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Hung up on hanging wallpaper…

Do you ever come across something that you know just belongs in your life? Like you are out shopping for diapers and somehow a throw pillow ends up in your cart, (if you have been to Target you know what I’m saying here) because it just speaks to you from across the aisle? And if you don’t put it in your cart it will haunt you like the ghost of last season’s cute sandals you still dream about, but didn’t buy…

It doesn’t happen often and never has it ever, happened with wallpaper. Let’s just say “I had a bad experience”. The Mr. and I scraped and peeled wallpaper from our first fixer upper 1940’s home in the very first year of our marriage. Then after surviving all that scraping, we ruined the walls so bad, we attempted to cover it up with a textured wallpaper. Let’s just say the Mr. and I didn’t talk to each other  for 2 days after…

Needless to say wallpaper was not going to be in my design plans again anytime soon.

Until I was cruising Anthropologie and came across this paper and swoon I fell in love!

 Anthropologie Peonies Wallpaper

I took a screenshot and made it the background on my computer and tried to just quietly obsess about it there. Until my favorite girlie turned on my computer one day and said “oooohhhh! That’s so pretty!” and AHA, I just knew it belonged in her room.

So I pulled the trigger and splurged on one roll, just the one.

Then I immediately began to sweat and worry about it, how I was going to hang this stuff? What if I wrecked it? What if I didn’t have enough?

Well…I wish I could say this went smoothly and I’m ready to wallpaper my whole house. It did not, I had about two nervous breakdowns during the process and I may have messaged several blogger friends in a panic, who thankfully talked me down.

Here I’ll show you (crappy iPhone pics, sorry, but I was too busy freaking out to worry about getting my camera out).

I did my homework to start and watched 2 different tutorials for hanging wallpaper, I even had all the proper tools for once. (I mean I have been known to hang pictures with a spoon instead of a hammer).

Floral wallpaper

I painstakingly measured everything 32 times, and cut all my pieces and came down to this.

Wallpaper

Yup I was this short, panic mode. I may have cried…

If I would have just left a little less extra on each piece I would have been golden.

I decided to live in denial anyways, and started hanging it thinking maybe an extra piece would miraculously appear (denial is my happy place) and I have to say hanging it was going really smoothly. And I loved the way it was looking!

Until I got here, yup I was still going to be this short.

The trials of hanging wallpaper

I may have cried, again, and pulled my ultimate nervous breakdown card and called my mom. Not that she was going to make a piece of paper miraculously appear either, but I just needed someone to share in the injustice of my mis-measuring.

After a good 10 minute woe as me pout fest, I decided it was time to kick some wallpaper booty…paste. I hung the piece that I had left and then took the leftover scrap and puzzled over it, spinning it around again and again trying to make it match somehow and cover up the 10 inch by 6 inch space that I was missing.

and well? Can you see it?

Anthropologie Peonies Wallpaper

No, it doesn’t match perfect, if you look close there is an upside down grasshopper hanging onto a leaf for dear life. The flower is also totally wrong, but whatever people! It saved me from having to buy another pricey roll of paper. High fives all around!! I possibly jumped up and down, fists in the air, Rocky style, while Eye of the Tiger played in my head.

Floral wallpaper

Biggest. Relief. Ever.

Floral wallpaper

Enter my favorite girlie, (who never hesitates to speak her mind) she came home from school and I couldn’t wait to show her the finished wall. Imagine me being all – “cover your eyes”, and then swinging the door open, big reveal – TADA!

and…

“wow, huh, I dunno mom, it kind of makes me feel dizzy…”

WHAT???

I told her it’s a good thing she sleeps with her eyes closed then, because she will be living with this wallpaper til she is 18…when I kick her out and take over her room ;)

A close up of a flower wallpaper

Now that she has lived with it a few days and knows all the other fun things going in her room, she loves it too! So stay tuned for more changes to come…

Oh and if you are new here you can check out her old room here, and my board and batten tips here.

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55 Comments

  1. hi! i have been eyeing this wallpaper for so long and am finally ready to get it up in my little girls bedroom. i am so new to wallpapering but thought you might have the answer on this one. we have a light texture on our walls (the santa fe style texturing)–do you think wallpaper could be put up over that or do we need to strip her wall and smooth out the texture?

    Alex

    1. I would think it would not stick well to a textured surface but I’m definitely not a wallpaper expert! I would ask someone at your local hardware store.

  2. Hi,
    You home is beautiful.

    I am about the make decision on this wall paper too, what is the background color , is it true white, off white or like sand color , would you please help me on this .
    thank you very much

    1. I would say it’s a pretty true white. My trim is definitely white and it goes really nicely with it at least – thanks!

  3. I realize this post is OLD but I’m about to re-do my daughter’s room with this wallpaper (sooo behind the times, I know :)) but I would LOVE to know the paint colors, both white and blue/green, that you used! They’re just perfect! Thanks!!

