I have to come up with a different plan for the back entry of my studio. The wallpaper idea isn’t an option.
I spent hours this last weekend working on the wallpaper. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I still plan on using the wallpaper I designed for this room, but my mom and I did a little redesigning and tweaking of the design to lighten and brighten some of the colors so that the flowers (especially the darkest purple flower) would still look like an actual flower from a distance rather than a dark purple blob. You can see what I mean on the original wallpaper here…
But I also wanted to have the design printed so that the flowers are much larger. It’s been quite a process trying to find a company that will print it like that. Well, as if Spoonflower was reading my mind, I got a marketing text from them last Friday with helpful links for creative wallpaper ideas, and one of the links was specifically about how to turn an image into a wall mural and have it printed by them.
Their system really isn’t set up for printing murals, so you have to know how to edit photos using Photoshop or something similar, and how to work around their printing process. It’s definitely not a process for beginners, but for those who have experience with Photoshop (or a similar photo editor), it’s doable.
So I spent several hours last weekend following their tutorial, editing my image so that it would work with their printing process, and checking and double checking to be sure I had done everything right.
Then after finding a coupon online for 20% off (which was more than their Memorial Day sale), I went to order. The mural for the long wall with the cabinets came to $414 before the discount, and $298 after the discount. That seemed reasonable for such a long wall.
But the wallpaper for the back entry came to $1564 before the discount, and $1126 after the discount. That means that even with 20% off, all of the wallpaper for both areas would come to just under $1500.
I came very close to clicking that Buy Now button, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. Spending $1500 on wallpaper just isn’t something that I’d do, especially when there are so many other things (like landscaping) that I could spend that money on.
I don’t mind splurging on things that I really, really want. Buying a $2600 sofa was a splurge for me. Spending $40,000 to convert a bedroom into an accessible bathroom that suits both Matt and me was definitely a splurge. But $1500 on wallpaper isn’t something that interests me. I’d rather put that money towards a rock border for my front flower beds, or finally getting our carport lights installed and the ceiling finished.
I was disappointed, but there are other issues with wallpapering the back entry as well that made the decision not to buy the wallpaper a bit easier. I’ve been concerned about how the wallpaper would last in that area. I’ve told y’all before, but our house is constantly shifting and moving throughout the year. That’s the pain of living in a house built on a pier and beam foundation. And one reason that I’ve never used wallpaper in such a way that it has to wrap around a corner in this house is because as the house shifts, I would risk having wrinkled wallpaper in the corners.
I don’t have any wallpaper wrapped around corners in our house, but I do have a corner where the actual drywall tape has wrinkled as the house has shifted throughout the year. You can see it here in the breakfast room corner. This drywall tape started off perfect when they originally installed and mudded the drywall. But it took less than a year for the entire corner, from from the ceiling to the floor, to wrinkle due to shifting.
It’s just one of those things that we homeowners in central Texas with pier-and-beam foundations have to deal with, along with cracked drywall.
If the price of wallpapering the back entry had been considerably less, I probably would have taken the chance with the house settling and shifting and potentially having wrinkled wallpaper in the corners. But if I’m going to spend that much money on something, I want to know that it’s going to last. And this area has already shifted enough so that the bathroom door doesn’t close perfectly like it did when I first installed the door. So it’s not a question of if this area would shift and move throughout the year. That’s a given. It would just be a game of wait and see to see how badly the shifting would affect the wallpaper, if at all.
So while I’m still moving forward with the mural for the long front wall, I’m back to the drawing board for the back entry.
I really don’t feel all that disappointed (only mildly disappointed, which is how I know this is not something I’d consider splurging on), but I am frustrated that I need to come up with a new idea for this area when I thought that the decision was made, and had been making plans for the bathroom based on wallpapering this area. (Excuse the cobwebs. :-D)
And, of course, my first thought was stripes…because I love stripes. Y’all know that I’d paint stripes on every wall in my house if I thought I could get away with it.
So unless I can come up with a new and creative idea, stripes might make an appearance at this end of the house in this back entry. I have three areas with stripes at the other end of the house (hallway walls, guest bedroom floor, and home gym walls), so maybe bringing some stripes to this end of the house would balance things out! ?
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
