Linen and Twigs

Hello Friends!  What’s shaking? I hope everyone’s week is going well. I have finally gotten into the fall mood just in time for the weather to turn steamy, then cool, then steamy…Come on Mother Nature…commit already!!!

Speaking of commitment, how many of you are afraid to commit to a decorating idea because you think that you will change your mind shortly after? Well, you’re not alone. I am in no way afraid of commitment by nature. I had met my husband when I was nineteen years old and was married by the time I was twenty. Now that’s not normally how I operate. I tend to over analyze things to the point that sometimes I miss an opportunity because I’m giving it too much thought. However, in this case, I just knew it was right. (Very wise for a twenty year old, don’t ya think?) Insert eye roll…Ha! Okay, so marriage wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be but I was committed. I was committed to my husband and our three beautiful babies that we had shortly after we were married. I’m not sure what our hurry was to get the show on the road but I don’t regret a bit of it. We’ve been married a little over twenty-eight years now. I would say that it shows that I’m not afraid of commitment.

When it comes to decorating however I sometimes paralyze myself with the thought of not getting it right the first time, or the second time, or the third…well, you get the idea. I’ve learned that in most decorating cases you don’t need to sweat the small stuff. Take painting for example. It’s just paint. If you don’t like the color, just paint over it. (This is potentially where I may need an intervention). I also know that I enjoy change every once in a while therefore some things are better left interchangeable.

I have been wanting to change the back of my kitchen cabinets for some time now. They are the standard white background. Years ago, my kitchen was decorated in a 40’s type era and I had covered the back of cabinets with a red and white contact paper to coordinate with my red and white enamel wear collection. I have since changed my look and the red and white was definitely out of place. I really wanted a ship lap look since my kitchen is mostly white and the wood would add some warmth but the thought of cutting the boards and wedging them into the cabinets (not to mention the cost) was a little more than I wanted to put into it at this point.

While browsing through the Dollar Tree, I spotted some contact paper that looked like wood grained ship lap. (Can you hear the angels singing?) I bought six rolls to cover each backdrop of each shelf and began cutting them to size. They go up super easy and since the lines are drawn on the back of the paper, it was really easy to cut to the proper size.

Just look at those knots in the wood grain! Swoon!!!

Okay, here comes the bad and the ugly. I try to keep it real guys. Although I quite liked the look of the cabinets with the doors open, I hated it when the doors were closed.

I really thought that would have gone the other way around. It was just too dark.

It made the cabinets look heavy. Gah!!! Anyhow, I thought I would live with it for a couple of days to see if it would grow on me. I thought maybe I just didn’t like “change”.

However, when I woke up the next morning, I woke up to this.

I’m taking this as a sign that it needs to go. I will say that this did not surprise me as much as frustrate me because the previous paper that I used had done the same thing. If this is something that you would like to try at home kids, it’s an easy fix with a little piece of double-sided tape in each corner… or whichever corner decides to throw in the towel.

What I’m really kicking myself for is that when I was choosing the contact paper, I had a choice between the wood grain and a white washed wood grain which I think would have looked really nice but I was worried that it would look too light. (Go figure). When I went back to get it, they were sold out. I’m still on the look out for it. Until then, I’m going to have to take down the wood grain paper…or wait until it gives up and falls down on its own. I’m out a whopping six bucks but it’s okay. I’m not stuck in a decorating commitment. When I figure out what I’m doing with the cabinets, I’ll write another post about it. I wanted to share the good, the bad and the ugly of decorating with you all. Like marriage, it doesn’t always go as planned but unlike marriage, it’s not a life long commitment.

If you have any suggestions regarding my cabinets (not my life decisions…wink) please feel free to leave a comment below. I would love to hear your ideas!