Redneck wallpaper

So a few days ago I went with my friend Sarah to a Benjamin Moore store to look at paint for her condo. Benjamin Moore stores are hard to come by in Toronto, so this was quite the excursion for us! However we did just receive the happy news that Canadian Tire will soon be carrying some of the Benjamin Moore line!!

While there we decided to look at wallpaper, because I had been considering wallpapering the old accent wall in the livingroom. I do not think I will do this for various reasons, but the main one being this:

This was ONE wall of wallpaper books! I am NOT good at making decisions. Give me 5 options and I could tell you no problem. Give me 5,000,000 choices and I just walk right out the room! haha

But today's post IS somewhat related to wallpaper. Specifically, I was looking to spiffy up this part of my kitchen:

When I painted, I only painting the back of the top shelf because I was pretty sure I was going to do something different back there- perhaps an accent colour of some nature? Well today I was home sick and after about 16 hours of sleep I was feeling a little peppy so I thought I could tackle this small project! Hint Hint- it was not paint!!

So I cleared off the shelves and gave them a good wash. I seriously don't know how they got so dirty since the only thing I regularly use up here is the blue oven mitt and the kettle.

You can barely tell that only one of the backs is painted! Sometimes I think I went too subtle with my paint choice, but overall I still like it!!

I decided to add a little pattern and fun behind these shelves- in the form of wrapping paper!!! AKA- redneck wallpaper. haha I should trademark that. The first thing I did was select from among my 5 choices of wrapping paper. I wanted something that didn't LOOK like wrapping paper, so I went with this pretty pattern:

It is kind of reflective, so it was hard to get a good shot. I might actually buy a nice paper specifically for this project on another day (remember, I am sick so I wasn't putting on clothes and going out just for wrapping paper).

Originally I was going to use double-sided tape to adhere it to the wall, but then I realized that would probably damage the wall and be hard to take off one day. So I used sticky tack! Yay for having stuff like that on hand! It won't be as smooth of a finish, but the objects placed in front of this will help hide that.

So I stuck my tack on the wall:

Please note the superior tack technique

And then I carefully measured and cut out my paper. I always thought I had an issue with measuring because NOTHING works out for me, but this project has taught me that I actually suck at cutting. I won't disclose how much wrapping paper I went through. Thank the lord for large rolls! But eventually I did get them up there!

 

It is REALLY hard to photograph because it is so reflective! I tried from an angle:

 Much better! You can really see the pattern here! I think it plays off the metallic hardware in the kitchen and the turquoise in the bedroom area. However I am not entirely sold, so I am going to keep my eye out at Hallmark from now on.

Here it is with all the stuff back up:

Overall, I would say Redneck Wallpaper turned out fairly well! The best thing about this project is that it was F-R-E-E. But if you want to factor in the original cost of the wrapping paper and sticky tack, I guess is was a whopping $6. This is also a good sign that I probably shouldn't be stuck in my condo all day because I start hanging wrapping paper on the wall.

Oh man, I just remembered I hung wrapping paper on the wall as a Christmas decoration last winter. I think I have a problem....

PS- Tomorrow is my birthday! When I am back on Monday, I shall be an older and wiser Casey :)