get a little crazy

This past week I have gotten very little sleep. Everly hates her crib, and I love to snuggle, so it's really hard to motivate myself to keep her in that cage while I could just scoop her up and kiss away her fears and cuddle her to sleep. Also, my body has realized that she wakes up a ton when she's in the crib, so my brain is like, "Why bother going to sleep when we're waking up in an hour anyway? Let's think about all the things that will happen in the next year."

This means that I don't really get the amount of sleep that I need to recover from things like colds, hard work, being a full time mom and full time musician, life, etc., so I've just learned to operate in a generally sleepy state.

I stay at home with Everly most days, and I love to make our house look like a home while I'm here. The kitchen has been bothering me since the day we signed the lease. It had this old blue country wallpaper that was peeling off and sucking up all the light coming from the glass doors. I had created a little workstation for myself in the corner next to the counter, and was just feeling stifled and suffocated when I would try to do work in my designated workspace. I ended up doing most of my work sitting on the couch with my computer in my lap, which was so bad for my back that I would have a headache by 3 pm every day.

In a stroke of inspiration (madness?), I woke up one day and decided it was time to make a change. This is not after a full night of restorative sleep; no, this was after a night of about 3 real hours of sleep. I had just hit my limit of days that I could tolerate that wall, so I did some research and bought my supplies and made my house work for me.

The process

 

Problems: The desk is right next to the door, so we drop everything there on the way in. We also leave stuff on it that needs to go out, like the stuff underneath that needed to go to Goodwill. It's the only place I have to store my printer, scanner, and large art. The wallpaper is so dark it makes that tiny corner look like a cave. This corner was one of the worst parts of our house.

Process: I got a little crazy one day and just started pulling the wallpaper down. I started where it was already peeling and took the entire first layer off. 

I then realized I was going to need to scrape off the bottom layer to add any paint to the wall. After some extensive Pinterest research, I decided that the fabric softener method was the one for me. (Details below). It took me a few hours over the course of two days (I had other things going on that took precedence), but it really wasn't that hard. 

I grabbed a $1 roller from the Dollar Tree and some leftover paint from the rest of the living room, and reserved a naptime for painting. It felt like it took no time at all since the wall really wasn't that big. I took the junky stuff to Goodwill and moved the printers into storage since I haven't used them in 2 months.

 

I took a few minutes to do some measuring, and found that the desk fits perfectly over the radiator that we don't use. The light is so much better in this spot, and I have better access to Everly and her needs. It feels more like an office and less like an afterthought. 

The paint color has totally opened up this room, and the rearrangement has made it more welcoming and functional. The total cost was only $2 since I used leftover paint and got the fabric softener and the roller at the Dollar Tree. I got a little crazy with this project, but the results are helping me stay sane.

Wallpaper Removal:

Supplies:

• Squirt bottle
• fabric softener
• scraper

Steps:

1. Remove any outlet covers.
2. Mix 1/3 fabric softener with 2/3 water in the squirt bottle.
3. Peel top layer of wallpaper off.
4. Saturate remainder with fabric softener mixture.
5. Let sit until you can see bubbles under the paper. (You want it to sit long enough to be really soggy, but not long enough to dry.
6. Scrape off the saturated paper. If it is still sticking, spray again and wait.
7. After all the paper is down, wash the walls with water and a towel to remove any sticky residue before painting.

What is driving you crazy in your home? What's stopping you from fixing it? Leave a note in the comments!

--Caroline