We have recently been renovating our dining
room. When we shifted into our house we had two of the most ugliest brick bars
attached to the back wall of the dining room. Needless to say we were pretty
quick to rip them out. However, this left us with another issue - a big, boring
wall. The wall needed to have something exciting on it to bring the room to
life.
So off I went to the shops and searched the
Internet for this mysterious exciting ‘thing’ that was going to bring this room
to life. So after searching high and low what did I find… WALLPAPER.
And not just any old wallpaper - $500 a
roll wallpaper. Now there were 3 problems with this.
1 – the glaringly obvious – its $500 a
roll! Well and truly out of our budget!
2 – I have never hung wallpaper before and
I didn’t think the time to start was with $500 a roll wallpaper.
And lastly,
3 – the intricate pattern means that I
would have to line up the wallpaper, creating lots of wastage, and that meant
buying 2 if not 3 rolls of wallpaper – definitely out of the budget!
Being in the ‘I must have it’ type mood I
had to think of some way of getting this wallpaper. Eventually the thought
popped right into my head – I’ll paint it! And so began ‘The Wall’. I was going
to attempt to recreate the geometric pattern found on the wallpaper with paint.
Off I trotted to Bunnings and brought up
all their painters tape – about 8 rolls. I have attempted something similar
before and I can give you good advice that it is most definitely worth spending
a few extra dollars and getting the painter’s tape rather than plain masking
tape. It will save a lot of tantrums when you are trying to peel the tape off.
Back home I went, prepped the wall for
painting and painted 2 coats of the base coat colour – white on white by Dulux.
Then the ‘fun’ began.
I marked out with pencil marks where the
tape needed to intersect and run horizontally and vertically. Then I began to
tape…
About half a days work later I discovered
that this wasn’t going to work and so the tape came off and went in the bin with
my efforts.
Take 2 – I rejigged the markings and so the
taping began again. I started with the vertical and horizontal lines.
Then carried on the diagonal/intersecting
lines.
2 days later and we were done … well with
the taping at least.
Next it is very important to paint overtop
of all your hard work with the base colour again. This creates a seal and stops
the colour coat from seeping through the edges. It gives you a nice clean line.
Once dry pain 2 coats of your chosen colour
– ours is ½ white duck by Dulux. You must then wait until the topcoat is well
and truly dry. Then take a big breath and start to pull the masking tape off.
It’s very very nerve-racking!
But after 2 days of taping, 5 coats of paint and lots of tantrums I can now present you The Wall (undressed).
