out of the kitchen and into the bathroom

I've had an idea to do our powder room and finally got all the pieces together to finish it. It turned out great and so I thought I'd share how I did it- it wasn't that hard. I found a bunch of vintage style maps at a local paper store that are inexpensive and I love the colours so the idea was to paste them all over. First I used that blue sticky tack stuff and placed the maps on the wall how I wanted them to give me an idea on how I wanted it to look.


Then, using a clear (goes on milky, dries clear) wallpaper paste I rolled an even coat of the glue on the back of the map with a mini roller. Using a damp cloth remove any excess glue from your work surface so it doesn't get onto the front of whatever it is your gluing.


After the glue has been rolled on, your going to need to bookend the map so that the glue has a chance to activate. When I say bookend I mean fold the map in half lightley with the glue sides touching eachother. Try and match the corners so that they are touching. (most often I had problems with the edges curling up when I'd stick it to wall but I found I'd avoid this by making sure edges were laying onto eachother.)
Leave the paper bookended for at least 3 minutes. During the wait I'd roll another map. You can kind of tell its ready by when you peel the paper back a bit it would appear tacky.

Once its ready, open up the map and take it to wall and carefully place one corner where its going. Sometimes its helpful to mark on wall using pencil. Start in one corner and then using a flat, thick sponge you can slowly and carefully smooth out the map making sure you don't crinkle it. (They sell sponges specifically for this purpose.)


and voila!

finished powder room, originally uploaded by D.Andrea.



bathroom2, originally uploaded by D.Andrea.



bath4, originally uploaded by D.Andrea.


I painted the wood work a HOT pink (bemjamen moore's pink peony) and I love the colour. I still need to add some finishing touches but geez its hard to take a picture of such a tiny room! I'd like to either hang an old globe for a pendant light or find a hot air balloon to hang.. we'll see. You could apply a clear coat of varnish over all but I'm not going to as its not around the sink so I'm not worried about splashes. Although I might want to when I start to potty train the boys. (yikes)
If your going to attempt this- I'm hear for you!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What, is "Monsters in my Kitchen" the bizarro world version of my own blog??

First, I have twin toddlers. Second, I loooove this bathroom - so beautiful and creative!
Third, I just made my second batch of banana bread in a week (and this time added coconut) - I'll have to post the recipe on my site.
Fourth, I am making these brownies this weekend - they sound divine.
Fifth, I also have the habit of taking photos of small creatures (www.thebluedudes.com).

I'm so happy to have discovered your blog!

D'Andrea said...

Hey there Seabird! Welcome fellow twin momma, glad you found me! I'm kinda new to this and with my recent addiction to flickr I have'nt spent to much time on my bizarro monsters blog! (i'm taking bizarro as the biggest compliment)

1. yeah twins! How old are your twins? My boys will be 2 (yikes!) at Christmas.
2. I'm happy how the bathroom turned out. It was fun to do. I'm currently doing our play room- will post pics when done.
3. nothing like making banana bread to fill the house up with yummines and the kiddies love it. I have a really great recipe for apple spice muffins that I'll have to post soon- they are SO good.
4. You'll love the brownies. hate the calories though.. (damn you muffin top!)
5. I'll have to check out yr blue dudes- and yr blog!

thanks for giving me the extra incentive to not neglect this little blog!

Teachermom said...

LOVE the bathroom - very creative! Bathrooms are fun because they're usually small spaces and so much fun to experiement with. I think it looks great!