The vintage wallpaper piqued a lot of interest.
But I have to confess...
...I just tacked it up as a backdrop for the photo.
Progress has been slow on this bedroom. I've replastered the areas of the wall that peeled but wanted to wait several weeks to see what happened. Knock wood, so far so good. I'll do another post on what I did differently this time around.
I also tested the floor in a few areas and found the paint to be holding quite well to the old surface. There were just a few trouble spots that started peeling for some reason. I have gone over square inch of the floor with a scraper and an orbital sander which I think should provide a much nicer finish in the end.
I really love this wallpaper. The background is that wonderful greenish-blue similar to Benjamin Moore's historical color Wythe Blue. I bought the wallpaper thinking there would be enough to do the entire room. I carefully measured and plotted out the seam lines and there's just not enough. I've considered just doing the bed wall but I'm still considering another option.
I was also playing with a few possibilities for the floor color and picked up some Farrow & Ball paint samples. It's nice to have the place close by that sells the little sample pots.
The one on the left is Shaded White which is too light and little peachy.
The other is Snoop Dog's favorite Farrow & Ball color: Mizzle.
As much as I love the vintage wallpaper, I think I'm falling in to the same trap of having the upstairs look so different than the downstairs. I like too many styles. Does that happen to you?
Could you do the wallpaper as a wainscot Steve? Then you'd have plenty!
ReplyDeleteWhy not have the upstairs be different than the downstairs?
ReplyDeleteI love your style. I'm sure it will all blend in nicely. The wallpaper is so unique. I hope you find a room for it.
ReplyDeleteLOL!! What a cheat!! I have to borrow this clever trick :) BTW, did you ever buy the Swedish and English faux bamboo chests? If so, where are they? I love them.....especially the English one.
ReplyDeletesteve i just sent you an email. check it.
ReplyDeletei know exactly what you mean about loving too many styles but you have to stay focused! lol
love the wallpaper. love the paint color. happy your yardsale went well. and wow, you are so right about so many people needing yardsales and thriftstores for so many basic items.
ok that's all.
janet
Indeed, I do like a number of different styles, but I have never been too married to any one of them. I was into eclectic way before the term was common. Love the wallpaper and hope you can use it somewhere if not the bedroom. I like your somewhat more modern take on "cottage."
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting us in on your photoshoot secret! Something about your unerring taste tells me that a room that you consider unlike the rest of the house is in fact perfectly complementary! I'll go one step further, Steve. I think you could paint your bedroom walls bright red and you'd still make it work with the rest of the house!
ReplyDeleteI love that wallpaper. I'm glad to see wallpaper coming back in style again. I think since removal of old paper is such a pain that people just stopped using it.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at "Mizzle".
ReplyDeleteWhen I was kid my dream home consisted of a room in every style and century. The dining room was to a Tudor dining hall. Then I grew up and realized that it would be visually jarring. IMO, your house seems to have a consistent feel without being one note. I think a bit of variation, without crazy deviation of style is a good thing.
You are just so funny.
ReplyDeleteYou always make me smile...you should see what I have cropped out of my photos. Sometimes after editing them I shame myself into cleaning the house and putting away laundry.
I agree with Mark, you always end up leaving me in awe. Whatever you decide, it will be perfection.
Mizzle...you do crack me up.
You could have wallpaper above a chair rail and paint below. I love the wall paper too too, and am excited to the painted floor. I like the Mizzle color. Good to know Snoop Dog is in my corner.
ReplyDeleteI am in LOVE with that wallpaper. And I am definitely with you on liking too many styles. I definitely think mixing them can be done, it just takes time. You'll figure out what you want and be thrilled when you do!
ReplyDeleteToo many styles! One of the reasons I've always been relieved that my inherited furniture have directed my decor. If I had to start from scratch I'd probably be frozen in indecision in empty rooms!
ReplyDeleteI do love the wallpaper and the chair rail suggestions to make it work. I see no problem at all with a more casual, dare I say cozy, style upstairs. Glad to hear that the peeling problems are under control.
that snoop dog. he's such a decor hound...
ReplyDeleteYou are a kick. I so get the too many styles/love thing. It paralyzes me in my own home. In the end, though, I do try to stay true to what I love in my gut (even though I will question my final decisions a million times). It is just not easy when you have a passion for it and can appreciate so many different looks. But I know that whatever you do, you will end up with what what feels right. That's why your downstairs is so great. Maybe the upstairs just hasn't hit you yet.
ReplyDelete...And here I thought your walls were just not square.
ReplyDeleteI want to WEAR that wallpaper! I would love a shirt in that pattern. Can't wait to see what you do with this -- like many of the comments above -- I think you can pull anything off!
ReplyDeleteIf you can't think of a way to use that wallpaper just send it along my way.
ReplyDeleteYou make me want to redecorate.
Please don't light that fire.
xo jane
Yes!!!!!! I totally have the same problem of wanting to mix too many styles, colors, etc. in my house. I can't seem to settle on just one! I want my house to look harmonious but I'm still having a hard time with that. I've always loved your style though.
ReplyDeleteThe wallpaper is sublime and I am also partial to that Saxon Green. It's almost as good as your Arsenic Green.
ReplyDeleteIf we had Farrow and Ball here, I would have a cupboard of those samples!