    1. Hi Marianna, the white is Silent White by Clark+Kensignton and the blue/green was a custom mix that I don’t have the formula for, sorry :( I think it was called a touch of green but then we cut that with maybe %25 white? I’m so not helpful ha :)

  4. How long and wide was your wall? I bought this for our daughters nursery & trying to determine how high to put the board & batten so we don’t waste so much wallpaper. Did you hang it vertically?

    1. Hey Tiffany, so my daughter’s wall is about 14 feet long and we have 9 foot ceilings. I hung the paper vertically, I would definitely measure several times to make sure you are going to have enough paper.

  5. I purchased for my nursery any tips in applying… I’ve never hung wallpaper

  6. My husb and I just finished one million hours of scraping 60’s wallpaper off of our entire house and then I purchased this for my daughter’s room and I thought he might kill me. I started having second thoughts and and am now just staring at it and freaking out a little bit that my measurements aren’t right. I googled for some reassurance and ran across your post! Haha–I think we are living parallel lives! I’m still not ready to open the roll and tackle this even though when I was clicking ‘purchase’ I was thinking, how hard can one wall be?

    1. Oh how’s it going? Hanging wallpaper is so nerve wracking especially when it’s so expensive! Gotta love google, glad you found me ha ;)

  7. Way to go Mama!!! Where do you live? I could use your help hanging this in my daughters room :) Great post – maybe me laugh out loud a little.

  8. LOVE it!! I totally laughed at your hanging a picture with a spoon comment!! That is so me. I can’t wait to see the finished room!

  9. You did an awesome job and no one would ever notice unless you pointed it out…very carefully. I still had a hard time finding the wonky flower! It is precious!!

  10. Love the wallpaper!!! If my current project wasn’t scraping wallpaper in my spare bedroom and thinking, “what was I thinking”, I would definitely be tempted to seriously look at papering a room in that paper. It is gorgeous!! I love the upside down grasshopper, he just gives the room an added bit of whimsy!

  11. We learned years ago that wallpapering is bad for your mental health. It’s the most frustrating and ultimately rewarding experience all tied up into one. I LOVE the wallpaper you chose. It looks awesome!

  12. Looks like it was done by a pro Kelly! Like I said – official DIYer. :) LOVE the wallpaper. Can’t wait to see the finished room!

  13. I’m not usually a wallpaper Fan but that looks beautiful!! I’m sitting in a waiting room
    At the hospital while my mother is having a lumpectomy and
    I blurted out laughing at your daughters response!! So funny. Someday
    You will have to show her this post after she’s struggled with the same
    Task!! So funny. Thanks for sharing. It looks great!

  14. Looks great, Kelly. I love the pattern. I hope you put sizing on the wall first before papering. I hate for you to ruin another wall when it come time to take it down. Can’t wait to see the rest of the room! I bet your daughter loves it!

    1. The paper we removed the first time had been painted over and wallpapered over several times so I think that’s why it was so awful, hopefully we won’t have that this time around ;)

  15. I had to study that picture really hard before I could see the seams. It turned out beautifully!

    Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to Haven this year :( My husband just finished his PhD, so we’re looking for jobs and don’t know when/if we’ll be moving this summer.

  16. I’m so glad it worked out for you, Kelly. I never fail to disappoint my kids when I try to surprise them either. Maybe I should just stop surprising them?

  17. Kelly, it looks amazing! So pretty. I’ve had many similar wallpapering experiences. I remember picking scraps out of the trash for a patch job one time. I also remember my husband and I trying to remove wallpaper in our living room. That was a tear fest for sure. When we we done the wall was so bad we had to call in a pro to skim coat it. The pattern you chose will grow with her so I don’t see why you would ever have to change it. It would be perfect in an adult space too. Good job!

  18. The same thing happened to me when I bordered my daughter’s nursery when she was born! I was about five inches short, but since it was the space behind her door (as in, when her door is open you can’t see it) so I totally fudged it with scraps. Worked like a charm!

    I love that wallpaper. Super feminine and girly without screaming PINK GIRLY GIRL in your face! :)

  19. As one Kelly to another, recommending another, you should check out Kelly at View Along the Way- she literally JUST installed the exact same paper in her closet. It looks awesome!

    And I feel you on the tears. I would have done the exact same thing.

    1. It’s just a Kelly fest up in here! Someone else just emailed me that too, it looks GORGEOUS in her closet. Thanks for sharing with me :)

  20. Kelly, I think it looks fabulous. I only saw the grasshopper after you pointed it out and I still think that it looks perfect. No one will ever know.

  21. Can’t believe that was her reaction! So funny. You did an amazing job – that was some serious wallpaper-Houdini work there. The paper is so gorgeous and I love how her room is coming together. The board and batten and wallpaper are really nice together – the angles of the board and batten and the curves of the paper work so well!

  22. I don’t know you, but I have to say, this post made laugh out loud. You are real! This is something I would do and your daughter’s remark and your response, classic. It will be a bedroom for her to grow in. You put love and passion in your house to make it a beautiful home for your family.

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