New French Country leaf scroll wallpaper is up in the guest powder room in the entry. And, I love it! The bathroom has taken a giant leap in its renovation from American Country to French Country.
F R E N C H C O U N T R Y
L E A F S C R O L L W A L L P A P E R
When we first built our country house, there was still much to do to transform the new house into one with character and charm.
The house was complete,
but, at the same time, the house was not complete.
All walls were painted, all flooring was in place, all kitchen cabinets were sealed, all bathrooms had basic fixtures, the air conditioning/heat pump kept it cool and warm . . .
Plus, the structure had/has great bones. Massive posts and beams, exposed wood ceilings with joists, a few special nooks and crannies, Austin white limestone three-story fireplace, soaring ceiling in the living room, and beautiful Palladian window wall opposite the fireplace.
Yet, the rooms needed wallpaper, bead board walls, solid paneling walls, proportional wood baseboards, carved wood mantel, window treatments, and furniture to create a home with style all my own.
Room by room, we did the work ourselves and added all the "not-your-ordinary-tract-house" features that make a home special. In the beginning I laughingly joked we would be working on the house until we were 50. What an underestimation of the amount of time needed to transform a house!
The little guest bathroom in the entry area was the first room we completed.
The final bit of decor was wallpaper, including a wallpapered ceiling. We papered the bathroom and ceiling over the Fourth of July long weekend the summer after moving into the house. Papering the irregular shaped ceiling was akin to a comedy routine in I Love Lucy. One of us standing on a step ladder and the other standing on the closed toilet, we kept trying over and over again to get the pasted wallpaper to stick to the ceiling, yet to have it fall down on heads repeatedly. We finally succeeded, exhausted from holding our arms over our heads for what seemed like hours.
For months afterwards, I would go stand in the doorway of the bathroom to admire the only "finished room".
All of the original wallpaper stayed tightly adhered to the walls and ceiling for years, making it possible to hang the new French Country scroll leaf paper over the old wallpaper on the walls.
The antique carved pine chest was originally a wash stand with a marble top. When I found the chest in Forney, Texas, the marble top was broken into two pieces. The broken top was what convinced me it was okay to convert the antique into a sink vanity. We had to remove boards from the back to allow for the plumbing lines for the sink. The broken top also meant the wash stand cost much less than one in good condition.
To save money, we added a cultured marble top with a hole cut for a blue porcelain sink. The plan was to one day replace the cultured marble top with a real marble top, but a new marble top has never been high on the to-buy list.
The patina from the unstained pine chest with its hand carved doors was, and still is, perfect to go with the pine and hemlock posts and beams in the house.
Before the plumbers delivered the sink to install it, the salesman called to say he had good news and bad news.
The bad news. The sink had a small unnoticeable chip along the back edge that happened when the plumbers removed the sink from their display. The salesman lowered the price even more due to the chip.
The Good News. The color of the sink was not discontinued, and I could buy a new sink if I wanted one without a chip in the rim. A small unnoticeable chip is another bit of patina and big savings. Yes, I bought the chipped display model.
The ceiling is painted blue to match the entryway walls outside the bathroom. The color blends with the new wallpaper. However, I may want a darker blue to coordinate better with the chippy blue sink.
Here is a photo in which I added dark blue to the ceiling to see how a dark color looks with the new wallpaper and the room overall. The dark blue color on the ceiling is not the actual color, Inked Blue by Behr, I am considering for the ceiling, but gives an idea of how a dark blue would look.
Q U E S T I O N
Which color do you think looks better on the ceiling?
A) the pale blue that matches the walls in the entryway
B) the dark blue that goes better with the navy sink
The small guest powder room mini makeover is almost finished. Soon you will see all of the after photos and a list of sources for the French Country leaf scroll wallpaper, paint, mirror, and light fixture with its wood carved round ceiling embellishment.
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The upstairs bathroom remodel is getting closer to a start date for the work. Fingers crossed this last contractor will start soon. The plumber and dry wall subcontractors came to the house with the general contractor last week to get first-hand information about what the remodel entails.