I like Snoop Dog's taste in paint and fried chicken....there is a place called Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach, Ca (delicious) that my son says he likes, too. I have had wallpaper samples taped up in my guest room for a week and still can't make a decision. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThat wallpaper is fabulous and you must use it somewhere. Perhaps in a bathroom or a cupboard, it's wonderful. You'll get things figured out just do what you love.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend!
XXX
Debra~
Hi Steve, Thanks for your wonderful comment. Looks like you are crazy busy, I love, love, love everything you do............. best, kelly
ReplyDeleteI spent one lifetime looking through wallpaper books. Lost my mind somewhere around the 5th one and have been in therapy since.
ReplyDeleteLove that paper...but I hear you about loving too many styles...crikey...I am so frozen with my own house it is not even funny anymore. I feel like I am stuck in concrete and my mouth has duct tape over it....
ReplyDeleteAha... the secrets of a master stylist revealed! LOL
ReplyDeleteIf you must use the wallpaper (it's lovely, but I'm not a wallpaper person) I like the wainscot idea.
I had a feeling that your backdrop was a prop....only because I've done that before as well.
ReplyDeleteI do like many styles, but several years ago I went with black and white and every shade of those and so now it all seems a little more streamlined even though I mix styles all the time.
I'm very ADD, so this seems to help keep me on track...I do it with my wardrobe as well. My family is always giving me a hard time about my lack of focus.
You got us, Steve! Thanks for sharing that trick though... and I'm with everyone else; You must use this stunning wallpaper some how, some way... Good luck & looking forward to seeing how the bedroom turns out!
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteYou sure are sneaky. I love how you shared the behind the scenes props and paper. Perhaps you could use the paper inside of a shelf or a closet. I do love cheeky linings in classic blazers and closets.
Love that color mizzle.
pve
That wallpaper is just ... perfect. I'm even seeing it as bedroom lampshades, etc, etc. franki
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMizzel in your hizzle? Fo'shizzle!
Wainscoting? Panels? One wall only? The plot thickens in
"Steve's Decorating Dilemmas..." :)
My first apartment in NY held my fave paper of all time. It was shiny silver foil with a photo effect of lime green bamboo shoots printed on it. This went up on the walls in a tiny bathroom, with solid silver foil on the ceiling!
My late dad put it up for me.
It was disco-era awesomeness.
Good thing our taste evolves as we age, LOL.
Love the pattern and the colors in the wallpaper. I painted a bedroom Ben Moore Wythe Blue this summer. Had to find a color to go with the previous owners' trim color, a dusty slate blue. I think all colors can play nice together!
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, was away, so just getting to your post! The wallpaper is dreamy but I know what you mean about style conflict. Some people say to treat each room as its own and others like a continuous style throughout (I prefer this), but it is hard when one likes different looks. But I think overall your look is continuous as it is all historical/masculine/cottagecountry anyway, so it is just one eclectic style...
ReplyDeleteI love the Mizzle - Snoop Dog reference especially.
Terri xo
What about using the wallpaper in the bathroom instead, unless it's not the kind that can go in a bathroom. When I saw the picture in your prvious post of the Donna Seger bathroom, I immedately thought of your wallpaper.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I like too many styles, too. But when you mix them, you come up with "your" style.
I agree with other commenters that going with what is most pleasing to you will make it uniquely your style and that will be the cohesion you need throughout.
ReplyDeleteMy only comment in refutation is that as fun as it is to do this now and curate and make use of every thing that catches your eye little by little it makes things harder to maintain in the long run. If design has been your life long passion and you know when you're "done" that you don't mind going back to the room you like the least and starting over from scratch then go for all the different styles you like. If you are instead just someone who likes to explore their passions until they've hit a comfortable mastery at something (ie until this house is to your liking) and will move on to another interest like gardening or sailing, you'll regret the maintenance of things that were just in retrospect flavors of the moment.
Anecdotally, I'm looking to sell my house. The real estate agent actually said, no we can market today, its clean with neutral design while standing in a red-red dining room that was a mix of my grandmother's beautiful mahogany set, a yeah yeah yeahs poster, chinese laser cutting, and the Lenox chirp pattern from a few years ago. I don't even want to tell you the confusion with the two rooms it leads onto, but only designers recognize too many styles. Laypeople just recognize harmony or dissonance in a space.
That's a lot of words. Sorry, you hit a point I clearly muddled myself recently. btw I like the paper :)
Hi, Steve! I love what you've done to your historic home already. I think that you can mix styles - does an upstairs bedroom really need to be the same design as the first floor living room?
ReplyDeleteThe wallpaper is beautiful and Mizzle seems to work very well with it. Love the ideas put forth about putting it above some wainscoting or above/below a chair rail. Looking forward to seeing what you do!
the solution to that dilemma is owning multiple houses!! you might need a condo in the city for when you are feeling more "sleek modern artish", but in general you are doing everything right in your urban cottage, sprinkling it with modern touches, never losing sight of it's somewhat humble origins. I absolutely adore the wallpaper. it would be perfect for a bedroom in your house. Isn't there any way of getting enough of it to cover all walls? I don't know, maybe sending emails to every warehouse in the country looking for it????
ReplyDeleteI think I like this too, Steve:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-Vintage-Wallpaper-pretty-blue-pearl-like-brush-strokes-/390457847666?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae919ef72