wanting: a new mirror for my powder room

I came across a new-to-me blog today, bryn alexandra, and was looking through her past entries and came across one about a powder room update.  And she bought this mirror from Wisteria:

And I had a flash of what it would look like in my powder room - and it looked fantabulous. 

It would add so much drama to the space and add yet another layer of pattern.  Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have, but you can see how the white mirror isn't doing anything for the space.  I've thought about painting it or even silver-leafing it, but I'm just not in love with the shape so don't really feel like spending any time jazzing it up.  Because even jazzed up, it will just be a plain rectangle.

I clicked on the link only to find out that it's out of stock.  Sad face Debbie.  They do have this one, but I'm not sure about the birds and I'm also not sure about the price.

I need to go home and meausure the space and then the hunt is on for a mirror of my own!

weekend projects, part 2

So with the spice racks nicely hung, I moved on to my next project - art for the powder room.

Almost as soon as the wallpaper was on the ceiling, I had an image of the walls covered in vintage postcards, pretty plates, little mirrors and random crap in shadow boxes.  Kind of a gallery wall on crack.

I knew my mom had old postcards so I asked her if I could use them, promising to not ruin them.  She agreed and we had a great time going through all of them.  Not only does she have postcards sent to our immediate family, but also ones to her aunts, uncles and parents.  The oldest one that I took with me (I left gobs back at her house) was from 1924.

Then there was this one my uncle sent to my dad:

Best part was the message on the back:

"Can you picture me doing this? Well I'm not."

How hysterical is that?  I almost wanted to frame it message-out, but then the embroidered (!) front is pretty darn awesome as well.

My mom sent her parents tons of postcards in college and afterwards.  My favorite was a HUGE one of the UN with basically a book on the back.  And it was just this rambling, meandering message full of a lot of nothing.  Think about the emails you send your parents.  Now think of your kids reading them 40 years later.  Part of me is glad that postcards and letters aren't as common now, but part of me is sad for the missed opportunities of hilarity!  My mom and I laughed so hard over this card that we cried.

I found the postcard I sent home while in Iowa for Odyssey of the Mind.  I love seeing my 6th grade handwriting! 

My dad didn't travel much for work after my sister and I were born, but he went to New York and Paris in 1982 and sent home lots of postcards.  I love that he would send separate cards to my mom and to us girls.  Just so cute.  This is one he sent to both me and my sister, but he would also send us our own.

And you know how you marry your father?  Well, my grandfather also sent my mom postcards.  I wonder which painting he was talking about here?  Maybe it's one that I have hanging on my walls.

I spread out all of the cards, picked my favorites and started arranging.  I had to replace some faves for others that fit better, but that's okay - I have so many that I could easily do a second collage.  Finally I came to an arrangement I really liked.

There were a few gaps and my 5th grade math teacher taught me that one should never, ever have blank space in a collage, so I filled in those gaps with leftover wallpaper.

what, you didn't do art projects in math class?

I decided to put it up above the toilet.  I thought about putting it next to the mirror - and still might  move it there later - but for now, this gives the most impact.  I just love it with both the rug and the wallpaper!

I still think the gallery-wall-on-crack idea would be better, but I already owned this frame and I like free!  And now I'm thinking about the idea of mini-collages instead of individual pictures.  I love a project that makes me think of other, better ones!

don't be jealous, but my ceiling is cooler than yours

See?  I don't lie.

I'm so excited that this project was able to be done.  My friend, Shelly, volunteered to help me paper my powder room ceiling and I was super excited.  The paper was waiting for me when I got home from work on Wednesday so Shelly and I made plans to get started right after lunch today.  Fab.

But then I was clearing off the top of the dryer and realized that getting to that far corner would be difficult.  Hmmm - how much room is left when I wiggle it all the way next to the toilet?

Yeah, not that much.  But the washer/dryer seems pretty sturdy, maybe we could climb on top?  Shelly was game and also said that she had a skinny 2-step ladder that might work.  So I headed over to Home Depot to pick up supplies.

Note: wallpaper was bought through Will's Decorating, not HD

Shelly arrived and we cut strips of paper.  Originally we thought that we would only need three strips, but then we overlapped the edges pretty significantly to be able to match the pattern so ended up needing a fourth piece.  And each piece needed to be extra long as well.  Even so, I ended up with plenty of leftover paper so look for that in future projects!

I decided to hang it widthwise because the room is a bit of a rectangle.  This should help widen the room a little and make it seem like more of a square.

