Author: Making it Lovely

Stripping Wallpaper in the Bathroom

I wanted to do a little refresh of the bathroom on the first floor. The shower is fine. The antique console sink with separate hot and cold taps, paired with an antique toilet complete with wooden tank? Sure, stay as you are! The plan was to put up some new wallpaper, change out the lights, and do a fresh coat of paint on everything. Coming up with the plan was easy! Executing it has not been fun.

Why Not Just Paper Over the Old Wallpaper?

The bathroom gets pretty steamy during showers, so I had concerns about the longevity of wallpapering over the existing paper’s slick surface. I’ve removed wallpaper before — in this very house even — and while I knew it would take some time, I truly did not think it would be all that bad. I spent at least 40 hours stripping the old wallpaper! Ridiculous. The wallpaper had been applied directly to unpainted drywall and bare patched spots, so it came off in teeny tiny pieces (sometimes taking the drywall’s paper backing with it and softening the mudded areas).

As I shared the process in real time in Instagram Stories, people reached out to ask why I didn’t just drywall over it all once I realized how bad the job would be. I suspect the wall with the medicine cabinet actually is a layer of drywall over the original plaster. But why not do it over the existing paper? Putting up new drywall, taping, and mudding would take nearly as much time and effort while losing some of the depth of the room and trim profile. There may be a slight benefit of time saved, but at the expense of architectural details. So I continued on with the tedious job of stripping the wallpaper as neatly as I could.

Wallpaper Removal Methods

I tried scoring. Steaming. Soaking. Applying DIF wallpaper remover (with no noticeable difference between the liquid concentrate and the gel version, and no improvement over very hot water from a good spray bottle). There was no magic solution to make it go faster, though the wallpaper scoring tool did make the biggest difference. I tried a wallpaper removing tool, but preferred a small putty knife.

I did the work in batches. Three hours here, four hours there. There were a few long days too, but I learned my lesson early on when I kept pressing and did 12 hours of scraping and then couldn’t sleep because my shoulder hurt too much. I’m not as good at scraping with my non-dominant hand, so most of the work was all repetitive motion with the same arm.

I did finally get a scaffold after trying to reach various parts of the wall 10′ up with A-frame and multi-position ladders. I’m nervous about heights, so being four feet up is a stupid big deal to me. Any clanking noise or slight feeling of movement startled me! A truly unenjoyable experience all around.

Repairing the Walls and Preparing to Wallpaper Again

The job is done! Well, the wallpaper removal part is. Now I need to repair the damage left behind and get the walls in shape for new wallpaper to come. I’ll start by scrubbing the walls with DIF (vinegar is good too, but I already have the DIF on hand) to clean off any glue residue left behind. I’ll let it dry and then put a coat of Gardz on the walls before making my repairs (there will be many). So much Durabond to apply! I don’t think I’ll need to do a full skim coat though, just fill in areas here and there. Then it will be time to sand smooth and spot-prime with Gardz again. Following that up with Shieldz to prime for the new wallpaper.

Priming for Wallpaper

Why does one need to use wallpaper primer? One, it is opaque and will even out the wall color so no splotchiness shows through my new paper. Two, it gives you a little more wiggle room to slide the wallpaper into place before it dries. And three, it makes for easier future removal. I’m putting intertwined snakes up (Schumacher Giove wallpaper in ruby/garnet) — I imagine future homeowners may want to make a change at some point.

Prep Work and Painting the Rest of the Bathroom

All of that work so far and to come was just for the top half of the walls! The lower half of our bathroom has headboard wainscoting. I like it and want to keep it, so I’ll give it a light sanding, clean it, and paint it. One coat? Who am I kidding, I know it will be two.

The window, medicine cabinet, and doorway will all be sanded, cleaned, primed, and painted the same color and finish as the beadboard. Two or three coats on everything. The door will be done too, but in black, and the ceiling to match the woodwork in a flat finish. The ceiling needs some repair attention too — it was patched when we had to rip it open to repair leaking pipes in the bathroom above. I like a flat look on the ceiling, so I’ll be using Benjamin Moore Aura Bath and Spa paint in a matte finish.

A lot of work and I’m only halfway done, if that. But continuing on! It will be worth it in the end.

January 11, 2021
My Pink Dining Room with the Red Ceiling

Oh hey, remember when I was going to make over my dining room because I was inspired by a moth? I did it!

