Pondered Primed Perfected: beadboard

A couple years back I noticed an amazing shelf in my Mom's sewing room where she stored all her fabrics. It was a tall vertical shelf only about 12 inches wide, with a pull out bin at the bottom to store all those little scrap pieces of fabric. I commented on how wonderful that shelf would be to hold all my craft supplies, namely my scrapbooking tools and papers. It turns out my uncle Roy made that shelf for my mom and she in turn had him make one for me as a gift. She's such a sweetheart! I loved the shelf so much that I asked Uncle Roy to make another just like the first ~ so I would have a matching pair. It just felt like it needed a partner. These shelves are wonderful! Amazing craftsmanship. They are built to last. You can see them in our Thanksgiving photo from 2010 below.

This was the first time we hosted Thanksgiving for my family and it was a big event! A total of 19 were present so we removed all the furniture from the room and brought in three dining tables so everyone could sit together in one room. You can see the shelves in their natural oak finish in the background.

Even with both of these shelves I had a shortage of space for all of my art and crafting supplies. When we finished our new craft cabinets the room became too crowded and we were left with no choice but to purge some items. These beauties needed a new home! About this same time I had a bright idea and asked my Power Tool Guy to cut down the legs on our console/entry table and turn it into a bench for the dining room. This meant we had an empty entry wall. Gasp. An empty wall, you say?

(Did I mention that I am a chronic re-arranger? Yes, it's true. No denial here. I honestly cannot recall going more than a month or two without completely changing the furniture around in at least one room of my house. I used to be a chronic painter too...but I've kicked that habit!)

The shelves were painted a creamy white and moved around the corner ~ where they have been sitting ever since! No procrastination there. ;) I was just waiting patiently for my Tool Guy to whip out that table saw of his and cut me a board. Sometimes he gets busy with life and my projects aren't the first thing on his list. Wha??? ;) He had some time on his hands recently so I finally got my board ~ and he even attached it! That left me with a big 'ole fire lit under my hiney to finish off this entry project. I rushed myself down to Lowe's on Black Friday and found some beadboard wallpaper. Yes, I said beadboard wallpaper. Pretty cool stuff.

Let me introduce you to Allen + Roth Paintable Beadboard Wallcovering!!!

Pre-Pasted, Washable, Paintable, Strippable. Gah! (I received no payment or reward of any kind from Allen + Roth for this post. Although it would be nice :)

The wallpaper is a snap to install. You cut it to size with scissors. Leave a little extra just for good measure as you can easily trim it off with a razor blade once it's in place. You just soak it in water for 30 seconds, let it sit for 5 minutes and then apply it to your wall. I measured and marked the wall where I wanted the beadboard to be and used a level to make sure it was straight.

It really was a cinch to put up...see...

Once the paper was up I added the two pieces of trim board across the top to create a little ledge and added some hooks for hanging hats, scarves, keys and whatnot. Once I've added the beadboard wallpaper to the back of the shelves I will add larger hooks inside each shelf for coats.

Here are a few shots of the new entry area brought to you by Mr. Tool Guy himself: