One Room Challenge- Week 5 Update

After 5 weeks I can finally say… the ceiling is done!! Last week I learned just how time-consuming and difficult hanging wallpaper on the ceiling would be. I only made it through 2 rolls (out of 7) by the end of the weekend. So going into this weekend, I was at least mentally prepared for the amount of effort that I was about to have to expend haha. I had my husband back home this weekend so it was so nice to have his long arms and patience!

We began hanging up the third roll and he quickly realized what I meant by how hard it was. Lining up the patterns to match perfectly and avoiding any creases or bubbles is next to impossible above head. We made it through that 3rd roll in about 2.5 hours but with so much creasing that we were both so defeated. After spending so much time skimming until our arms fell off, then sanding the room into a snowstorm, and doing that over and over again, we wanted the ceiling to well… look good!

Before we began the 4th roll, we racked our brains on how to hang the wallpaper to try to accomplish a smooth finish and pattern alignment. We decided to try to hang it length-wise. I don’t think this is recommended and I didn’t see any video tutorials in my quick search but it worked so well for us! What we did was unroll the entire 12-foot roll and balanced it across the room using the ladder. Using the step stool, we peeled back only about 6 inches from the long edge and aligned it with the pattern from roll #3, already on the ceiling. After running all the way down the 12 feet, sticking about 6 inches to the ceiling, we started back at the top and stuck on another 6 inches all the way down. We repeated this a total of 4 times until the entire thing was stuck to the ceiling.

We were so surprised this technique worked, as I said I didn’t see this recommended anywhere, but the rolls got better and better from there. We were able to get the patterns to align perfectly and had fewer and fewer creases the further along we got. I know that everyone is their own worst critic but it was so depressing to have spent so much time and money on a project to not have it look perfect. So roll #4 that was applied in our new hotdog vs hamburger technique gave us more hope that the ceiling wasn’t turning out so badly after all.

It was dark when we finished the last roll (we wallpapered for 9 straight hours) but I was so excited to see the ceiling that I asked Cody if we could hang the chandelier too! I ordered the prettiest sputnik-styled chandelier at the start of ORC. It’s brass with 8 globe lights and definitely gives off a midcentury modern vibe. The bathroom connected to this bedroom had 4 globe lights in it when we moved in and instead of replacing them, I painted the fixtures brass and they’re one of my favorite things about the bathroom! This chandelier ties the bathroom and bedroom together perfectly.

We turned off the power and wired the chandelier using the shortest pole option so it wouldn’t hang too low and I LOVE how it turned out! It finishes the ceiling so well. And in the lighting, you ALMOST don’t see the creasing! Lol This morning I ran in to view the ceiling and I was more in love! I think after being eye-level with it for sooo many hours made me see the imperfections, but with a fresh eye, it looked amazing!

We still need to put up the AC vent but I’d like to clean it and give it a fresh coat of paint before putting it back on the ceiling. But other than that, the ceiling is done! Ahh!

You guys have to come back to the blog for next week’s post because week 7 is going to be the best post yet! We’re starting the accent wall, and if you follow along on Instagram, you know it involves 70 pieces of PVC pipe! Haha any guesses??

If you want to check out the other participant’s updates, head to www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog