Abigayle's Attic: January 2013

WALLPAPER...I LOVE IT! If you have ever bought a house that was built and decorated in the 80's or early 90's, you do not love it! It is a pain to remove-especially the old stuff and back then people just used to layer it on-one right over the other. Remember the floral pink and blue wallpaper with matching curtains, bedspread and rug! Those were the days!

We bought our first home in Lehi, Utah. The year was 1995. It was an adorable ranch style and brand-spankin' new! We were so excited and I was so ready to put my new decorating skills to use! I had an adorable watermelon themed kitchen-navy blue, red, white and green. The family room was a cute blue and yellow-lots of pillow, bright and airy-LOVED that room. The bedrooms were fairly roomy and bright. Ours looked out over Mt. Timpanogas. Beautiful view! My first attempt at decorating the walls was sponge painting them. I am not a talented painter-I can do the basics but fancy stuff is not my forte! Needless to say, when Cal arrived home that night he thought that I had thrown up Pepto Bismal on the walls (and blinds that I neglected to remove before beginning the project!)

Because of my lack of talent in the painting department-I was drawn to wallpaper! In 1998 we moved to Parker, Co. We lived with my parents for 6 months while our home was being built. I had that whole time to plan out my decorating scheme! We had wallpaper in the kitchen, powder room, borders in all bedrooms and it was FABULOUS!!! My favorite wallpaper to this day is still the one in that kitchen. It was an adorable blue and white large diamond pattern. If I could find it today-I would use it again! My second favorite was our last kitchen. It was a very french style wallpaper pattern-floral with birds, white background with blues, reds, pinks, greens. It was a happy room! My friend Lisa Lundell helped me to paper it and we had fun doing it too! Many who came in thought the wall was painted with the pattern-like a mural-LOVE IT! Now I am on the search for a new wallpaper-a few-I need to do the kitchen and powder room first. As I find it I will post pictures and then the process itself. This may take a few months but meanwhile, any questions you may have about wallpapering-feel free to ask. I actually flew out to KC to help my sister with her bedrooms.

MY TOP 3 REASONS TO WALLPAPER

1. It is different-I like different! Every home in Colorado has the same basic look. Brown leather couch in the Family Room, beige walls, beige carpet...BORING! Spice it up a little.

2. The wallpaper made now is so much easier to remove and put up. You can find so many different kinds-pre-pasted, vinyl, inexpensive, expensive, high quality and very scrubbable-wallpaper is great in kitchens and baths for that very reason. Buy a little extra-just for that child that really likes permanent markers! (learned from experience!)

3. It brings life to a room! Choose a pattern you love and when people walk in the room they will see YOU in it! There are so many classic styles and patterns to choose from that will last a very long time!

So, off I go to Guiry's to search for the PERFECT PAPER! Wish me luck! (I will also go to look for pictures of my favorite wallpapers and post them so you can agree with me!)

The blue and white-my favorite! (a favorite addition to this picture is my sweet Abbie and our good friend Chris Chandler!)

Our last house-kitchen wallpaper-LOVED IT!

Don't know how well you can see the watermelon patter EVERYWHERE! This was a happy room as well!

So our 2 oldest came home from college for Winter Break. While they were here they decided to paint their room. The one who wanted it most was Sydney since she will be here for the next few months working and getting ready to serve a full-time mission for our church. She researched and found out the best way to paint stripes. Our favorite blog and most informational was our friend Tiffany (also our family photographer-quite a renaissance woman!) You can find her blog by googling Landeelu. As you can see We began with these tools, plus a few sponge brushes and the paint of course!

Firs step was to wipe down walls. There were some dirty spots-obvious I know, but does not always happen. Syd measured very carefully and to do 12" stripes. She drew lines 12" apart all the way around the room. Next she put the tape on the bottom of the line where it was to be white and the top of the line where it was to be khaki.

After everything was taped she then went back and painted Mod Podge over the edges of the tape.to ensure that no bleeding would occur. This worked great and we got the idea from Tiffany's blog!

We decided that equal stripes to the ceiling might be a bit BORING do once we reached the 4th stripe we just painted all the way to the ceiling. We were tired and ready for it to be done! We all LOVED how it turned out!