Gift Wrapping Your Walls~

Just inside our back door is a little "mud" area. It's very useful...and very....drab. The minute I saw it, it made me homesick for my mini-mudroom in all it's beadboard prettiness. I put my "simplify" sign up - and it fit perfectly - but it just didn't give it the "bang" I was looking for.
(forgive the orange indoor lighting...it was evening when I started this project)

Since this is a rental home, putting up beadboard like my mini-mudroom was definitely not an option. But I had to do something.

I thought of wallpaper....but again....rental. Then I remembered something I did in my college apartment. I almost hate to admit this, because it will definitely date me. But back in my college days, wallpaper borders were the "in" thing. So, to spruce up our boring builder beige apartment, we stapled a wallpaper border along the top edge of our living room walls. The key word here being "stapled".

So I decided I would find myself a nice wallpaper that I could staple to the wall in our drab little mud area. Then, while shopping with my sister-in-law Saturday evening, I saw some uber-fabulous damask heavy weight wrapping paper in celery green. And I decided to go for the bold. Remember how I said that this house would help me push my design style in a new direction? Well, this celery green damask paper did just that!

I started by cutting pieces of the wrapping paper slightly longer than the height of each section of wall. Then I stapled them to the wall using my staple gun, and trimmed them with a razor blade. Because the paper isn't as wide as the space, I had to cut second pieces making sure to match the pattern...this part was a little trickier, but still not bad. Then I stapled them in the same way.

Now I realize that wrapping paper isn't made to withstand heavy use...and to be honest, although I think that the space is much happier, and quite pretty, I'm not sure how long I'll leave it. But the beauty of this project is how easy it is to change up. The wrapping paper was about 1/5 the cost of the wallpapers I had been looking at, so pulling it down won't hurt. If I decide down the line, that "going for the bold" is a little too much for me, I can always find a new subdued paper to replace it with.

But for now, this bright, bold damask really gives a happy punch to the dreary space...and makes me smile when I see it!

There's still time to enter the giveaway for a $75 Lisa Leonard Gift Certificate...just scroll down to the next post...drawing ends at 11:59 MST tonight!

Linking to DIY day at ASPTL.

Have a great day~