Home Decor - Pocketful of Joules

Office Updates: Peel and Stick Wallpaper

When I shared my Office Updates: The Before & My Plans last month, I mentioned that I was going to try my hand at wallpaper. I had never done wallpaper before, but my friend did some peel-and-stick from Target and it looked fantastic so I figured I’d give it a try!

I started with checking out the options at Target and Amazon and settled on a few favorites:

But then once I added up the prices for how many rolls I’d need, I let the money savings guide me to a final choice.

I ended up selecting this one from Amazon: NuWallpaper NU3038 Groovy Garden Navy Peel & Stick Wallpaper for $25 per roll. I anticipated needing 3 rolls, but ordered 4 rolls just in case I had any issues with lining the pattern up or miscalculating. It was free returns (and I have the option of dropping the return off at our local Kohls), so it made sense to be extra prepared.

I also purchased t his Wallpaper tool kit for $6 which was EXACTLY what I needed for every step of the application. The best $6 I’ve spent all month!

I dragged everything away from the wall and grabbed a step stool, one roll of wallpaper and my tool kit.

I decided to start on the far right side of the room just in case my last piece ended up being thin and wonky… it could hide behind the door. Here is the first piece:

Just like a sticker, you peel off the backing and give yourself a foot or so to work with. I applied the top as straight as possible and then slowly unwrapped the backing while smoothing down the wallpaper with the large red tool.

At the bottom of the wall, where it meets the trim, I used the knife to carefully trim the wallpaper to line up with the trim. The smaller blue tool was perfect if you had more aggressive smoothing to do — you could really get it in there without worrying about ripping the wallpaper.

For the second piece, I had to make sure to line up the design properly, which means there was lots of holding wallpaper over my head while sweating and swearing. To be honest, it’s not exactly perfect… but you can’t really tell.

Third piece. Easy, peasy. If you notice, I skipped that little slice next to the plumbing access area. I came back to that bit at the end and cut a little piece that perfectly lined up from my scraps.

As I said, I was concerned that the last piece might be odd and wonky, but as it was it lined up great. In addition to using the knife at the bottom of the wall, I also sliced the side of the wallpaper so it lined up with the seam on the left.

The entire process took me 2 ½ hours from start to finish. I did the entire project myself with a step stool and no other help. I ended up using 3 rolls (with some bits left over) and didn’t open the 4th roll at all. The total cost of my wallpaper project was: $75 in wallpaper ($25 per roll) and $6 for the toolkit = $81 total.

I’ll do a full reveal of the before/after of the office as soon as I get it typed up, but I’m LOVING my new wallpaper. It just makes the room feel so much more fun and fresh and makes for a fabulous zoom background too!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Office Updates: The Before & My Plans

I’m still on a home redecorating/organizing kick (see Monday’s post!) and while I continue to marinate on what I’m going to do about my closet situation, I decided to attack an “easier” room…

I’ve been spending A LOT of time in my home office over the past 16 months and I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to update the space. I currently spend most of my time at my desk, but on the other side of the room I have a sewing table and organizer. That’s the side of the office that I’m planning to update.

As you can see, I did spend some time organizing the cube organizer. However, it’s still pretty messy with the cubes, a bunch of stuff in the corner, my sewing table and bin of Poshmark clothes.

So, come on into my head on what I’m thinking about for this room…

First off, I’m thinking WALLPAPER!

I know. Right?! I’ve never done wallpaper before but my friend did some fabulous peel-and-stick from Target in her guest closet and it looks so fantastic. I was thinking of doing just the one wall as a bit of a focal wall. And bonus would be that it would make my Zoom call background extra fancy.

These were my three finalists, but I did make a decision (partially based on price) and will be doing a full peel-and-stick wallpaper post soon.

Next up, I’m thinking I’ll upgrade my cube organizer. There is nothing wrong with it and it’s a great way of storing lots of stuff, but I want to give it a little pizzazz. So, I’m thinking of adding some matching felt baskets and screwing on some legs!

