Orla Kiely Wallpaper Room Makeover

We live in an apartment, and with that comes rules - lots of strict rules. Rules like: you need permission to paint; if you want an animal you pay a $250 fee plus $15 every month; if you want to face the lake you pay a premium; if you want to face the woods you pay a premium (i'm not kidding); only this many holes on each wall, bla bla bla.

I don't follow the rules. I'm a pain when it comes to decorating, and I think Tyler is just now realizing it. I want light fixtures swapped, doors taken down, artwork hung, walls painted...though the biggest struggle has been convincing Tyler to chill out: smuggling Scruffy into the apartment isn't going to send us to prison!

In our living area, we have one large wall. One large, blank wall. And it's driving me crazy. We've talked about what we want to hang on that wall, like art; a mixture of artifacts from our travels; marquee lights. All of them sounded great, but we wanted something a bit more unusual since it's the first thing you look at when you walk into our pad.

So, i'm browsing the web (like every day of my life) and I come upon this cute wallpaper paneling from Anthropologie. A light bulb goes off. This is something we should do! It can't be too difficult, right?

1. Find wallpaper
2. Paste it to the wall
3. Put trim around it.
4. Done!

.........Why do I always set myself up for failure? This was the hardest thing ever!

First off, our wallpaper (gorgeous and so us, by the way) took a bajillion years to get here (it came from the United Kingdom.) I know, I know. I totally want to support America, and I do. But if the wallpaper I like comes from the UK, it comes from the UK.

Secondly, do you know how difficult it is to cut the wallpaper correctly so that it matches up the next time? And do you know how even more difficult it is to hang wallpaper STRAIGHT?

Lastly, that glue stuff is not thick at all. We wondered if it was even gonna hold the paper! And it did. But it did not dry on clear. Blah.

Oh em gee. I would have totally paid someone to do this for us. But seeing as my husband used to do renovation and wallpaper and all of that jazz, he wanted to do it. And I let him. (Ps. the pictures turned out slightly yellow since I took these at 10 PM!! Sorrrrries!! We like to work late!)

Stay tuned!

What's your favorite DIY that you've done to your home? Got a link or a picture? Comment below!