Installing Beadboard Wallpaper

I know what you're saying... 
"Finally!! What takes that girl so long?!"
Yes, it took me 3x longer than I thought it would.  Isn't that the way it always seems to go? At least with me it does....it's just been a long process with a series of little hiccups. I won't bore you with those....
But I am happy (soooo happy) to say that the powder room
 is 90% done and it's lovely!  
Let's start with the wallpaper....
This wallpaper is awesome! And nobody's paying me to say that! :)

I wanted to put bead board up in the powder room, but 
1. I'm cheap and 
2. I want beautiful results the easiest way possible.
It's #2 that sold me on the wallpaper. You see, I'd have to remove the sink from the wall and disconnect all the pipes, and let's not forget the toilet... 
Uhhh, NO.  I didn't want to go that route.  So, when I saw that I could get the same look without all the work. And at only $20 a roll. Done!
I picked up 2 rolls at Lowes. Oh, I forgot to mention that this is paintable wallpaper which makes it PERFECT!!
Here's some of the supplies I used.

Now, I've NEVER EVER worked with wallpaper.  I don't think you can imagine the intimidation I was feeling!  I watched videos, read the directions a million times, and let's not forget I probably procrastinated for a week or so.... 
I finally jumped in with both feet.
The very first thing I did was roll wallpaper primer on the walls. 
Then after it dried, I rolled the wallpaper out and began measuring.
 I thought I had it measured out all correctly.... but.... we'll discuss that later. 

The wallpaper was really easy to work with.
  I used hubby's square, drew the line and cut with scissors. Easy.
Then I rolled it up with the paste side out. Dipped it in my wash tub and let it unroll.  I left it in there for about 30 seconds.  

Then pulled it out and laid it paste side up on an old plastic table cloth and rolled the paste side with a small paint roller I dipped in water. 
I did that just to spread the water and help activate the adhesive. 
Then I waited 5 minutes.
Putting it up on the wall was the easy part.

I used this little tool to smooth it out.
  I spent some time on it getting all the bubbles out.  I kept worrying that I was pushing out too much of the adhesive. Because, I'd use the tool to push out the bubbles and globs of paste would come out that I'd have to wipe up.
But it seems like it's all worked out fine.

I had to figure out how to go around the sink, pipes and toilet.  It helped to "make a template" to cut the wall paper.  I was so nervous it was going to be a flop, but it wasn't. It actually worked out great!

When it came to the pipes underneath, that was a little more trying. I would measure, mark, cut then check.  After about 10 times of getting under the sink, I got it. :)

  Omg!!!!!....loving it!!!

So, next I put up the trim.  I just picked up something simple at Lowes. 
I love using our nail gun.  It's so much fun to use, but I swear every time the air compressors starts up I jump right out of my skin!!
I made marks where the trim would go, but I used the level just to make sure we were right on the right track.

So, I got that up pretty quick. Of course, you do realize that I did NOT cut ANY of the trim pieces.  Hubby is awesome with all those numbers and angles. 
I don't have the patience or enough spare trim
 for the many mistakes I would have made.

Now, I think you might be observing my little measuring mistake.... You see I figured the trim was going to hit either the light switch or the outlet.  Turns out I probably could have squeezed it in between the two and I thought it would look better than it does.  Oh, well, it's all done now. I think I'm going to have hubby add a piece of trim on the bottom  of the light switch to complete it.

So, we're just going to move on...
I got this stuff at the Haven Conference.  It's amazing!! Seriously. 
It's spackle AND primer in one! The fact that it has primer in it makes it so awesome.  It saves a whole step of priming. Score! I will be using this from now on!  Remember, it's the little things....

This is before.
Spackled.
Sanded and painted.
Nice right?!

Now, before I painted I ran a line of caulk on the top and bottom of the trim.
I also caulked at the baseboard.  
Then, I painted the wallpaper with two coats of semi gloss paint.  It's the same color as the stripes and all of the trim in the house.  
I had it custom color matched, which makes it super easy 
to blend with the door frames!
As you can tell, I am not an expert at this. 
But, hey not too bad for my first time at it. At least I won't be so intimidated... 

I can't take a picture from the door, because that sink wall isn't finished yet.  The mirror is almost complete.  Well it is done, I just have a bit of tweaking.  Then I promise I will show you!  It's soooo cool. I love, love, love it!!! 
I hope you will too!
Blessings!
 photo New Lori 100_zps2lw4mgnc.jpg

3 comments

  1. Really nice job Laurie !! <3

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  2. Love it! Maybe I will use mine down the hallway......got my mind going :)

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  3. Didn't even know there was anything like this out. Were you able to complee bathroom with just one roll?

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