Category Archives: House / Kitchen & Dining

How is it now? Contact Paper as Temporary Wallpaper for Renters

Sometimes I try and share wacky projects that have readers emailing/commenting later on, asking how those wacky projects have held up. I’d like to share “how is it now” status posts occasionally. After all, what good is a project I’ve shared if it totally falls apart on me later?

Two years ago, in March 2011, I set about organizing our disastrous coat closet. Six hours and two home depot trips later I finished. . . having gone a little overboard, wallpapering the closet with contact paper.

Contact Paper How Now1

I chose contact paper because I knew it was made to stick onto drawers and shelves but peel off safely later. Why not walls?

So, How Is It Now?

I’m happy to report that the contact paper is still stuck on the wall, and peeled off, with no damage to the walls, when I tried peeling up a corner in the back.

Contact Paper How Now3

Where the edges of the contact paper meet the molding on the inside of the closet doorway (see below), there is a small bit of separating from the wall – but occasionally I just press it down to fix it. Contact Paper How Now4

Even the hanging bar, which I wrapped in contact paper because it was so ugly, is holding up well. After a few years of use, the contact paper is still holding strong.

In short, I’m very happy with how the contact-paper-turned-wallpaper has worked in our closet. It was the perfect solution.

However, now that I’ve tried Tempaper, the “official” temporary wallpaper option that’s out there, I’m not sure if I would recommend using contact paper to cover a whole large accent wall in a room. The contact paper cost $12 for the small closet. That was fine, because it’s just a closet. But covering a whole wall with it would probably cost the same as an $80 roll of Tempaper, and the Tempaper designs are prettier and wider than most contact paper I’ve seen.

However, if you’re looking for an economical and rental-safe way to cover the walls of a closet, or to cover a very small wall, contact paper could be the way to go.

Project Updates: New Desk, New Chairs, Basement Mess

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I remember how, in my first year of blogging, sometimes I’d want to write a blog post but I had nothing to share. Gone are those days. . . and here are the days where I have so much I want to write about, so many projects I want to share with you – yet not enough hours in the day to document them all. Oh, how I sometimes wish I had the luxury of being a full-time blogger, so I could just do projects and write all day long.

But since that’s not the case, here’s a taste of all the projects where I’ve left you hanging. I’m slowly putting together detailed posts for them.

My second set of Roadside Danish Modern Dining Chairs: Finished!! Eek, I am so excited to have completed this project. Ryan can no longer say “you never upholster the furniture you drag in off the side of the road.” I am slowly working on a tutorial, complete with a video, for how I fixed the chairs.

Mid-Century Danish Modern Dining Room | The Borrowed Abode The only problem now is Ryan’s penchant for doing 3,000 piece puzzles on our dining table. Kind of screws up my ability to serve dinners and/or do tablescapes.

My next crowning glory is the building of my rustic farmhouse desk:

DIY Pottery Barn Desk | The Borrowed Abode

Again, a tutorial is in progress. I’m trying to create actual building plans in Google Sketchup, but in the mean time may have to give you a general process rather than detailed sketches.

With my desk built and stained, my office is in the final stages of completion, and it’s just as exciting as the completion of the dining chairs. Next projects in here are cord control, a charging station, and hanging some art. But don’t go thinking it’s all rainbows and unicorns over here at the Borrowed Abode. Thanks to my removing the guest room, our basement currently looks like a bomb hit it. That bomb would be me.

Basement Mess

Actually, the other half of my office does too. I’m currently debating whether or not a yard sale would be worth the time and effort. The reason it may not be is because spending a Saturday morning working on Janery may be more financially rewarding than haggling over a 50-cent box of books.

What kind of projects are you working on? With spring in the air it means it’s warm enough to spraypaint outdoors again!!

