Thursday, January 5, 2012

Stupid Electricity

So yesterday as I was writing up the long-overdue house tour post, the power went out at Starbucks.  And now my camera is dead so I can't upload the pics onto my computer right now... because I was on Ryan's yesterday.  Grrr.  So instead I'm gonna show y'all how to DIY some beadboard!

When we moved into the new casa, the kitchen was not one but two frightening shades of purple.  So that nonsense had to change and change fast.  So in stepped that guru of home deliciousness, Martha Stewart.  Ok Martha didn't really come over but I did purchase her beadboard wallpaper for 35 bucks from the Home Depot. And now for iPhone pics and a how to!




This stuff isn't really wallpaper, but more like an embossed foam with a paper backing.  I was pretty dubious about it at first but I'm really glad we went ahead with it because this jank is AWESOME!


Do you see that atrocious shade of eggplant!?  Above the chair rail was a wonderful shade of lilac that really just set the whole room off.  It also made a great contrast with our avocado green sink.  Gag.  Anyway, back to wallpapering....

This really was the easiest stuff to use ever.  We just rolled wallpaper paste onto the wall (yay for not having to put it on the paper!), cut our piece of beadboard paper to size, and stuck that baby up there.  

Oh, make sure before you slap that first piece up there you make sure you have a plumb line to go off of.  Fortunately our chair rail was installed nice and level, so we just guided off of that.  

Also, DON'T start in the corner of your wall, start in the middle and work your way out.  That way just in case your wall joints aren't plumb you won't end up with ghetto slanty wallpaper.


Ryan ran a caulk line under the chair rail and along the baseboards, and I decided to run a caulk line between the wallpaper joints.  This may have been a little anal of me but those tiny little cracks were just glaring at me.  Mocking me, even.


How's that for some sick caulking skills?  I of course smoothed it out...

Muuuuch better!  You can barely see the crack now!  All that was left was to paint (an entirely optional step, but you could see a little bit of that dastardly purple and I wanted to cover my caulk job).

And now you can't even tell it's not the real thing!  The new paint and beadboard realllly brighten up the kitchen (just wait 'til you see the 'before' pics! Blech!).

Please ignore the Budweiser bottles and wallpaper paste vignette.  I promise we're classy.... somewhere underneath all the redneck....

So, what do you think!?  I think it's a keeper (and we used so much damn paste that stuff will probably survive a nuclear attack, so I don't think it's coming off any time soon).

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