I can probably just leave it like this, right?

If you read Tuesday's post, then you've seen the atrocious 'before' photos of our frightening foyer. Gulp. Click here for a little refresher. Well... we've made one very important step in the right direction: NO MORE WALLPAPER!

Check out those marvelous mauve murs. We can probably just leave it like that, right? No need to put in all the work we had planned?  After all, it already feels so much brighter in here.

NOT. Oh, you guys. It's going to get so so SO much better. Just you wait and see...

P.S. If you're looking for wallpaper removal tips, I think it probably depends on the quality of the wallpaper you're removing. For ours, we used spray bottles of boiling water (be very careful - the bottles get super hot and one of them - a cheaper/thinner one - actually crumpled) and spackle knives. The longer the water sits (up to a point), the easier it is to scrape the wallpaper off. We basically just sprayed a bunch of the area we were working on; let it sit for a minute and then used the knife to peel up the edges. After you get started, you can spray ahead so you don't need to wait. In some areas that have been well-sprayed, you can peel off huge strips off paper with your hands instead of the knife. The wallpaper comes off in two layers - the top coloured bit and the white sticky underlayer - we actually found the top bit the hardest to remove, but the whole process was much easier (although still time consuming) than we had imagined.

Foyer Fiasco

You guys, there's one part of our house that you've never seen. For very very good reason. The foyer... (duh duh duhhhhh). You see our house is a classic city Victorian, very typical of Halifax. And like many classic downtown Halifax homes, it's been converted into a set of flats. So you step inside the front door of our house, and you're greeted with this...

I apologize if you had to avert your eyes. It's painful, I know. Blue floral wallpaper. Flesh-toned trim. (Side note: WHY DOES ANYONE EVER THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO PAINT ANYTHING THE COLOUR OF FLESH?!)

It's the armpit of our house. So so bad. And yet, everyone who enters must see this. And not only those who enter our home, but also visitors to the apartment upstairs. And I call myself an interior stylist. It's EMBARRASSING. 

Which is why I'm very happy to announce that times, they are a-changing. Sayonara, wallpaper. Farewell, flesh-toned trim. This place is going to be light and bright and funky and fun... and much more welcoming to any guest who deigns to visit.

The wallpaper is already toast (using the boiling-water-in-a-spray-bottle-and-a-spackling-knife method). The doors are also now looking pretty fly. Next up: several fresh coats of paint, fancifying the trim, and adding a killer ceiling feature, an awesome light fixture, a jumbo piece of art, and a few functional accessories. It's going to be INSANE, you guys. I'm so SO SO excited. Stay tuned.

(Also, I may have intentionally not cleaned it up before taking these photos to enhance the dramatic before and after. Guilty as charged.)