I need some art in there still, but I’m waiting to find just the right thing, rather than rush out to fill blank wall space. And I’m not letting that stop me from taking photos of what is a 92% completed room. I saw a post about the life-sized papier-mâché octopus from the 1893 World’s Fair here in Chicago, and I thought to myself ‘I should make things out of paper mâché.’ It hasn’t happened yet, but in my head I know it would be great. Moths for the dining room! Maybe not. But then I do want to make mushrooms that look like they’re growing out of the walls to line the hallway on the third floor, making you feel like you’re a little itty bitty thing in a fairy forest. Normal decorating stuff.

The room looks pretty much exactly like the mock-up. I’ve gotten good at doing renderings in Photoshop and SketchUp, honing my skills first for fun and for the blog, now just as often for clients to show what their spaces will look like. It’s a weird thing because I can see it in my head coming together just fine, but then I like to make it happen digitally to show others, and then I have to actually DO the work to make it happen. Like, I’ve already done the work of designing it, now I have to do all this other stuff? Blah, fine. I’ll paint for four days.

There’s some unwanted bokeh I don’t know how to avoid (is it dust, or the aperture being open too wide?), and yes that light is centered length-wise on the room but not width-wise. The junction box is in a faux wood beam and it seems like more hassle than it’s worth to move it. It’s probably because I don’t sit at that end, but it bothers me far more in photos than in real life. There are always more pressing/exciting things to do around here than to move that light.

Another before, rendering, and after. Pretty spot-on!

We have always been able to do the amount of work we do because I do so much of the manual labor, but that doesn’t mean I always want to. We hired out painting a handful of times and it was a dream. Snap your fingers (and spend some money) and it’s done! Voila. I wish it happened more often, but money saved on painters is money spent on an electrician to add sconces where before there were none.

The sconces are Vendome, by Visual Comfort. A modern classic. Note the delicate arc of the arms, subtle details, and pretty finishes. If those details are less important to you, you can get a very similar look for a lot less with this sconce.

The tablecloth was from the Schumacher collection for Williams-Sonoma (sold out, but some of the other items are still available). You can buy the same Bukhara Ikat pattern in their cotton sateen fabric, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a tablecloth.

I found and put in the room very briefly a rug I bought off of Facebook Marketplace. It was pretty, but too plush for a dining room, so I rolled it up and sold it for the same price I bought it for. Hello Calvin, my little model, and thank you for so cutely rocking the haircut I gave you! (I’m getting better at them as I go — I think we’re on round three of at-home haircuts by now.)

The rug we ended up with was me giving up on sourcing vintage rugs solely online during a pandemic and just wanting to be done with that task. Done! It looks great in photos and in person, but be aware that it is printed. I’ll usually opt to invest in something a little nicer, new or old, but in this case an inexpensive rug that’s super easy to vacuum (the flat texture means no food can get trapped in the weave) was exactly what we needed. This is the Loloi Layla rug in olive and charcoal.

I talked a lot about the process of this room coming together on Instagram Stories. Did you see the wallpaper I was considering for a client that I ended up falling in love with? And not getting?

I would have loved to paper the little hall between the dining room, kitchen, and bathroom, and also use it to line the back of the hutch. It would look amazing! But I had rolls of Ralph Lauren paper in the basement left from the previous owners (the pattern in the snug) that matched pretty well. I don’t love the pattern nearly as much, but I like it a lot and it was free.

Saving that expense (about $1000) let me put that money toward snake wallpaper for the bathroom which is equally exciting! Oh boy, there’s so much going on here that I need to put into blog form. Good stuff.

I’m feeling creative and motivated to work on the house again after doing this dining room update. It’s a good feeling! And woe is me for complaining about painting a ceiling, because I’m stripping wallpaper that was applied to bare drywall now and that has proven to be the far more laborious task. Oh, house. You don’t make it easy sometimes! It’s a good thing I love you as much as I do. We’ll get that bathroom looking amazing soon enough. And maybe a kitchen update to follow, hmm?

December 16, 2020
My Lovely Animal Crossing Island Fall Tour

My favorite games are all of the “let’s be friends and make our houses and towns cute” variety.

Animal Crossing came along right when we all needed it this year, and I’m pretty pleased with my virtual island. Let me show you around!

Dream Address

I updated the Dream Address the same day I took photos all around the island. Come on over to visit! DA-1449-9039-6742

I have an Instagram account dedicated to Animal Crossing too: Animal Crossing_LuluLovely. I’ll add a bunch of these photos in huge batches that will overwhelm feeds and hit right as people are looking for winter inspiration. (It’s a case study in what not to do to grow an Instagram account!)

