Wallpaper envy
By Christa TerryI love wallpaper patterns, but I’m so not motivated enough to do the whole wallpaper thing. Right or wrong, I think of wallpapering a room as this tedious and complicated process involving lining up patterns and picking fights with The Beard. Why the fights? Tandem home improvement tends to bring out the worst in people. Consider my friend who installed a new bathroom sink with her live-in boyfriend. She said that she was close to killing him by the time the sink was in. Oy!
So, yeah, wallpaper. Do not want. Children’s book author and crafter Claire Louise Milne found a new and wonderful use for wallpaper, however, and I think I could pull it off without becoming a widow. I’d show you a snapshot of her handwork but she asks that people like yours truly not use her photos without permission, so you’ll have to go look for yourself.
For those who’d prefer to stay right here, I’ll describe Milne’s pet project. After falling in love with Neisha Crosland’s “anemone” paper, she decided to jump feet first into the world of wallpaper. Long story short, she backed the doors of a couple of secretaries with some gorgeous with the paper.
“I decided the best way to indulge the wallpaper fixation was to decorate a cabinet. And I found some lovely vintage paper on ebay. It has a lattice pattern (which I love) and flowers (which I love) and the colour scheme is fresh with light green and lots of white.”
This is DIY on a small scale — perfect for those of us with more ambition than time!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:34 am
What a cool idea! I’ve never wanted enough wallpaper to fill the walls of a whole room, but using it in tiny bits to festive something small up would definitely serve my dark purpose.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:20 am
I’ve seen people use it as shelf liner to good effect, Twistie. I’ve also seen it as a fun backing in open kitchen shelves, which looks great when the kitchen in question is relatively plain.