The Map Room

Summer vacation is just around the corner, and I'm dreaming of quiet days on the beach.

One of my friends from grad school days in Boston sent me these photos of her family's summer home in Martha's Vineyard. It's an old carriage house with cottage-style bedrooms.

This room is named the Map Room or Chart Room. (PS I want a house someday where the names of rooms have nothing to do with who usually sleeps there. I remember when I was a kid, my grandparents had a Butterfly Room with the *coolest* wallpaper.) Anyway, I guess more than 25 years ago, my friend's uncle went out and bought a book of maps and pasted the cut out pages to the walls between the rafters.

He also pickled the beams. And I think they are the prettiest shade of blue! So lovely.

I think this idea of wallpapering with maps is perfect for a beach house, but it would also be great in a little boys bedroom (or maybe a boys bathroom? Or closet?)

Thanks for sharing this lovely room, Aubrey!! xx

Wallpaper in the Kitchen

Wipeable wallpaper can be such a fun addition to a kitchen! I think this is an especially great solution if you don't love your kitchen, but a reno is not in the budget. Paint your cabinets (probably something more neutral - off-white/gray/black) and then wallpaper the walls - easy and much less expensive than a full renovation.

Ready for a round up?

Country Home

Lonny








Domino




Domino








New York Mag

House and Home

Some of my favorite wallpaper sources for trade and more expensive papers:
Decorators Best
Walnut Wallpapers
Hygge and West
Graham and Brown
Ferm Living

For great deals:
American Blinds
Shewin Williams
Home Depot & Lowes
eBay
Steve's wallpapers (new to me! Thanks, Kate!)

Fun vintage finds:
Second Hand Rose
Etsy

Chinoiserie Panels

Exciting news! I will soon be in the possession of 4 hand-painted Chinese wallpaper panels that look strikingly similar to the paper Barrie Benson used in this dining room featured in Domino.

I need to start brainstorming ideas for mounting the panels as a series. I really like the way Barrie framed hers. I think this is such a modern way to display a pretty traditional paper.

The only trick is, I don't want to paper my walls with the panels, and I don't want to use really heavy sheets of wood for mounting. And thin wood or composite will bow. Any ideas for mounting these 3x8' panels all together? I promise to share more details on the paper when it gets here, which should be soon.

From the Inspiration Folder again...

Looking into my not so distant future is see wallpapered rooms with doors and trim painted to match.

This is so lovely.

image via Chris Court, found on Desire to Inspire.

Reader DIY: Another HappyTape Entry

Do you remember this post, were I used colorful masking tape to make a pattern on the walls of my rental's entry?

Eileen tried this too, but with the peacock blue color. I love the results!

Do you have a project you want to share on LGN? Email me!

Sharpie Wallpaper

I've been contemplating wallpaper patterns for my girls' room.

The cost of the paper alone (I would hang it myself) is making me think outside the box a little and reminded me of this project featured on HGTV done by the Rethink Design Studio (found via Full House).

All you need is a stencil and a sharpie. I love that they went with gold! Genius!

I think one of these Whitewall & Co. stencils would really do the trick, but what I'm really itching to try is a recreation of this beautiful wallpaper in Lisa Fine's Paris apartment.

via Lonny

I think I could maybe pull off something like this free hand with black, gold and green (maybe navy?) sharpies? It would be a fun project and the best part is that if I mess up - I just use a little wall paint to touch things up.

Paint by Numbers Wallpaper

I think this wallpaper, on clearance for around $20 a roll (27 in x 27 ft) at Target, could be a fun project.

It's from Jenny Wilkinson's Wallpaper-By-Number's Series. The background is a pretty aqua blue, but the flowers and leaves are white and meant to be colored in by you with your choice of paint, colored pencils or markers.

The possibilities are endless! I like the idea of a fun fuchsia/orange/teal/black combo for the inside of my girls' closet.

And floral wallpaper inside girlie closets always reminds me of Ruthie Sommers...

image via Domino - which, I'm sure you've heard by now, can be viewed online at Brides.com

Fabric as Wallpaper (in the Kitchen)

My dear friend and former college roommate, Emily, and her family recently moved to a new home in a new city. It has been so fun working with her a little (online) on her house projects and seeing the transformation of her beautiful home.

I'm sure there will be more pictures of Emily's home in future posts, but here are some photos of her kitchen.

Emily uses her blue milk glass collection to store all those little things that seem to pile up at the kitchen sink. Oddly, our sinks attract the exact same items: kids medicine syringes, water color brushes and jewelry.

