You Want to do What?

"You Want to do What?" is exactly what Nate said when I suggested that we use wallpaper in the dining room above the newly installed wainscoting.  I had seen some wallpaper in a clients home that looked phenomenal and was dying to do something similar.  Nate agreed to at least consider it, so off to Lowes we went to look through the books of wallpaper.  I knew that I wanted something with texture, and something that looked like a natural material (i.e. grasscloth, linen, etc.).  While looking through the books, the only thing that kept coming to mind was cheap, cheap, cheap.  Not inexpensive "cheap", but trashy "cheap".  Not the look we were hoping to achieve!  The other concern was the damage that wallpaper can cause to drywall when you attempt to remove it, and the pain the arse (I love an English accent) it is to remove wallpaper.

Not to be deterred, I started to do some research on using real fabric rather than wallpaper.  I found several websites dedicated to apartment living that suggested using fabric stiffener to apply the fabric to the walls.  When you were done renting the apartment you can take a warm wet sponge, wet down the fabric, and safely remove it from the drywall.  Wash the fabric and reuse!  This sounded like the solution!

I found a soft mocha colored linen fabric at JoAnn Fabrics which worked really well with the color scheme in the kitchen as well as the new hardwood floors.  Now, the task of applying it to the walls.

Nate was still not a huge fan of the idea, and was working on his own project in the Den (see that project here) so I attempted the project on my own.  First, I diluted the fabric stiffener with water so that the fabric remained pliable and soft.  I secured the fabric with push pins and applied the fabric stiffener with a paint roller.  One hour later and one wall was complete.  Well, not really.  It looked like complete crap!  There were bubbles everywhere, the fabric was slanted and it really didn't look like I had pictured it.  To make matters worse, our friends stopped by to see the house for the first time and made several comments about how terrible the fabric idea was.  I set out to prove them wrong!

After enough crying and yelling from me, Nate got the point that he should probably help.  This is definitely a project for two people!  We decided to run the fabric horizontally so that we did not have vertical seams like you would with wallpaper.  We were able to do this because of the wainscoting below.  The width of the fabric was larger than the height of the wall above the wainscoting.

We employed the push pin method again, and Nate did the rolling.  I followed behind using my hands to push out any air bubbles.  The fabric ends up quite wet from the fabric stiffener which helps it adhere to the wall better while it is "stiffening".  We did one wall at a time and allowed it to completely dry.  Once dry (about a day), we used a long straight edge and an exacto knife to trim off the excess fabric from the top, bottom, and two sides.  The fabric cuts amazingly well when it is stiff.  Once the edges were cut, we moved on to the adjacent wall and repeated all of the steps until the four walls were complete.

We ended up LOVING the final look and despite the pain in the butt it was to install, it was worth it.  It is a subtle detail but when you run your hand across the wall the texture feels incredible.  We can't imagine using a fabric with a pattern because it would be almost impossible to get things straight using this method.  By using the linen we didn't have that problem to consider.  If we ever stop loving the look of it, we can soak down the fabric and remove it from the wall all while leaving the drywall intact.  It was the perfect solution for us.

Drum roll please!

FINISHED DINING ROOM!

We completed the look by changing out the existing satin nickel chandelier with two drum shade chandeliers from Overstock.com.  The shade is a wood veneer which adds another texture to this room.  We were also able to buy a new table and upholstered chairs from Crate and Barrel with wedding gift cards.  The table is a dark espresso farm house style (we love the look of reclaimed wood and this table fit the bill), and the upholstered chairs have the same textural quality of the linen fabric which ties things together nicely. We had the buffet table from a great $99.00 Pottery Barn Outlet find (Nate just had to make some legs for it since they seemed to be missing!)  The table sits atop a jute rug that we bought at IKEA...again, another textural quality. We made a very bold statement with the drapes that my mother made for us using fabric (Iman Sultana Lattice in Noir) that I found at Calico Corners.  The fabric also has a textural quality to it due to the flocking of the pattern.  An avocado green band (Calico Corners Cobblestone in Avocado) was added to the drapes to bring some color to the room.

I LOVE MY DRAPES!

Nate took some reclaimed wood and made the trough on the table to hold the moss balls, again adding texture and color to the room.  We really love the results!  We have had three separate people sit at the table and tell us they feel like they are in a magazine.  So much for "You Want to do What?"!