm more of a minimal girl at heart, but in a Victorian house, you have to have some fun.

For Valentine's Day Alex bought me flowers that match the paper. That might seem like no big deal, but God and I both know how much he detested doing this project with me. Trust me: that gift was an amazing act of self-sacrifice.

A more modern light fixture is in the works, along with some artwork and a painted dresser. We're coming down the home stretch in here!

P.S. The paper is Sophie Conran's Balustrade in Claret. It was on sale when I bought the second batch, so if you need to have some, maybe a discount will come along.

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