Fifty Shades of Grey

I have no idea why "Fifty Shades of Grey" stuck in my head as an appropriate title for a post about wallpaper. I must be the last person on Earth who hasn't read the book. Also, "fifty" is a sizeable exaggeration because the actual number involved was eighteen. But on with the post (which I'm warning you now is unnecessarily wordy)...

Once upon a time , a long time ago, our bedroom was a run down and gloomy place with a threadbare carpet and a hole in the ceiling.

But one day, once we had done up the rest of our home, we finally got to decorate the master bedroom. It was a big job. The chimney breast got taken out. The walls and ceiling were plastered. New furniture was bought. I should have been thrilled with the results.

Except I wasn't really. I liked the soft grey on the walls and how much calmer and serene the new space felt. But there was always something about it that made me a bit "meh". I just didn't get that "completed room re-do feeling" but wasn't sure about what to do to achieve it. So I bought some bright new yellow cushions to try and perk up the room a bit.

But although I love the cushions the room wasn't making me any happier. But then I happened to spot this wallpaper in B&Q and it set off a chain of thought...

It isn't the sort of wallpaper I'd normally look at twice but there was just something about the colours; the pretty grey, the contrasting black and white (like our bedroom furniture), and most of all those bright yellow birds so similar to the cushions I had bought. So I tore off a sample and took it home. And actually I really liked the idea of creating a feature wall with it, but it just didn't go with the shade of dove grey that we have in our room.

So really we were left with three options - forget the idea, re-paint the walls or go with a different wallpaper. Forgetting it wasn't an option since I was desperate to do something - anything - to perk up the decor. Option two I gave a lot of thought to, but having to dismantle and move 10 foot of wardrobe was a bit off putting. Instead I decided to roll with the wallpapered feature wall idea and went and grabbed a sample of every grey wallpaper design that I could find:

You can see five of the wallpapers tacked up on the wall here but, as I alluded to, I had picked up eighteen samples in total. I have to say, the final choice was surprising. I wasn't at all keen on it when I picked it up (but by then I was literally tearing a sample off anything that was vaguely the right colour). But there was just something about it once it was up on the wall, and hubby likes it too. Or at least pretended he did because it doesn't require repainting the room, and he couldn't be bothered with moving the wardrobes for me. 

I'm not sharing today what wallpaper we're about to put up. Frankly I'm still scared I'm making a huge mistake and worried I'll hate it once it's done. But for better or worse, I'll be sharing pictures once we've finished it (and you can always strip wallpaper, right?)

You may also be interested in:

Chevron Wall

Striped Wall

Master Bedroom

Closet Office