Obsessed: wallpaper

Although I've had paint swatches coming out the wazoo around this place for the past couple of months, I have secretly been obsessed with wallpaper (not paint) the entire time. Paint is great. It's so easy and can really change a room quickly, but it's solid (I suppose unless you go faux) and I love pattern. Of course the rest of the world (aka future home buyers) probably don't love pattern as much as I do, so paint is a smarter decision in that sense. However, we've been trying to come up with a paint color that would complete the look of our black and white bathroom and we just can't find anything that feels right. Perplexed, I thought "what ever will we do?". Ah-hah! Wallpaper. So I suggested it to the husband (prepared to hold my ground in a full out battle), but much to my dismay, he simply smiled and agreed. And life was good again in an instant!

I'll never forget how much we (or at least I) loved the wallpaper in our new house that my family moved into when I was in 5th grade. It was so much cooler than the paint and paneling in our old house. It gave the whole house a sense of sophistication (even back then I had a thing for design!). It was the 3 paper combo type where the bottom half of the room is one print, the top another with a border in the middle. My parent's room had it, my brother's room had it, the bathrooms and even the dining room, but my bedroom didn't and I oh so wished that it did! Over the past 2 decades (wow - I'm old) that my family has lived in the house the patterns have changed a couple a times, but wallpaper always remained, mostly because it is such a nightmare to removed. Now though, with each passing summer my mom painstakingly tackles the removal of our beloved wallpaper in room after room. Out with the paper and in with paint. And I agree, it is time to say goodbye. I suppose all those differing styles in every room did make for a bit too much pattern, but I sure did love it. I wonder if my parents loved it as much as I did? Miss you old wallpaper!


Now for our bathroom project we're not talking about that country kitschy border loving wallpaper that was running rampant in my childhood home, we're talking bold geometric all over pattern. Take a look a few of my favorites that I found while searching for "the one".

A wooded bath.

Oh Imperial Trellis, how I love thee!

My favorite blue with feathers and a hint of metallic.

Again, blue with metallic.
Loving me some bling!

Classic black and white.
Just like what we're hoping to achieve in the bathroom.

Flocked with a dab of color.

Kitschy, in a mod sort of way.
I love that crow, but will the next buyer?

My color palette inspiration for the back guest/craft room!!
(note to self to keep this guy on file!)

Now this is what I'm talking about!
Metallic gold & black, Hicks Hexagon.

This toned down version of Hicks Hexagon was one of the front runners.
(But the gold would have won if this was our forever home!)

And finally, our winner.

White with metallic silver circles.
Just the right amount of classic sophistication with the shot of fun we were hoping for.

We think it will be awesome over our new white wainscoting and a black baseboard, with a black and white hexagon tile floor. The sample has been ordered and now we wait to see if it works.

Tom Petty is right, the waiting is the hardest part.