Wallpaper, Floors, and Colors-One Room Challenge Week 2

Hello, and welcome back to The Brick Nests and The One Room Challenge! We have taken some major steps towards transforming the guest bedroom from a dated paisley snoozefest into a chic and cozy guest nest. Things have been a little crazy around here! This week I used my time to make decisions about wallpaper, floors, and colors, oh my! Already the room is looking very different, and all this progress has got me feeling very excited about the project. Read on, and I’ll take you through my decision making process!

The first step to redoing this guest bedroom for the One Room Challenge was pulling up the carpet and sanding the floors. We did not do any of the floors when we moved in, and boy, do I regret that. At the time, we were a little overwhelmed by the amount of wallpaper removal and painting that needed to be done immediately, and had to prioritize, as we were expecting our second son very soon after we closed. It was a busy time, and we simply didn’t notice that the floors needed a little TLC in just about every room. Redoing the floors room by room has been a tedious five-year process, each time necessitating the removal of all the furniture out of the room, going on vacation (well, that part isn’t so bad!) while the floors were being done, and then moving all the furniture back into the room. If you are buying a new house, make sure to look closely at the state of the hardwood floors. If work is needed, when possible, try to have your floors done before moving in. However, don’t sweat it if you have floors left to do–it just takes a little rearranging and some planning, but it’s still manageable.

See, doesn’t that look manageable and super functional??? This is my son’s bedroom, crammed with all the guest bedroom furniture while the guest bedroom floors were being redone. It was a hassle to be sure, but actually my kids did find this maze of stuff quite enjoyable and interesting! Me…well, I’m a little more Type A and organized, so naturally I couldn’t wait to finish up Week 2 of the One Room Challenge so I could get this room back in order!

Thankfully the guest bedroom is the last room that needed to have carpet removed. RIP, yucky carpet! To see the carpet before its unceremonious exit from my home as well as some before photographs of the guest bedroom, check last week’s post. If you are new to The Brick Nests, be sure to check out our About page to learn more.

Anyway, the great news is that the floor underneath turned out to be in great shape. Unlike the stairs leading up this space which I wrote about in my previous post, there was no leftover carpet pad stain, so there will be no need to paint over this floor. Here is a picture during the refinishing process and the finished product. Look how pretty those floors are now!

Now we are in business with a new, fresh wood palate. Next up, wallpaper! Wallpaper is making a huge comeback–not the blah paisley ’80s wallpaper that was previously in there, but fun, fresh wall coverings in all sorts of colors, patterns, and textures. As I said last week, I wanted the hard-to-change elements of this room to be gender neutral, in case some day one of my kids claims it as a bedroom. Furthermore, while it remains a guest bedroom, I want it to appeal to everyone who stays there, without being overly masculine or feminine. So, that helped narrow down my wallpaper search to a neutral color. While I love fun patterns, I knew I didn’t want an over-the-top pattern that I may get tired of in a few years, as ripping down and replacing wallpaper is no small task. Lastly, I wanted to make the room appear taller, as it has a slanted, vault-like ceiling. Therefore, I gravitated towards vertical prints in a neutral hue that would elongate the walls. For all these reasons, I narrowed the vast selection down to the three choices below.

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Here is the first option I considered. It has been a favorite of mine for a long time–I have been saving inspiration images of this Woods wallpaper in rooms for years! It has such a cool effect, and also goes with my tree fort nest inspiration for this room. But, alas, I just couldn’t pull the trigger on this paper choice for the guest bedroom makeover. I guess when it came down to it, I felt that maybe it was too trendy, and perhaps I would tire of the look in a few years. I also thought it was slightly more masculine than feminine, and therefore not quite as gender neutral as I was hoping for (subconsciously saving this room for my daughter, perhaps?). Anyway, seeing the image of this wallpaper while writing this post does make me a tad remorseful I didn’t choose it because I do love it, and if there was ever a room to use it in, it probably is my tree fort guest bedroom. Oh well, not enough time to wallow! If you are considering a big-impact wallpaper but are afraid to commit to covering the whole room with the pattern, one option is to paper just one wall of the room to create a feature wall. If I decide I can’t live without this paper, I won’t close my mind to doing just that in the future.

Here is the second option I considered. Grasscloth is making a huge comeback in the textured wallpaper arena and is hot, hot, hot right now. I recently had my living room done in this sage Serena and Lily grasscloth and boy, is it a beauty! After my living room was finished, I had almost a whole double roll left over. While it would have been great to use the remaining roll up by also choosing this paper for the guest room, there was not nearly enough to wallpaper the entire guest bedroom, and the cost of ordering more for this project was prohibitive–this paper is stunning, but pricey! Also, the textured pattern is created by a horizontal weave, and therefore doesn’t have the wall-heightening effect that a vertical pattern would have.

This is my living room with the sage grasscloth. The photograph is for a furniture re-upholstery project that is currently in progress, which explains the rolls of fabric on the floor behind the chair (future blog post, stay tuned!), but I thought I may as well share the photograph now as it pertains to the wallpaper. By the way, the artwork is by my very talented sister-in-law, Rebecca Jusko Peraner, of Nantucket Looms. If you can, you should visit the wonderful Nantucket Looms in person, or check it out online.

Oh wait a minute–looky look what I stumbled upon while I was visiting the Nantucket Looms’ site! The hubby and I had our modeling debut last time we were in Nantucket at a shoot for Nantucket Looms. Clearly you can see we are naturals, and expect the modeling agencies will be blowing up our phones real soon. Enough about my blossoming modeling career (seriously joking here), and back to the wallpaper!

 Source: Nantucket Looms

Finally we are on to the third option and winner of The Brick Nests’ One Room Challenge wallpaper contest! May I present another Serena and Lily looker, the Feather wallpaper in Bone. The color is absolute perfection, even better in person than in photographs. It’s a very light taupe color that works very well with the trim color in the guest bedroom, and I couldn’t be happier with how bright and beautiful it looks on the walls. The room appears taller, brighter, cleaner, and much more modern. Take a look and decide for yourself, and feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I promise even if you don’t agree with my choice, I won’t take it down and start again (not enough time anyway!). I love this wallpaper, but would also love to hear your thoughts!

   

Wowza! We are getting a lot done. Now that I have the wallpaper up, I have a better feel for the room and the color scheme I am going for. As I am planning to keep the room mostly neutral colors of gray and taupe, I need to bring in some serious punches of color. I love using bright colors in rooms, but aside from my red dining room walls and the sage wallpaper of the living room, I tend to stick to neutral wall colors, and then add color pizzazz with furniture, pillows, art, and accessories. This is exactly my plan for this guest bedroom as well. This little tree fort nest will use colors inspired by the green trees that surround the room, as well as some pops of pink inspired by the beautiful clematis plant visible from one of the windows of the bedroom. My vibrant green chalk-painted dresser will be taking center stage in this guest bedroom as a bold color focal point, but now it’s time to start thinking about other ways to bring in those pink and green elements!

Be sure to come back next week to check in on our guest bedroom’s progress. Up next: windows, lighting, and a rug, what fun! A special thanks to Calling it Home for hosting this amazing and inspiring One Room Challenge event. Don’t forget to pop in and see the progression of hundreds of other guest participant rooms (warning: it’s a serious feast for the eyes, and all the inspirational rooms may send you into your own personal One Room Challenge frenzy!).