"Who let the kids out?"

The girls and I spent some time today looking for an update for Gillian's bedroom. We started out at Expo, where we bought the paper and border below. Evidently they stopped carrying wallpaper more than two years ago. So it was off to Sherwin Williams to peruse the sample books. The title above is the name of a wallpaper book that we found.

Gillian's room will be the fall/winter project. I am super sad to take down the Boynton wall border that we put up 6+ years ago, but our daughter is no longer 18 months old! I'm saving a piece in her baby album though. We first talked about making a change over a year ago, but Gillian was reluctant to give up the animals. That made me happy. That said, the walls in her room were quite a nightmare. When we moved in, they looked like this:

(can you SAY "dark, floral cave?")

We started to strip the wallpaper. Not a fun job, but nothing we hadn't done before. But in this house, all bets are off. For example, when I removed the shelf over the old washer and dryer, I found this assortment of hardware that was used to attach the shelf brackets:

In case you're counting, there are three different types of screw, plus one nail. For each of two brackets. But I digress. Back to the wallpaper.

You may think that the greatest sin in Gillian's bedroom was the selection of the wallpaper. But you would be wrong.

When the previous owners applied that wallpaper, they applied it TO THE BARE DRYWALL. So when we tried to remove it, the paper coating on the wallboard came off too. So rather than re-drywall the whole room, we decided to prime and paint over the wallpaper of doom, and then put new wallpaper over it. We joked that every time we redecorated that the room would get a little smaller, then a little smaller...

I was hoping to find a pattern that worked with the existing green flecked background and the dark green carpeting we inherited. I knew we had to have purple in there too, since not only is it Gillian's favorite color, but her desk, bed, nightstands and bookshelves are lavender. I was willing to repaint the lower wall. Clearly, this is a low-level redecorating project with a budget to match. In my mind, I was thinking a geometric... Gillian found a few cute floral patterns but I'm afraid she'll get tired of them after a couple of years. She talked herself out of the surfer girl border. And then...we found this:

She loves it, I love it, and I think it should see her off to college. Plus, I don't think there's any need to change the butter yellow on the lower part of the wall.

So some new window treatments, accessories and the like should be all it takes. I hope the old border comes off as easily as it went up. Keep your fingers crossed for me!