Book Page Wallpaper and A Little Tour

As you might remember, we purchased a home about 16 months ago.  There are so many things that are perfect about our house...character, 2 bathrooms, a fireplace, hardwood floors, a craft room... but it's an old house.  

Built in 1928.  

With plaster walls.  

Yeah, aesthetically they are really nice to look at, but they are quite the pain in the back side.  There's no insulation, they cause extreme pain when rubbed against elbows and knuckles with laundry baskets in tow, and they are near impossible to put a nail or screw in to hang something from. 

 

I'm sure most of you are like me in the sense that you are constantly drilling or nailing new holes in your walls... for frames or signs or wreaths or old pieces of junk.  

Everything looks better when it's hanging on the wall, right?

And then I'm sure a lot of your husbands are like mine where you might get slightly threatened in a loving, caring, gentle sort of way if you dare to nail one more nail or drill one more screw into a wall already littered with spackled nail holes and overflowing picture, art, and junk galleries.

So when we bought the old house built in 1928 with lots of character and plaster walls, my husband was thrilled that the previously drilled holes would be the only drilled holes. 

 I won't lie, I've tried to add more, but only to find myself filling them with plaster and painting over them.  It just doesn't work!

I gotta tell you, my creativity feels a bit shackled.  

What do you mean I can't hang this 80 pound GORGEOUS antique framed mirror in my dining room?  

How am I supposed to display all these beautiful white plates and platters I have collected from various thrift stores and antique malls?  

Leave a wall bare...like NAKED?  Are you kidding me?!?  

Yes, I am pouting, and yes, I will get over it...maybe... But, for one wall in one room- my craft room/studio/office- I have found an alternative.

Are you ready for it?

Old book pages and TAPE!  

Yes, tape!  I told you it was no mess!  

The hardest part was mustering up the strength to tear out more than a couple of pages at once. 

I just started at the top right hand side and worked my way down and over, taping each book page to the wall and to another page.  The great thing about the plaster walls is that I won't have any trouble getting the tape off...the paint is glossy and the wall is bumpy.  So should I get tired of looking at the "wallpaper" I can simply pull it down!

This is also an opportunity to invite you in to a little part of my world. To give you the grand tour of where I do all of my creating.

I spend a lot of time in this room.  Etsy has been treating me well and this is where I do all of my painting and creating.  I've been trying to incorporate style yet I need all the storage and organization I can get.  Everything has to be functional.

Here is an old framed piece of canvas artwork that I found for 2 bucks at The Habitat.  I painted over the canvas with chalkboard painted and spray painted the frame gold...classy, I know!  I drew a map of the US so I can track all the places I ship orders to.  

I also took 2 frames, used a floral piece of scrapbook paper with white matting, and a dry erase marker to create calendars to keep up with orders-when they were placed and when they need to be shipped.  I found the wire hanging folder holder at Tuesday Morning for $14.99.  The top basket is for open orders and the bottom is for closed.

I found a nice big wooden lamp base at a thrift store for cheap but I was having a hard time finding a shade to go with it that would still allow me a lot of light.  I decided to use a embroidery hoop as a shade base, decorating it up with lots of lace, burlap, and ribbon scraps, and hanging it with twine from the ceiling.  

I hope to include a tutorial soon.

That's my Poppy's shoe shine kit there with a few of my paints.  He was a barber and back in the day, that little kit saw many a pair of shiny shoes.  He's since gone on the be with the Lord and so having an item like that in this room means a lot to me.

And then there's this!  This bolt of fabric totally rocks my world!  I found it for a steal at a local thrift store...$5.00 for the entire bolt!  You will be seeing lots of projects with it in the near future!

And the view this past week from my window..lots of white fluffy snow!  It was almost 70 degrees today so my view isn't quite so glamorous now.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my office and that you are inspired to create your own mess-free book page walls...

As for me, I'm praying our next house will be sporting sheet rock!

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Beyond the Picket Fence

Savvy Southern Style

Sweet Haute

House on the Way