Wallpapered Bookshelf

[dr.girlfriend]

Only did one of the two bookshelves but I really like how it looks!  Hopefully will find the energy to do the second one soon.  This is that adhesive repositionable wallpaper -- it was impossible to match up exactly at the seam but turns out it doesn't really matter once it's up -- the pattern is busy enough that I don't think the seam is noticeable.

[dove]

That looks very pretty! I want to do that to some shelving in the primary room’s closet.

[pumpkin]

That looks great! Something like that is on my to-do someday list.

[larzhope]

so pretty!

[dr.girlfriend]

Ha, I couldn't leave a project half-finished. Almost midnight but the second one is done!

[nicolewi]

Looks great!!

[deadwing]

Nicely done! This is something I've been wanting to try, but I'm scared I won't get it on straight/line up the seams/etc

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 3, 2022 7:37:48 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Nicely done! This is something I've been wanting to try, but I'm scared I won't get it on straight/line up the seams/etc

Alright, here's what I've learned.

First, I kept trying to align the left edge of the wallpaper with the left edge of the bookshelf, and it kept drifting off as you went on -- now, granted these were 8-foot bookshelves but I suspect in the end it is the bookshelf itself that is not 100% square.  For the second bookshelf I wised up and realized I had plenty of width, so I just overlapped the first run so that it was all the way up to the edge and bent, and then just cut it to fit with a utility knife.  :-)

For the seam, at first I kept trying to make every feature of the design align perfectly, and that just wouldn't happen.  Ultimately, I picked a design kind of in the middle that I thought would be most visible if unaligned (the spray of berries) and then just worked up and down from there.  As long as there's no white space between the panels it's not really noticeable if the design doesn't line up perfectly in all parts.

You DEFINITELY need another set of hands to wrangle unless you're doing a really small area.  I probably should have waited until my husband was more consistently available.

[Pilsy]

These look fantastic. Nice job!

[mrsukyankee]

Well done! It looks great.

[simpsongal]

love it!

[lessel]

Love it. I want you to come do my house. Every time you post a picture of either a small thing or an entire room, I'm like... why can't I get my house to look like that?!

[MrsDarcy]

Looks great!

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 6, 2022 14:45:50 GMT -5 lessel said:

Love it. I want you to come do my house. Every time you post a picture of either a small thing or an entire room, I'm like... why can't I get my house to look like that?!

Aw, thanks so much!  This is the new room that we built from scratch, so that really helped.  That said, almost all the furniture in it was repurposed from other parts of the house.  I've had these big bookshelves since I was a grad student 20 years ago ... you have to give it to solid-wood bookshelves, they are very sturdy!  They have moved with me at least seven times, got painted white, etc.  I'd love to put more decorative trim on them but that's a project for another time.  ;-)  They used to be in our living room, but when we built built-ins in the living room we moved them to our bedroom and they've just been collecting junk in here.  Now they at least look decorative, and it's amazing how much less annoying the junk looks when it has an attractive backdrop!

[libbygrl109]

They look great!

[bhnumbers]

that's so pretty!!!