ONE ROOM CHALLENGE WEEK 5 || I'VE GONE BANANAS

Did you ever watch Bob Ross while he was painting? There would be this blank canvas with weird squiggles and swipes of paint from his knife and you're thinking to yourself... "how is this ever going to be cabin in the mountains" only to watch it appear before your eyes after about 3 more brush strokes? That's what this week has been. Those final brush strokes where it's finally becoming the mood board I planned in real life form.

This week the Botany Banana Wallpaper from PhotoWall Sweden arrived which means I was dying to slap glue all over the walls and get to work. Clearly they knew my life and made this project as easy on me as they possibly could. I waited approximately 15 seconds to tear into my boxes after I got home and snatched them off the porch.

After I stopped drooling over the details in this paper I dug around for the directions and promptly got to work cutting my strips. I had read several blogs and posts about the nightmare of finding a pattern and cutting your own strips and... getting it wrong and freaking out... and crying and rocking back and forth and.... sorry. This is what I envisioned it would be like but Photowall had other plans!

Thanks to the geniuses at Photowall I didn't have to wonder what piece to begin with, how to line them up or where to cut. After sending them my measurements of each wall and a few photos of the room, they created custom sized wallpaper to make installation a breeze. Each piece came numbered and pre-labeled with cut lines to make cutting strips easy as pie.

After all of my strips were cut and prepped it was time to whip up a batch of paste. Thank goodness for Instagram friends like Katie Mack who shared all of their tips, tricks and advice because I would have slapped thin and poorly mixed glue all over that wall with zero clue the tragedy that would have happened. With my handy advice and a little more caution, I slowly stirred my pouch of powdered glue SLOWLY into a gallon of water. The glue sat for 30 minutes to thicken up and activate and I dug out a cheap brush for applying the glue directly to the wall in liberal stokes. I started in the far corner and worked my way around the room taking my time to ensure the seams were matched up and tight. I used an old hand towel to smooth out the bubbles and help the seams lie flat.

I still have several projects on the list but this is that last stretch and I've got my second wind. Seeing the room take shape and my mood board come to life is invigorating and I can't wait to update you all this week via Instagram stories and show you the final result NEXT WEEK!!! Stay tuned and make sure to check out the other bloggers feverishly working to finish their rooms as well over on the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE site.

Xoxo,

Christina