The Entrance

All right, let’s look about. I realized that I forgot to take any photos of the area around my house or inside, but there are still a TON of shots, so it’s probably for the best. Welcome to my Lovely island!

The Formal Garden

The Post Office

Mushroom Fairy Forest

The Beaches

The Library

The Farm and Orchard

Around Town

I had a dream that I could mod Animal Crossing to make my own flowers and furniture and I woke up very excited about it before I realized it wasn’t real. I miss the exotic and regal series sets! Adding those back in would be step one. Instead, I keep opening up Blender, thinking I should figure it out and expand my Sims modding capabilities, but I’ve been sticking to floors, walls, and recolors for now. And making mods for Stardew Valley, because that’s well within my capabilities (pixel art and coding).

My youngest wants to be “an artist, YouTuber, and modder” when he grows up. (At first I thought he said “model” and I thought that was an interesting, unexpected choice.) Right now I’m in charge of making and/or finding, and then installing mods for all three kids, but I’m trying to encourage them to do more of it on their own. We do a lot of customizing for personal use and I want them to see how math and coding intersects with art in a fun, satisfying way.

OK, Bye!

December 8, 2020
70s Chic TV Hideaway
Can we get behind putting the TV back in armoires yet? Because sometimes it’s a good solution (she says as she thinks of the troublemaking pair of kittens that want to climb the face of our television). I like the scale and sort of 70s/Jacobean/Tudor style of this one, but I’d paint it black.

Let’s do a living room design! Because I wanted to design something with a dolphin mirror and that delicious velvet sofa.
1. Avril Table Lamp with Linen Taper Shade, Crate & Barrel – Modern shape, great color. The color I painted my dining room ceiling, actually.
2. Oval Tray in Orange Leopard, Dana Gibson – Rawr.
3. Melange Pill Form Sconce, Kelly Wearstler, Circa Lighting – The light glows through these in the softest, most beautiful way.
4. Entrance Poster, Fine Little Day – A little askew, but it beckons. I’m into it.
5. Aurelia Embroidery Fabric (for Pillows), Schumacher – Perfect for one long lumbar pillow.
6. Misha 24″ Silk Velvet Pillow, Jayson Home – I would need to verify that the color works with the sofa color if truly pulling this together, but we’re assuming it does and it looks amazing.
7. Love Joy Bliss Poof, Universal Furniture – SO stinkin’ cute. A pair of these, obviously, because they’re better in multiples.
8. Cossette Media Cabinet (Painted Black), Ballard Designs – I see an armoire* and I want to paint it black.
9. Paint, Benjamin Moore, Dinner Party AF – Rich red. Dare I say 90s red? It’s back.
10. Entwined Dolphins Mirror, Alice Lane Home Collection – This has been on my wish list for a few years. I don’t have a spot for it, so into this make-believe room it goes.
11. French Knot Drapery Panel (Ivory/Flax), Ballard Designs – Plain but pretty with texture.
12. Natural Wood Console Table, West Elm – Like an Eames molded plywood folding screen, but you know, as a table. The room needed more organic lines and wood grain.
13. Bloke Sofa (Ochre Velvet), Blu Dot – Long and sleek, but it looks friendly. You can see it, right? It’s a friendly sofa!
14. The Amie, UrbanStems – Pretty. Even the vase is nice.
15. Santoro White Quartz Coffee Table, CB2 – What a cutie this coffee table is. And the materials are echoed in the sconce and console table. Cohesiveness.
16. Maven Rug, Lulu and Georgia – I’ve been looking at so many rugs everyday in search of one for the dining room. This one is too nice to get food dropped on, but perfect for a living room.
*Eh? Eeehhhh? (I’m nudging you with my elbow and waggling my eyebrow.) I never left Team TV in the Armoire. Not in every situation, since flat screens are so unobtrusive now, but I do like a big honkin’ piece of furniture to anchor a room.
September 15, 2020
A Birthday Wish List Disguised as a Style Post!
I’m turning 40 this month (hooray!), so this is my *snap my fingers new wardrobe* birthday wish list. I don’t need any of it, but ooooh do I want it all.

