I Rescued My Quirky “Wallpaper” from the Trash (It’s So Vintage!)
When we first moved into our house, the little powder bathroom on the top floor was a pretty depressing affair. There was no sink, only a semi-functioning toilet, and old faux tile applied to the walls. The floor was cement, and the ceiling was crumbling. Not great.
The first thing we did was replace the toilet and install the little green vintage sink that I’d found on the street years ago and had been lugging around from various houses and NYC apartments hoping that I’d eventually find a spot for it. It turns out that tiny bathroom was the perfect place for that even tinier sink, which fits on that wall with only inches to spare.
And that’s not the only thing I’d find on the street for this little bathroom. Almost a full year later, I was driving on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and happened to cruise by a Junk-Luggers truck that was being filled. As I drove by, I caught sight of beautiful, colorful prints sailing through the sky into the back of the dump truck, and I came to a screeching halt.
I literally jumped out of my car shouting, “Wait, wait! What are you throwing away?!?” and basically threw myself like a human shield between the boxes on the street and the dump truck. The guys patiently explained that they were emptying a townhouse, and all of these antique and vintage books were being removed. I started frantically rifling through the stacks, loading the boxes and books into my car, and begging the guys to pull out some of the beauties I could see had already been thrown into the truck.
They were beyond patient with my gleeful cries as I looked through the books and discovered hand-painted, original bindings of French costumes and traditional Roman attire illustrations. The drawings were incredibly precise, quite weird, and marvelously colorful. I took as many as I could fit and drove home, and then finally thought to myself, “What on earth are you going to do with all of these drawings?” Funnily, finding these prints lit a fire under me to revisit the upstairs powder room when I decided to wallpaper the entire space with them!
I started by painting the room a playful, saccharine green (Farrow & Ball’s Whirlybird). The color was a perfect match to our teeny-tiny sink and also picked up a seafoam green that appeared throughout the French illustrations. I painted the faux tile walls, the ceiling, door, and trim all the same Whirlybird color. I also found a penny round tile from Nemo Tile that was a perfect match to the wall and sink color, and installed that on the existing cement floor. My vision was to make all of the elements in the room as uniform as possible, so that the visually busy wallpaper didn’t feel overwhelming. It’s often a fine line between eclectic and overcrowded, and I wanted to make sure I stayed on the right side.
I originally thought I might install the illustrations in a kind of scattershot way, like a collage. But once I pulled them out of the books, I realized they had a natural border around each set of drawings that allowed me to arrange them in a grid configuration. I lined up the borders on each drawing, top and bottom, so that they really looked intentional. For the actual installation, I used roll-on wallpaper adhesive.
Now, this cheerful little bathroom sits right at the top of the stairs, where it immediately greets you with its charming green glow and kooky wallpaper. The entire project cost us about $350 (mostly in floor tile). It feels decidedly unique to us and perfect in our house.
In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to wait for dump-truck French costume illustrations to make this project happen. I think you could also use antique or reproduction botanical prints, pages out of antique atlases, or even something more modern, like paper subway maps and road maps from places we’ve traveled. I’ve seen someone do an incredible Mod Podge version with a pile of black and white photos they found in their house, so it seems to me that the options are limitless. Moral of the story? Think outside the roll when it comes to wallpaper!
Further Reading
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Pottery Barn — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room
