Entryway, Part 1

About a month ago our church hosted the mother of all garage sales aptly named: WORLDS FOR SALE. Basically, our school gymnasium is filled up with donated junk that the church sells to fund the church's youth program. A GYMNASIUM full of junk! 

I rose up early that Thursday morning to be sure the kiddos and I would be ready to put our feet in the door as soon as they opened. After scouring for about an hour, I was a little deflated. The mister had found a nifty tent, the girlies some sundry toy ponies and a few books. I just didn't have my mojo that morning. My only score so far had been a lonely map I had spotted right at the beginning. Feeling glum but not dejected, I wandered listlessly around chatting with my peeps here and there. Then...I spotted them. A bucket, full of scrolled up something-or-others. I walked, I did not run (not wanting to draw any one's attention to my possible score of all scores). As I started unscrolling the scrolls, I discovered about twenty something large, old maps of the Puget Sound area, as well as a few other blueprints of old buildings! Woot!

I was rather immodest in my giddiness over these maps. The mister started eyeing me suspiciously from across the way. "Don't go overboard, babe," his look was saying. Five maps (added to my first map) and one trolley blueprint later, I was skipping the the checkout. 

Once home, I showed off my finds to the mister and the mommers. "What would I do with them?" the mister wanted to know. 

"Hangers," I said. 

Enter a long pause followed by a doubtful brow raise. 

Well, I would show him. 

And I did. I showed him the picture below. 

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I thought it was so clever and playful, hanging up art with skirt hangers! 

The mister was less inspired. My hangers were totally shot down. Umph! So the scrolls remained scrolled, as you can see below:

Above is our loverly entryway. At least, it used to be loverly before I took a stab at stenciling the walls (when I say stab, I mean a real hatchet job). I happen to love this yellow green color here in (although there are those among us who have labeled it baby-poop green, you know who you are...). 

While the mister was away in Afghanistan this past year, I thought I would spruce it up a bit. I love the look of wallpaper in small, unexpected spaces, so it seemed logical that a nice vintage stenciling would look great here. The one wrench in my plan, was really an elevated view of self. News Flash: I am impatient. I don't like prep work (like maybe drawing out a grid to ensure straight lines). I attempted this little project last February. And this is how the entry looked for the next seven months. I even left the taped up stencil there. Just in case a guest should notice this horrific wall, I could tell them it was "in process."

Enter Bright Idea #2: Use the maps as wallpaper! I had seen some examples somewhere online, so I started searching. Here are some of the images that I really loved:

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Not maps, but I still really like the concept. via here

Not wanting to dive in heard first, I decided to tack up some of the maps to get a general idea if I would like it. There are two obstacles in this tiny room of opposite proportions. The minuscule door knob stopper thingy and the mother of all door bells. So, without cutting any of the maps, I laid them out around those two, just to get a feel for it.

The mister and I really like the general concept. So, on to the work!

1. Remove door knob stopper thingy and door bell

2. Rearrange and resize maps to cover the whole wall

3. Adhere maps to wall using wallpaper adhesive

4. Reattached doorknob stopper thingy

5. Turn old door bell into a sweet windchime for back patio. 

Will keep you posted!