It's November 1st so you know what that means, right? Only seven more weeks until you'll be sitting in a room surrounded by paper and garbage wondering to yourself, "why, exactly, did I spend
that much money on junk?" I often think about how easy my parents had it around Christmas when we were kids...no begging for iPads or play stations, no drooling over the latest smart phone or laptop, in the eighties our big ticket items were often no more expensive than a large pizza. I'll never forget the year I thought my parents had hit the lottery...my oldest brother, John, got a super duper race car track, my brother, Dwight, scored an erector set (don't ask) and I had one of the most memorable Christmases of my life...Santa brought me a big, bright yellow motorhome. He also snuck a Barbie Doll in my stocking, which forced my stocks as a cool kid to plummet, but that's another story for a different blog. Fascinated by RV's at an early age (again, don't ask), I was transfixed by this three-foot long home on wheels (the Mattel version had a dining area, kitchen, bathroom, rear bedroom and rooftop deck). Before the wrapping paper hit the ground I had big design plans for this little fort on wheels. I used shelf liner paper in the bedroom as wallpaper, sewed curtains with the help of my Grandmother and even hung miniature paintings on the walls (stamps with toothpick frames). There was no need to keep up with the Kardashians because I was in seventh heaven! Many, many years later I'm still dreaming up cool ways to make my life-sized version of that Barbie Camper even better. One of my favorite finds while researching ways to make my vintage trailer more glamp-tastic, is temporary wallpaper (or, "temp-paper") which can be found at places like Urban Outfitters or Amazon. Because my 1968 trailer is aqua and white, I thought this fun, modern paper would spruce things up in the tiny bathroom closet. I believe Oprah would call this a full circle moment...I just call it fun!
ROCK/PAPER/SCISSORS:
While I love the way the temp paper looks in my trailer, it's also a fabulous tool to use in staging a home OR if you aren't sure you'll love wallpaper forever. Temp paper comes right off without leaving messy glue on the walls behind it. And you'll find just about any pattern you could imagine, from stripes to stars and everything in between, for about $60/roll (covers about 100 square feet) you can transform a space from bleak to chic!
