Monday, April 11, 2011

Bye Bye Nemo!

As some of you know, I've been redoing my daughter's bedroom. (See this blog post for the details)

Ok. So the truth? I've been THINKING about redoing my daughter's room. Imagining it, planning it in my head, buying things for it. But the actual DOING it hasn't really taken off! Spare time around here is harder to come by than a springtime in Alberta without a blizzard!

So, this weekend, with plenty of other things to do, I got started on her room. If I don't just do it; it won't happen. First task? Saying goodbye to the Finding Nemo mural that I painted on the wall about 7 years ago before I even had kids.

Covering a wall mural is not a project that is high on my "want-to-do" list. Until I found this wall paper from Sears.


I bought this wall paper a long time ago and it's been sitting here waiting for me. I was nervous. I have never put up wall paper before. I had visions of it stuck to everything but the walls, full of rips and tears, the paper not staying and a husband who will never help me with any project again. But, I was pleasantly surprised and I'm over the moon happy with the results!

It was definitely a two person job and I'm lucky that my husband is over 6 ft tall! I will say that although it wasn't a FUN job, it was a fairly easy one and we got it done in good time.

Here's the wall before hand:


Here it is when we were half finished. You can still see the mural through the paper but I wasn't too worried about that because we will be painting it.



We finished the whole wall in about an hour and a half. That seems long but you have to wait while each strip sits wet for 5 minutes between wetting it and putting it up so we got a bunch of 5 minute breaks in there!

I have to trim around the edges still. My concern over seeing the mural through the paper? Well, when the paper dried you couldn't see it at all! All the bubbles disappeared and the wall looks amazing! The only downfall? I have to wait 72 hours to paint it and now I'm raring to go!

We did end up with a lot of wasted paper simply because you have to line the design up. I thought I had bought too much (2 rolls) but we needed it. I have a bunch extra but nothing that would line up or be long enough to do from floor to ceiling and still line up. I think this is a conspiracy on the wall paper company's part! Therefore, for this one wall cost us about $20 which isn't bad but if you were doing a whole room it could add up.

All in all, if you have a mural to cover, this textured wall paper is a fantastic, easy way to go. No sanding down paint lumps or brush strokes and no painting 5 or 6 coats of paint to cover the image. I didn't even wash the wall. The best part? One day when we don't live in this house - someone is bound to Find Nemo!


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