Legs: https://amzn.to/2VORD0M

Storage bins: https://amzn.to/3hOX9ct

Last, I’m going to replace my sewing table with something much smaller. I thrifted the current black wood table probably 15 – 20 years ago and it has certainly served its purpose. I was looking at super skinny tables when I came across one that folds out from the wall:

Table: https://amzn.to/36KSwtB

And to go next to the sewing table, a little extra storage:

Cart: https://amzn.to/3eylJMI

I placed a bunch of orders and I will be keeping you all updated as everything gets delivered!

Disclaimer: This post contains ShopStyle affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Dream Closet Brainstorming: HELP Me!

The long-term plan for our extra bedroom is to one day turn it into a master bathroom (with a huge shower, lots of counter space and two sinks) that leads to a walk-in closet. I’ve wanted a walk-in closet my ENTIRE life and have never had the opportunity to have one. Instead, I try to organize my regular sized closet as much as possible with my ‘on season’ clothes and my office closet holds my ‘off season’ stuff.

Over the years, we have used the extra bedroom as a playroom for Jack and now as an exercise room for me. And it is a pretty huge room – right now it holds an elliptical, 2 exercise bikes, 2 yoga mats fully stretched out and a bunch more random stuff. Oh, and the walls haven’t been updated since we moved in 9 years ago — it came with that wall color and the ugly border at the top of the walls.

I was recently thinking, maybe I should start working on my walk-in closet plans NOW, rather than doing it all at once. That way, I can start using it and also pay for one wall of a wardrobe before we build a bathroom, which is much less painful.

So, I’m thinking of starting with this wall:

There is about 8 feet of space (96 inches) without blocking the door or the window. I thought I could start looking for wardrobe organizers for that space and then build out when we get to the bigger project.

There are SO MANY options though and I could really use some feedback! Originally, I was thinking of having open closets but then I started thinking about having something with doors that could close.

Here are some of my inspiration photos:

This is one of the Pax wardrobe options from Ikea (you can find it here). It is 68” wide so I could certainly go wider than this one. It costs $465 and I like that it includes hanging area, shelves AND drawers. The downside is that this is out of stock at both of my nearby Ikea stores and they do not deliver to my zip code.

With that being said, there is a Pax Designer Tool on the Ikea website where you can build your own closet from Pax pieces. I made this version which is like the one I found, but with an extra hanging wardrobe bit on the end to make it 88 5/8 inches wide so it will fit better on my wall. This version is $550.

Then, I started looking at less expensive options and came across the KLEPPSTAD wardrobe (you can find it here). It has three doors, is 46 inches wide and costs $129.

Here it is with the doors closed:

And here it is with the doors open:

It is similar to the Pax, but doesn’t include the drawers. However, since it is 46” wide, I could get two of them for a total of 92” of space and it would cost $258, which is less than half of my custom-built Pax version.

When put together, it would look similar to this but a little wider:

I’m not sure if I want doors or not though. Once it’s an actual walk-in closet, it might be nicer to be able to see everything. Or would it be nice if things were tucked away? Or… maybe I could build it and just not put the doors on?

Of course, I didn’t just shop the Ikea website. I also looked at Home Depot, The Container Store and Amazon. The Container Store was WAY too expensive for a very similar look. I wasn’t finding anything I liked that was freestanding on the Home Depot website. But I did come across something interesting on Amazon.

This is the Tribesigns Freestanding Closet Organizer (you can find it here). It is 79 inches across for $330. It has four pockets of areas for hanging clothes, shelves and it even comes with the four cubby boxes.

And I’m torn. I feel like any of these would be a great option for clothing storage. However, because they are all great I’m not sure what would be the best option for me. I’m not sure if I want something without doors or something with doors?

I’m kind of overwhelmed with choices! Do you have strong feelings on doors vs no doors? Do you have a closet situation that you love or hate that you’d like to share? Help me!

Disclaimer: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.