I feel good about my age, and I don’t care much about birthdays, but I do miss feeling like I look nice. I stopped dyeing my hair sometime before Christmas, and I’ve liked seeing my hair change (I’ve had grays since I was 17 but have dyed off and on since I was 13 — every color but green and blue). I like the sparkly strands, but not the ombré of previously dyed hair that wants to go brassy. Coincidentally, that’s also around the last time I had a haircut and long hair is not for me. I’m not ready to go to a salon, and I know I’m picky enough with a professional haircut to not subject Brandon to my scrutiny of a home haircut. I figure I’ll let it grow until I can do a big chop and donate to a place that accepts dyed hair. Lots of crown braids and Gibson rolls in the meantime for me.

So it’s completely reasonable that while self-isolating during a pandemic in which I see only the people I live with, I just want to spend (adds up totals) oh, at least $2500 on pretty new things to wear? I want to look nice! It’s for my birthday. Let me pretend and be self-indulgent because after all, that’s what blogs are great for. I could be confined to my house for a milestone birthday in elegance.
1. Prudence Buttondown, Anthropologie — Because as a sophisticated woman in my forties, surely what I’ll need is a sweet little blouse with a Peter Pan collar.
2. Victorian Serpent Ring, Catbird — I still really want a ring that looks like a snake.
3. Risa Puff-Sleeved Buttondown, Anthropologie — Pretty! Just so darn pretty.
4. The Essential Slim Trousers, Anthropologie — I think I last bought these in 2016 and they’re still a favorite, but I’ve pretty much worn them out. (Wait, this may be too practical to be on the wish list.)
5. Chloé Glasses (CE2739, Havana), Eyeconic — Maybe I secretly want to be the Spider-Verse version of Doc Ock?
6. Plants and Cats Twilly Skinny Scarf, Centinelle — I am but a cliché of a woman. Plants and cats!
7. Safari Shirtdress (Butter Gingham), Tucker — This shape for me is the most flattering, most comfortable, instantly put together.
8. Linen-Blend Dolman-Sleeve Tie-Waist Midi Dress, Madewell — Every descriptive word in the name of this dress says it would be my favorite thing ever.
9. Long Crossbody Strap (I Am a Voter), Clare V. — I don’t often wear t-shirts, so messages emblazoned across my chest are kinda out, but I can get behind this. (Because I would feel conspicuous in a sash.)
10. Double Sac Bretelle (Tan), Clare V. — Just a simple but beautiful bag that goes with everything.
11. Layla Heeled Shooties (Green), Anthropologie — I would wear the heck out of these.
12. Nadine Slingback Heels (Dusky Rose), Boden — These too. Give me all the shoes with short block heels in great colors.
September 8, 2020
Spool Dining Chairs

“Where are those chairs from?” It’s a question that’s asked every time I share my dining room. I’m happy to share, but unfortunately, nobody is selling the same ones anymore.

We used to have Industry West’s Marais A chairs at the table. We still have them stored in the basement — they’re stackable and we use them when hosting for Christmas or other large gatherings.

They’re great chairs and hold up beautifully, but I liked them better in our previous house. I wanted a different look here, and it took a while before we were ready to buy. A full set of 8 dining chairs is expensive! Just as we were ready to purchase and I had decided on Abacus dining chairs by Noir, they were discontinued. I was almost able to get them at a great price because of it, but there weren’t enough left in stock. Next on my list was Redford House’s Abigail chair, but then I came across Baxton Studio’s Heather chair and those are the ones we have in our dining room.

The Abacus and Heather chairs are so similar because they’re both reproductions of antique spool chairs. Below are examples from 1st Dibs (chair 1, 2).

So where can you buy them now?

I started sourcing for this post in hopes of finding similar styles, and there are not many out there. The closest right now would be One Kings Lane’s Barton Spindle Side Chairs.

Ballard Designs’ Livia Spool Chair has similar elements and is very cute. The Redford House Abigail chair I had initially considered is still in production too. I’m not aware of anything more spot-on, but if this were for a client, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any of these.

Going vintage/antique is another good option for simimlar chairs, and a coat of black paint on an interesting shape goes a long way. Phrases to search for online in this case: spool, spindle, bobbin, turned, barley twist, Jenny Lind. Spool is the most accurate term, but all of those have the potential to turn up something similar. Searching for other historical styles can be helpful (they’re sometimes mislabeled). Try “side chair” or “dining chair” and Jacobean, Georgian, colonial, federal, empire, regency, or ladder back.

And whatever chairs you have, if the seats are upholstered I highly, highly, highly recommend getting seat covers to safeguard against kids or other particularly messy people in your life. These are the ones we have (you can see the straps on the chair in the center below). The fabric would be so gross on the kids’ seats if we didn’t have the covers on.

August 27, 2020