For awhile now, I've been a bit obsessed with black. Specifically: black walls.
It's not like I'm trying to be macabre. I don't go to Hot Topic to get inspired for my decor. But there's just something about a black wall somewhere that gives a room a bit of POP. I didn't even realize how often I was pinning rooms with black walls in them.
A few weeks ago my sister-in-law was over, picking up the flower girl dress I'd altered for my niece. We were standing in my kitchen, talking about how hideous it is (my kitchen, not the dress!), and I felt the same aggravation at having an ugly kitchen rear up within me again: florescent lights (who EVER thought those were a good idea??) honey oak cabinets a la 1980, and country-fried plaid wall paper under a chair rail. The kitchen is by far my least favorite room in my home, and it is, alas, the one I spend the most time in.
See it there behind us?? Ugh. For three years I'd thought about that wallpaper. I thought about tearing it off, but traumatic memories of hours and hours of scraping wallpaper off a bathroom wall made me twitch at the thought. I thought about putting up some bead board, but that is still pretty cottage-y and not really my style. So I was stuck. But after Rachel left, I found myself staring at the dumb wallpaper and feeling my resolve harden. I went straight to the computer and looked up methods for removing wallpaper, and after browsing sites that all told me I needed some crazy supplies, I found one tiny little blurb that rocked my world: you can use fabric softener and hot water to remove wallpaper. WHAT. IS. THIS.
So I decided to test it. I used the fabric softener that I made myself, and picked a small section between a doorway and the fridge. Using a one-to-one ratio of hot water to softener, I took a rag and wiped the wall down. The paper peeled. My scraper scraped. In literally ONE MINUTE all the wallpaper was off. Seriously. One minute. I was giddy. I was ecstatic. I was also a little ticked off that I endured three years of plaid because of misinformation. But mostly I was totally stoked.
In a little over an hour, my kitchen was completely wallpaper free. In need of patching and repainting, but Oh, joy!! Anything but that plaid.
Then I gazed upon the one wall, and it spoke to me. Paint me black, it said. The Rolling Stones started singing in my head. I had no choice, really.
Part chalkboard, part black backdrop, part black happiness.
Only now I notice the crappy linoleum even more. DOH! Next on the list, I suppose.
7 comments:
This is lovely Jen. Quite modern and not macabre at all. I think it's a great backdrop for your artwork! Question: did you use the chalkboard paint for the whole thing or did you use two different black paints?
Awesome! I can hardly wait to live in a home that I actually own so that I can paint a wall much like that one. I've even considered purchasing a huge canvas in place of a wall, but...
Holy crap, woman!! I thought that was another Pinterest pin there - that last photo. You know, the one that is YOUR kitchen! Awesome, AWESOME!! And, honestly, you totally don't notice the lino. It just disappears!
I agree with Linz above! At first I didn't realise it was your kitchen! It is fantastic! I have wallpaper in my bathroom that is way worse than your plaid. Way worse. Tomorrow I'm going to try this.
Gorgeous!
By the way, I love that family picture of you all (in the before picture). So cute!
WOW, this is amazing. It's crazy how a few simple things can really change the look of a room.
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