Roadside Find: Danish Modern Dining Chairs, Part 2

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Hey friends! Have you missed me this week? ;)

In case you missed it, last Friday I shared an awesome small business Q&A and a giveaway from my friend Steffanie of Old Town Suds. Steffanie makes what I consider to be the most awesome laundry detergent of all time, and has offered up not one, but two prizes for this giveaway – so be sure to hop over and enter!!

Now where was I . . . oh right, I went to Vegas for work, stayed through the weekend for some fun adventures with one of my bffs, and came home just in time to get laundry done, re-pack, work a few days, and head to Dallas for Blissdom tomorrow.

That’s why I’ve been quiet.

But a reader reminded me last week that I was supposed to share the status update on my roadside dining chairs, so I snapped a few not-so-crisp photos just so I could keep you in the loop.

Refinished Roadside Chairs1 I did manage to get the chairs refinished, re-built (where they needed it) and the seats and backs reupholstered before leaving for Vegas. However, when I went to attach the backs to the chair frames, I realized I didn’t have the right size screws, and it was too late to go to the store. So that’s all I have left, and then I can sit in those babies and really blog the heck out of my refinishing process.

Refinished Roadside Chairs2

I chose to use the last of my Robert Allen Freja Floral fabric for the backs of the chairs, and because it’s out of print, i used a coordinating silver velvet on the seats. I love the two-tone look, although I fear I may spend too much time trying to brush the nap of the velvet in the “right” direction. :)

The wood, by the way, turned out beautifully. All it needed was a good sanding and a few rubs of Teak Oil. Refinished Roadside Chairs3

So it looks like I have a few key projects to finish when I come home from Blissdom: these two chairs, my office desk (which I had to partially take apart and re-do because something bugged me) and the original pair of roadside Knoll chairs. I guess those will be my March-to-April goals.

In the mean time, if you’re going to be at Blissdom, give me a shout!

Dining Room Art Wall Dilemma: Prints or Paintings?

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I’m rethinking my approach to the gallery wall in our dining room/kitchen area. Here’s why:

The dining/living/kitchen area is all open and flow-y. Or something like that. And that’s why I’m starting to think that the art that goes on one of the two dining area walls should fit the same style as the rest of that are.

For example, on the living room wall we have two paintings, one of which is this:

Living Room Oil Painting Corner | The Borrowed Abode

And if you continue down that wall to the dining area, we have a moody Ships at Sea painting which I picked up at Just L, our favorite mid-century modern shop, during the minimoon. I am absolutely in love with both of these paintings.

Dining Room Painting Ships | The Borrowed Abode

So with that in mind, I think it might be too random and clashing to have the opposite dining room wall display a growing gallery of random modern art prints and photos, framed in plain white frames.

Dining Room Beginning Art Gallery Wall | The Borrowed Abode

The photo above shows the current state of the wall (I just spackled all the holes in preparation for refreshing the paint).

If we continue that white frame wall over to the island, that’s going to be a heck of a lot of white on that wall. I feel like it may just look boring. I don’t like boring.

Random old paintings, however, in funky ridiculous old lady frames, however, may add a little more fun to the wall while blending better with the rest of the art we have in the entertaining spaces of the first floor.

Here’s some of what I’m loving, via Etsy, right now:

1. This Moulin Rouge oil painting via Shop on Sherman at Etsy. But at $190 it’s a little more than I think we’d like to spend right now. The style is so much like the Italian painting in our living room.

Moulin Rouge Oil Painting via ShopOnSherman on Etsy

This set of two miniature Dutch Oil Paintings via LittleBearandBunny on Etsy. I am really craving some miniature sets of paintings right now, I have no idea why.

Miniature Dutch Oil Paintings

With this in mind, I’m actually wondering if I could mix some older, classical-style paintings with some of our more modern art prints that we love, such as the Washington DC print in our kitchen photo above.

What do you think? If I popped the pop art into some old Granny style frames, would that help it all come together as a cohesive collection? Or do I need to pick one style – prints or old paintings?

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