The Wallpaper Measure
Here is a measure of the body's, um, change: how long does it take you to wallpaper a bathroom?
Never mind the part about having to buy the house first. That took a long time and one reason I wanted to buy it was to wallpaper that bathroom!
After buying the house, I visited the Habitat store and bought the rolls. That took 3 days and 3 trips because of different misunderstandings about the price. Good result, though: 4 rolls for $2.00. It's a little lacy, almost-basket-weave design.
After looking at the rolls sitting out on the dining room table for a couple of weeks, I then borrowed a taller ladder to reach all the way up to the 9' bathroom ceiling. Next, I needed a couple weeks to think and plan how to manage with the ladder and the bathtub, the wetting and the matching.
When I couldn't stand thinking about it any more, I brought everything in to the smallest room and hung the first strip! lt went fine, just as planned--except it didn't reach all the way down to the woodwork. With sweat pouring off, I decided the little naked isoscoles (sp?) triangle on the wall at the bottom corner behind the door would be called my "signature" (if anyone ever noticed it).
It turns out, as I struggle like I-love-Lucy, that I have a number of wallpaper signatures: little tears along the seam, a few bubbles that didn't quite get flattened out. As my mom used to say, that's how you can tell it's homemade. Except she meant it about sweaters and potholders and such. "Homemade" doesn't mean "charming" in home decor.
It IS charming, though; the defects disappear in the larger scheme of little lattices with teenie flowers. One loses track of time when completing a strip--you have to set aside a whole day for it--but as the weeks go by, each addition comes out better than the last, and I'm pleased.
The only thing is, it takes the body at least two days to recover after each sweat-pouring session up and down the tall ladder. At this rate we'll be dressing in our Halloween costumes by the time I'm done. Also, I have to think for a while about how to fit the ladder into the bathtub. And I'm a little off plumb so need to tug the next strip straighter.
I will finish this project, though, just give me a few months. I can "still" hang wallpaper, just not so fast.
Good old horsey.
Never mind the part about having to buy the house first. That took a long time and one reason I wanted to buy it was to wallpaper that bathroom!
After buying the house, I visited the Habitat store and bought the rolls. That took 3 days and 3 trips because of different misunderstandings about the price. Good result, though: 4 rolls for $2.00. It's a little lacy, almost-basket-weave design.
After looking at the rolls sitting out on the dining room table for a couple of weeks, I then borrowed a taller ladder to reach all the way up to the 9' bathroom ceiling. Next, I needed a couple weeks to think and plan how to manage with the ladder and the bathtub, the wetting and the matching.
When I couldn't stand thinking about it any more, I brought everything in to the smallest room and hung the first strip! lt went fine, just as planned--except it didn't reach all the way down to the woodwork. With sweat pouring off, I decided the little naked isoscoles (sp?) triangle on the wall at the bottom corner behind the door would be called my "signature" (if anyone ever noticed it).
It turns out, as I struggle like I-love-Lucy, that I have a number of wallpaper signatures: little tears along the seam, a few bubbles that didn't quite get flattened out. As my mom used to say, that's how you can tell it's homemade. Except she meant it about sweaters and potholders and such. "Homemade" doesn't mean "charming" in home decor.
It IS charming, though; the defects disappear in the larger scheme of little lattices with teenie flowers. One loses track of time when completing a strip--you have to set aside a whole day for it--but as the weeks go by, each addition comes out better than the last, and I'm pleased.
The only thing is, it takes the body at least two days to recover after each sweat-pouring session up and down the tall ladder. At this rate we'll be dressing in our Halloween costumes by the time I'm done. Also, I have to think for a while about how to fit the ladder into the bathtub. And I'm a little off plumb so need to tug the next strip straighter.
I will finish this project, though, just give me a few months. I can "still" hang wallpaper, just not so fast.
Good old horsey.
posted by Pat at 9:20 AM
1 Comments:
Once, and only once I papered a room.
I am "cack-handed" in the world of DIY (though I am learning through experience.
Mum and Dad had gone away, and I decided to surprise them on their return by re-papering what we called "the middle room".
I stripped the old paper, and thanks to a local ironmonger received some helpful hints in paper-hanging.
I'd seen Dad put up the first sheet using a plumb line, and that helped me immeasurably.
When I was done the room looked about 89% "O.K"
And Dad and Mum were effusive in their praises when they returned from their trip.
(I still find it easier to paint walls rather than to paper them. Good for you for a cool bathroom!)
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