DIY Weekend Projects- Hanging a wallpaper & painting a concrete fireplace

It's been a while since I posted something up, that's only because I've been bed ridden recovering from a very nasty flu virus for the past 2 weeks... until now I still haven't quite shaken it off. I think it's all from the change of weather/season and also stress coming from all different directions my immune system hit the ground.

So there's been no progress on our renovations until the weekend that just past but I can proudly say we were  productive and we caught up with weekends we've lost. We were exhausted afterwards but it was worth seeing the outcome.

I was also able to squeeze in a few hours of gardening to soak up some vitamin D, turning the soil over and fertilizing some of our new plants just in time for the bloom in spring.

So Hubby, my Dad-inlaw, and I were able to finally put up the rolls of white and silver-grey striped wallpaper I purchased online 2 months ago. I would be lying if I said it was a fun process, if anything probably one of the most frustrating and painful 5 hours of our lives. It felt like it was never going to end, only because it was our first time to do it and to mention how delicate the wallpaper was (thin material and easily picks up dirty fingerprints)...argghh!...but nevertheless we learnt a lot from it and I think it should be easier second time around ;P. There are a few more walls I'd like to do around the house but not anytime soon.

Also I was able to paint the fireplace from a dirty blue I really despised... to a beautiful clean white to compliment the new feature wall. It really is amazing what difference a little amount of paint can make. And I can't wait when our new heat n glo flue gas fireplace gets installed just before next winter.  I can already imagine it...a movie night, lights all dimmed, crackling fireplace, a nice thick throw rug and a cup of hot cocoa and marshmallows. Ah...it's going to be a nice and toasty winter at home =D.

So here are photos of how we went with our weekend projects and some steps we took-

Hanging Striped Wallpaper

I didn't really write that much instructions as it's pretty straight forward. We just mixed up the wall paste and used a paint roller to apply it on the wall before putting up the wallpaper strip by strip.

 

 

 

Ta-dah!. 5 hours later

 

I put the flash on so you can see the metallic finish on the grey silver stripes. It's really pretty.

Painting Our Fireplace

First, I wiped the fireplace down really well with sugar soap, water and a cloth. I let it completely dry before  I used a wet sea sponge to stipple the white paint on the fireplace surface.

Here I used a glossy white paint of my choice

I applied 2 coats

The paint adhered really well onto the concrete surface

Ta-dah!!

to be continued...my addition to this would be the next project of laying new black tiles on top of the ugly orange and yellow floor tiles you can see on the pics above. Eventually we'll find the time to making a new mantle for it that looks something like this....

...I'll keep you posted!