Mr UPS Man and a Wallpaper DIY

I love the UPS Man. I will sit and wait all day at the window like my big goofy Great Dane looking for him to pull up in my drive.

This is definitely my fav site in the whole world. You would think that someone called and said to look for him cause they sent me something and it should be there today. No, this I know is coming, I ordered it and I bought it. I don't know why I get so excited.

This came today...

My wallpaper!

I told myself that I was going to be a good girl and not do it til my "Clean House Week" but I am very impatient. This is a special wallpaper though. It's anaglypta wallpaper. For those of you that think wallpaper is only for granny's house, let me enlighten you. Anaglypta wallpaper is way cool. It is a heavy embossed wallpaper that was created by Thomas Palmer way back in 1887. It is made by stenciling a design on paper with cotton and/or pulp. It is paintable and has a spongy feel to it. I love this stuff!

It's as easy as regular vinyl wallpaper to put up also. I chose to do this cause I wanted beadboard in my kitchen. Have you priced out beadboard? It's expensive. So this is my cheap answer. I don't have to reinstall the moldings either. No power tools required either.

So let's get to it.

This is the area that I am starting at in my kitchen. For right now I am going below the chair rail. I have some moulings to install above the chair rail and there will also be the wallpaper in that area also.

To do this you will need:

a yardstick to measure

a pencil

scissors

a craft knife with a new blade in it

a wallpaper smoothing brush

warm water

a wallpaper trough (or you can use the bathtub and drip water across the house like I did)

1. Clean your area you are going to wallpaper. This paper will smooth out imperfections in your walls but it does need to be clean.

2. Measure how long your strips of paper need to be and cut your first strip.

3. Now for prepasted wallpaper you will need to run it through warm water to activate the paste on the back. If it is not prepasted you will need to spread wallpaper paste on the back of it with a paste brush. I like the prepasted kind. Less messy.

4. After running it through the warm water you want to "book" your paper. This means simply to fold the pasted sides together for a bit to let the paste activate.

5. Place your first strip on the wall and smooth. You can use a plumb line to make sure the strip is hanging straight. I just usually eyeball it.

6. Smooth flat against the wall with the smoothing brush. Be careful not to rub off the embossing.

7. Trim off excess with your sharp knife and cut your next strip.

8. Your next strip you will want to apply in the same manner except you will want to butt the edges up against each other. You don't want to overlap the strips or push them hard against each other so that you get a lump either.

9. Once all the strips are up you can paint this any color you like.

I hope I made this clear for everyone. If not feel free to ask any questions.