Shelly came up with an ingenious plan for fitting into that sliver of space between the washer and the wall - put the step stool on the "thin" setting and then prop it up with a couple of books.  Maybe not the sturdiest thing in the world, but as she said, just as sturdy as climbing on top.  And it was jammed in between the wall and the very heavy washer/dryer combo.  Well, it worked and that's all that matters!

So Shelly squeezed in the tiny space on the left and then I perched on a one-step stool on the other side of the toilet and we got the first piece up, Shelly cutting around the light/fan thingamajig.  That sucker was tricky.

Then it was on to the second strip.  Lining this one up wasn't hard, but there were just a ton of wrinkles and bubbles.  Here's Shelly trimming the second strip.  Did I mention that she basically did everything?  I smoothed a bit and that was okay, but I just couldn't get the hang of trimming.  I kept scoring the wall and not getting any of the paper.  Shelly rocked at it.  She also lined up each new piece PERFECTLY with the previous one.  You can see the seams a bit where the paper is solid, but it's wallpaper.  It has seams.  Blow up any of these pictures and you would not be able to find the seam.
My very-important job was to keep the supply of clean rags coming, to hand off tools and to clean up the excess glue on the ceiling and walls.  I was also pretty good at prepping the paper - pasting and booking.  But the queen of the day was definitely Shelly.

The third piece, though, almost made Shelly give up.  Lining it up was nearly impossible and then when letting the paste set, we got distracted by the internet and so it wouldn't stick to the ceiling.  Then wrinkles and more wrinkles followed by bubbles and more bubbles.  Getting rid of one just caused another.  More paste and some deep breaths helped all around and then it was time for trimming!

The fourth piece was easier because we cut it nearly in half lengthwise before putting the paste on.  We knew we'd only need about a foot instead of the full 27" and it also made it easier to manage.

And then, about 4 hours later, we were done!  I love it so much - I keep going back in to check it out.

It was hard to get a good picture of the ceiling - the entry is a little cramped.  But lying down on the floor let me get a shot of the whole thing!

I love my ceiling.  Love love love love love.  It's definitely the coolest thing in my house!

wallpaper on the ceiling: step 2

Step 1 was deciding to do this crazy thing.

Step 2 was buying the paper.  I did that yesterday.

I went to my local decorating store - Will's Decorating.  I had been in here before and was a bit overwhelmed.   So much to look at and most of the in-stock product was very early 90's.  Not really inspiring.  But I remembered that they had TONS of wallpaper books so I figured I could order something even if I couldn't find what I wanted in stock.  Plus I wanted to see the colors in person - colors on your computer screen aren't necessarily accurate.  And it just seemed cozier than ordering online.

I was originally going to go Thursday as they're open until 8pm, but traffic was not on my side.  Then I was going to go Saturday, but The Lost Symbol had me captivated all morning and I had to get out to Annapolis to sit with a newborn in my arms all day long.  Couldn't miss that for wallpaper shopping! 

So I made sure to get over there as soon as they opened on Sunday.  I went to the wallpaper section and looked at the books on display.  One was promising - it was from York, Antonina Vella's La Dolce Vita collection and was open to this page:

Hmmm - that seems pretty modern, not frumpy early 90's ditsy floral.  Let's see what else is in there!

Yes, I think this might be THE book!  And totally a sign that it's the first one I came to.  Even better was their selection of green patterns.  I had pretty much decided that green was the direction to go with - I don't own the rug yet so I can't match any of the colors exactly, but I feel like green is one of those shades that don't have to match so much.

Anyway, here were my green possibilities:

Yeah, that second one?  Totally Imperial Trellis.  But it would so be wrong on my ceiling.  Too much white space.  The third one was a close second, but I thought it might be TOO grid-like, you know?  The first one would normally be my first choice, but the background (which isn't clear on my computer - glad I went in!) was cream and kind of looked like wrinkled paper - in a good way, but not MY way.

My final decision was the Edda in the green colorway:

How pretty is this!  The elongated paisley, the grassy green color combined with white, making it very crisp.  And it's busy without being cluttered.  So very me.

I thought about the yellow colorway:

But while I love yellow, I'm green.  And then I'm planning on hanging blue antique lusterware dishes and I don't really like blue with yellow unless there's a good dose of green or pink somewhere in there.  So green it is!  And I think it looks really nice with the rug.

The paper will be sent directly to my house and should arrive on Wednesday or Friday.  And then the plan is to put it up on Friday (assuming it arrives in time) and maybe I'll get the plates from my mom at Thanksgiving and have an almost-finished powder room by my holiday party!

I always feel like somebody's watching meeeeee

When I read Apartment Therapy's tweet about their wallpapered ceiling post, this song came into my head and now IT WON'T LEAVE.  So I'm sharing with you before getting to the actual post.  Enjoy.



