Monday, March 28, 2011

why? just why?

After reading this post, I was inspired to show the truth of wallpaper. The stuff that actually ends up in houses (at least the 2 we have bought here in KY). There is no pretty accent wall or easy to take off new wallpaper. There are 3 layers of ugliness that were put up 40 years ago with superglue and then painted over. If I ever want to have a pretty kitchen there will be hours and hours of stripping and washing of the walls. We got a great deal on this house, so this is not actually complaining, just more of a wondering why and how this mess was made of our walls.

To start, we have a lovely rendition of a weekend at the lake. Including a woody station wagon and a log cabin that looks nothing like our house. This is the room that will go last when we start changing stuff. The wallpaper is the least offensive as it is neutral and the ceilings are higher in this room so you don't notice the border as immediately. This americana "angel" border makes me crazy. It's in my bedroom and every time I lie down, I notice the ugly that is this border. Note that is is atop navy painted wallpaper. If there is anything worse than wallpaper, it is painted wallpaper.
Next comes a lovely combo in the mud room -perhaps the most puzzling of all borders I have seen- dogs with bags of ducks. Are the ducks alive? Are they ducks that have been hunted? Are they wooden ducks? Why would they be wooden ducks? The wallpaper underneath would be bearable by itself.
Lastly, in the kitchen we have a gingham and pie theme. At least it's not confusing like the other borders, but this gingham wallpaper has to go! I cannot wait to rip it all out and paint my kitchen a lovely pistachio or aqua color. Just so not my style. Bad news here is that there are at least 2 layers of wallpaper in the kitchen, some of it painted over.


In the bathroom, which I'm not likely to show you anytime soon, there are layers of wallpaper covered in a textured paint. I think we're just going to sand the walls a little smoother and paint over it again. Better than trying to strip all that off of plaster.


It feels good to get this all out.

5 comments:

Vicky said...

I feel your pain. Our last few houses have had wallpaper horrors.
Our current bedroom had 3 layers, one was vinyl and the final one was dreaded woodchip!

Annika said...

This post made me chuckle. That's one wallpapering job well done. And the range of motifs is brilliant!

When Marco and I bought our house, we had pink-and-grey sparkly wallpaper in a kinda structured foam in almost every room, and artex swirls in bathroom and kitchen. We eventually stripped the walls and found some really cool painted wallpaper from the 40s or 50s in a few places. Unfortunately, that was not salvageable.

Now, with all our walls plastered, it suggests that the previous owners probably preferred papered walls because they conveniently hide all the cracks that occur when the bricks are exposed to hot and cold air....

affectioknit said...

Oh my - that's a lot of funny wallpaper! Good luck with it's removal!

Eva said...

HAHA..ohh man. that is some ugly stuff! Painful.

Jamie Pike said...

I can't stop laughing! You are so hilarious! I miss your face. I've re-joined the blogging world! lovecreategive.blogspot.com. Can't wait to read more of your stuff. Love,Jamie