The Wallpapers
We started off with green walls. Now, don’t get me wrong, while I personally detest green, it can look lovely when accentuated correctly. But after all these years, we were just so over the green walls – you would not believe it. So we decided to start the renovation by painting the walls. Unfortunately, because the house we live in has never been renovated since it was first built some 30 years ago. The wallpapers were a little old fashioned, to say the least. So, instead of painting over them, we decided to remove them completely and paint the wall beneath them.
It is funny, how you always think things will be quick and simple but they never are. Removing the wallpaper was not only tedious but also disgusting. The old wallpapers were composed of little fibers and other materials that cause the skin to break out. So masks were as essential as longs sleeved shirts and pants. After hours of working on the walls, first removing the wallpapers and sanding the walls, we were finally ready to go get some paint.
Deciding on Paint
Now, if you have ever been to a hardware store, you know that there a million and one different paint options – different brands, paints, finishing options, a thousand different bases, and don’t even get me started on the tools. So, I and my sister stood in the paint aisle like two idiots, staring at paint buckets for what felt like hours. We had previously had a look at some paints to determine the very basic color scheme we would be going for, but actually deciding on a color is a whole different thing. We had a look at different greys, rosés, beiges, and other neutral tones until we finally found the one: Alpina Wolken in Rosé. It is a beautiful grey-ish rose. A feminine but sophisticated color – perfect for my sister’s new room. To keep it simple, we decided to only paint two walls rose and paint the other two white.
Because we had gotten rid of all the wallpapers beforehand, painting the walls actually wasn’t that bad. We only had to apply a single layer on each wall. But then we realized we had made a terrible mistake: we decided to paint the ceiling last. Now, if you have ever painted the ceiling of a room, you know how exhausting it is. Working over-head is annoying enough, but having to paint over 25m² in the middle of the night is a whole new level of ‘Hell Nah’. But we did get it over with – eventually.
The New Carpet
Our old carpet was the nastiest thing I have ever touched. Not only was it dirty after all these years but it also had a bunch of burn holes. Let me tell you how they got there: one year, a few days after new years, I sat in our shared room and started to wonder: what would happen if I put a whole package of sparklers into a small glass bottle and burned them? The answer is pretty straight forward: The sparklers get really hot inside the bottle, melt together, and create a very bright white light. You then have to drop the bottle because it gets burning hot. Upon hitting the floor, the bottle explodes and your carpet catches fire. You run to your bathroom to get water before anyone notices but it is too late – you have burned a massive hole into your carpet in the middle of your room.
Hence why it was time to get a new carpet. So while we were at the hardware store to pick up paint, we also decided to go pick out a new carpet. The options, again, are endless, so we started feeling a bunch of carpets, compared colors, and eventually ended up choosing a light beige carpet with a medium-high pile. It is beautiful, not necessarily dog-friendly, but beautiful. Because my sister’s room is so big, we had to get a carpet with a size of 5m x 4,5m. Getting this monster into our car and back home was an adventure, but see for yourself.
Because we could remove neither my sister’s sofa nor her wardrobe, we had to work around them. You would never expect an IKEA wardrobe to be this heavy – but they really are horrible to carry around, would not recommend. But you make do if you have to. And so we replaced the carpet, rolling it out centimeter for centimeter, cutting all the edges so it would fit in her room perfectly. Not the fastest task, but definitely worth in the end.
The walls are done, the new carpet is in. Time to build the furniture. Come back next week to see the final result!
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