So, yeah, wallpapered ceilings.  I wonder if someone at AT is secretly reading my blog and was inspired by Friday's post?  Or maybe it's just weird cosmic timing.  But do check out the post as there are some fab ceilings there. 

The one that's most like what I'll be doing is this one:

Pattered ceiling, white walls with stuff on them.  Of course, my room is about 1/3 the size of this one, but you get the idea.  It's going to look great.

I was browsing through Walnut Wallpaper's selections earlier today in my post-Election Night hangover phase and am in love with these, though I will probably end up with something a heck of a lot cheaper.  But they're just so pretty!

For my rug?  Think I'm going to go Anthropologie.  I've loved their Conure rug for a long time and am super excited to have a place for it!

I'm also excited to do a room in the decorator-approved method of 1st picking out a rug, then walls (or in my case, ceiling), then accessories.  It really is so much easier this way!

not gonna be a hypocrite

So I'm having issues with my powder room.

It's exactly the same as when I moved in.

Oh, sure.  That aqua towel is now watermelon-red.  I don't have a matching rug around the toilet (I find them weird and a little gross) and I got a pretty new soap dispenser that matches the white-and-chrome hardware.  But otherwise - exactly the same as in this picture from the MLS listing.

Kinda embarrassing.

Not in the your-slip-is-showing way, but still. 

My original plan was to paint it navy. Dark navy.  All four walls AND the ceiling.  These were my inspiration photos:

yes, this last one is pink, but it's a good example of color on the ceiling with white molding.  work with me, people

Kinda freaking awesome, right?

But take a look at my powder room again:

Can you imagine what a pain it would be to paint behind the washer/dryer?  And you can't see it from this picture, but the left side of the sink top butts right up to the wall yet the cabinet is about an inch away.  How the heck does one get into that tiny space?  And even if I do conquer that, I don't think this is my Forever Home, which means I would probably want to paint it a neutral color before selling.  And even if that doesn't happen for 5 years, well, I'm not exactly the Home Improvement Queen.  More the Minimal Work Goddess.

The wall over to the right (behind the door) is solid.  No weird appliances or sinks.  Just a toilet paper holder and a square heating element.  Very easy to paint and repaint.  So I had the horrible thought of an accent wall.  How easy would it be to throw some navy paint up there?  I would know it was there, even if the short-term visitor doesn't (ie, the one who doesn't have to visit the loo).  I'd get my dramatic color without the pain of painting around the fixtures.

But if you know me, you know I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  If you don't know me - hi, my name is Debbie and I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  In a few applications, they're awesome.  As a substitute headboard.  Behind the couch in my friend Beth's old apartment (done by her decorator brother).  Beth's apartment was the first time I voluntarily said that an accent wall worked.  So things like that.  But in the average house, the average application, I think it looks like you like color but are scared of having impact.  Of showing your personality in your house.  I'm incredibly anti that.  Even though I'm no longer in love with my turquoise walls and the main reason they're still there is because repainting all 6 wall portions would be a bitch, I'm still very happy that I had the guts to paint all of them.  It makes a statement and that statement is good. 

It also reflects me. I wore large, chunky jewelry before it was in style.  I wear prints on a regular basis.  As hostess to my sister's baby shower, I wore a giraffe print dress.  My laugh can be heard 3 counties away.  I am not a shrinking violet and I like for my house to reflect that.

But back to my powder room.  The wall I would accent would be hidden from initial view.  One would only see it when one is inside with the door closed.  And that makes for a pretty small accent.  I'm not about the hidden view.  I want the big, panoramic view.  So while it would be nice to take the easy way out, to do the accentless accent wall, I'm not going to do it. 

I do still want to make an impact and I still want it to be relatively easy.  And then I remembered Camilia, from High Heeled Foot in the Door, and her grasspaper clothed kitchen ceiling:

source

And one of my favorite wallpaper-inspiration pictures:

Made me realize that I could totally do that in my powder room.  It might make the ceiling look even lower than it is, but it's such a small space, who cares?  It's not like it being white makes it feel expansive.  It just feels like a small, white box.  I'd rather a small, colorful box.  And I bet my friend Shelly would be happy to help me.  And since it's such a small room, I don't have to worry about the expense.  Very do-able.

Then I'll get a rug for the floor.  Paint (silver leaf?) the mirror.  Hang my great-aunt's hand-lustered plates (they weren't that well done, but they're still pretty) and some other art.  Just cover the walls so one doesn't notice that they're still, as Dorothy Draper would say, dead-white.  I'll just make it work for me.

Sounds kinda cool, right?