Using magnetic containers from Bed, Bath and Beyond, Emily stores her herbs and spices on the side of her fridge. She likes that they are mostly hidden and off the counters, but still very accessible.

Adorable DIY message board...

Are you jealous, like I am, of Emily's coat hooks and bench? She made the coat rack with an old piece of black walnut and hooks from Anthropolgie.

When Emily and her husband, Todd, purchased the house, the kitchen was pretty boring and outdated:

Here's the 'after' shot. They have plans to put in french doors (not pictured) and to add hardwood to match the rest of the floors in the house. But it looks great now doesn't it?

I think it's cool that Emily has a computer on her counter. She wrote out all her recipes and has them stored here (the tower is hidden behind the moulding on top of the cabinets).

NOW! For the project that inspired the post title. Emily wanted a little punch of color and pattern in the sea of her newly painted white cabinets. Since wallpaper can be so expensive, and since Emily has the same fabric-collecting disease that I have, we decided to put some of her pretty fabric to good use in the kitchen.

One of my favorite things about using fabric as wallpaper is that it's completely removable and does not damage your walls. Even the fabric comes out unscathed! It just needs a good washing to get all the starch out.

There are lots of tutorials online for how to hang fabric like wallpaper. Emily kindly wrote out her step-by-step here:

Materials:

- Liquid starch (we were able to find some at Walmart)

- Fabric (While lightweight fabrics are traditionally recommended, we used a home decor weight material and just used more starch. It worked great.)

- Clean sponge

- Large pan (cookie sheet works perfectly)

- Push pins

Process:

1. Prime the backs of the cabinets with Zinsser water-based primer.

2. Cut your fabric to fit, with a few inches of allowance on all sides.

3. Pour the liquid starch into a clean pan. Using a clean sponge, apply starch to the top half of the cabinet wall and work your way down.

4. Again, starting at the top and working down, smooth the fabric into place on top of the starched wall. Apply starch with the sponge on top of the placed fabric. The goal is for the fabric to be pretty well soaked in starch.

5. Use a few push pins to hold the fabric in place as you smooth. Keep sponging and smoothing. A credit card works great for the sides and corners where you want everything to be tight and secure.

6. Let the starched fabric dry completely (overnight is usually long enough). The fabric will shrink as it dries, so be sure not to cut it when it's still wet. We recommend using a sewing rotary or a sharp razor/X-acto knife to cut the dried fabric, but be careful not to press too hard and score the cabinets!

Great job, Todd and Emily! I love what a little color and pattern can do to any space!

Have a fun project that you'd like to share with LGN readers? Send your photos and submission to pearlstreetinteriors@gmail.com.

Contact Paper "Wallpaper"

Another temporary wallpaper material? Contact paper!

I loved this project featured on Design*Sponge, and had planned on posting about it. And then Stephanie emailed me about my happy tape wall. She is so nice and has a lovely blog.

Check out her chevron wall tutorial here.

{Please note that Stephanie suggests using/removing the contact paper with a lot of caution on drywall. She says it works like a dream on plaster walls though. Good to know!}

Does anyone else have any experience with using contact paper as wallpaper? What are your tips?

Just to see what it would look like, I cut some strips of white contact paper for the backs of my bookshelves before they were relegated to the basement. Sort of fun, I think. And such an easy project because of the cutting guidelines on the paper backing.

Temporary Wallpaper Alternative

Love the look of wallpaper but can't take the plunge because you live in fear of your landlord dropping by?

Renters unite!!

In December, Amy posted this image from Southern Living. I fell in love with the large scale harlequin patterned wallpaper. The wheels started to turn and I began formulating a plan for "wallpapering" my entry.


Then Caitlin posted this picture of her home. She used floral tape and a little dab o' glue to "wallpaper" her entry and it encouraged me to get my rear into gear!


I placed a $20 order for four rolls of 1/2" aqua Japanese masking tape from happytape (use the code "odds10" for 10% off).


I played with the tape on the wall until I found the right proportion for the diamond and then I measured. {My diamonds are 9" wide and 16" long}


Then I made some tiny registration marks with a pencil and a ruled level.



After I put up all the tape lines, I used an Xact-o knife to clean up the edges and I was done!


I finished my entry and long hallway in less than two hours. And I think it is pretty cute.

I like how the aqua lines add some subtle color and pattern. And the great part about the Japanese masking tape is that it looks more like vellum than masking tape. It's almost transparent and creates a more understated look.