The Joys of Do-it-Yourself

Last year, I decided I’d had enough of my pink bathroom. The pink wallpaper was chosen to match the fabrics my stepdaughters had selected for their bedroom. This decision was made in 1992 when the girls were teens and I had not yet overdosed on pink. Actually I always thought this bathroom was a little much but I dreaded working in such a tight space.

Finally late last summer, I started with one corner, just to see how easy or difficult it would be to remove. A word of warning: If you aren’t really ready to take down wallpaper, NEVER peal back that first corner. Good or bad, you just can’t stop. My pink paper was a coated paper meaning the top layer peels off quite easily; the second layer, not so much. I wet and scrapped strips of paper off the walls a section at a time for weeks. Finally, blank walls appeared – a ready canvas for something new.

I love color and I had purchased the floral fabric for the shade and shower curtain a couple of months earlier. A light, bright blue is enough of a change from the pink for me. I still wanted a happy room. I did make one – ah, mistake. I selected 3 potential blue paint chips and asked my husband to make the choice. I wanted him to be part of the process. He picked the one I liked the least (this is sort of how I got a pink bathroom to start with, but that is another story.) I bought a quart and did a test patch behind the mirror. Voila! Carolina Blue. Now, no offense to any sports fans, but that isn’t what I had in mind. So I mixed in grays and other shades of blue until I found a combo I liked. Back to the paint store and the perfect color (my favorite to begin with.)

I framed three old photos I scanned, enlarged and printed of my father, my grandparents with my cousin Donna, and my Mother with me in matted frames that I hand stamped.

I love our updated bathroom and I’m especially proud that I did it myself. Never will I say that I did as good a job as a professional painter, but it is my little project and I’m proud of it.

The next project is the downstairs bath and while I may strip the wallpaper myself (I have not tested a corner yet), I won’t be hanging the new paper. Some jobs definitely call for a professional. Oh, and I think I’ll be going with my own instinct on shades of color.