Fables of The Foyer

Yoo-Hoo, remember me?

It’s been awhile, sweet peeps. My creative side took a bit of a hiatus while my worker-bee side worked in overdrive.  I believe the last time I left you I was going on an on about wallpaper removal and longing for my Aunt Karen.  One wall took me a whopping seven hours to remove the wallpaper, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fast forward a few weeks and a few more grey hairs, and I have some stellar advice to share, along with a beautiful foyer.

Within that time frame, I exhausted my repertoire of curse words, and reaccumulated my familiarity with patience.  Says a lot with two teens in the house, but seriously, I just want to keep things real around here.  Out with the old, in with the new, with the help of a couple pros that literally left my head spinning and feeling utterly grateful.  Sound dramatic?  Heck yeah, but without these two, I would only have the stamina of taking a nap-a, in Napa – if you catch my drift.  Way out of my league.  A wall skimmer and a wallpaper hanger, I am not.

So without repeating myself too much, I removed the wallpaper in the foyer because I desperately needed / wanted an update.  No more, did I want the slouching feeling to overcome me as I walked through the front door.  The unwanted toille was given good riddance and it was time for the walls to be prepped for new / more wallpaper.

Enter Rob-The-Builder.  A dear friend recommended him to me and this guy truly is a master craftsman, and will become a fixture around here, working on several other projects.  RTB skimmed our foyer and every other wall/ceiling in our house that needed a smooth coat.  What he did in a matter of a couple hours would have taken us a few too many days.  TG for the wherewithal.

With extremely smooth walls and the heavy campaign from RTB to just paint the walls, I went ahead with my original plan of hanging new wallpaper in our foyer.  As a side note: as you all have read, I have worked tirelessly on removing wallapper from every room of the 1820, but the foyer deemed differently.  I wanted our foyer to be welcoming;  inviting — more of a semi-formal look. For this space, wallpaper was the answer.  I worked closely with my friend Christine at Herzog’s Supply Company to pick out just the right patterns and designs – a stripe going up the stairs and a floral-y design for the foyer itself – and on her recommendation, Wallpaper Bob was the guy for the hanging job.

Not sure there is something to say about both of our professionals being named Robert, but just the same, they shined on this project.  With RTB leaving the walls smoother than smooth, Wallpaper Bob came in and did his thing.  Like, I have never witnessed a contractor looking so closely – keeping such a direct eye on detail, but the fact that it took Wallpaper Bob so long to hang and complete our wallpaper project didn’t even bother me.

Why, you ask?  Because there is not a visible seam anywhere in the wallpaper.  Great care and a delicate hand hung our wallpaper.  He matched the pattern repeat and dealt with the quirkiness of 198-year-old walls.  Perfection.

My stellar advice; hire professionals when needed.  Don’t feel like you have to do everything yourself.  While planning out your budget, factor in labor cost and negotiate.  Rob-The-Builder and Wallpaper Bob are highly recommended by me, and with their permission, I can give you their contact info.  Just inbox me.

Wallpaper project complete. The table and lamps have been changed out with antique and vintage finds that I will be writing about tomorrow.  Stay tuned…….