DIY built ins

Hello there! I’ve been meaning to do this post for about three months! I meant to do it back in January but things got in the way -- like stairs and family rooms and decrapifying and all that good stuff!
Because I’m working on the big boy room right now, I thought I would share more detail into how my Dad and I made the built ins in this room back when I was pregnant. (Sniff.) I figured a video would work best, so bear with me as I choke on my shake at the beginning and say “Um.” a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fupNYZcsAjQ

I took some pictures before I finished the wallpaper and molding on the side of the built ins to show you the rough edges I talked about:

I saw the paintable basket weave wallpaper at Lowe’s last week and picked it up, touched it, put it back, touched it again, picked it up, rubbed it against my cheek, touched it again. I ended up putting it back, not knowing what I would use it for. But I couldn’t get it out of my head, and then I knew I had to use it the Bub’s room. It’s totally classic, which is how his room is turning out!
I’ve worked with wallpaper once before and it continues to surprise me how easy it is to use. I mean, I haven’t wallpapered a room, or even really a wall yet, so I’m probably not a good one to ask. :) But I think it’s easy.
The directions on this stuff said to prime the surface first – I don’t know what the heck they mean by that, so I skipped it. (Oops!) Then you just soak the paper in water briefly (ten seconds – I did it in the tub.) I went ahead and folded it back on itself for a few minutes after I took it out of the water, but the directions didn’t say to do that. I figured I could add a step since I decided to skip one. ;)
Then you just put it on the surface -- it will be really wet! You will need a rag nearby to catch the water and the little bit of paste that smooshes out. There will be air bubbles throughout, and you need to keep moving them out:

I used my hand and then remembered I had this flat squeegee thing that worked great.
This is not a project you want to walk away from – you need to check on it as it dries to make sure no more bubbles pop up. After the first few minutes and a couple wipe downs with a rag, it should be close to dry to the touch:

If you looked close in the video, you can see a hint of what I’ve done to the window. It’s not done yet, but I knew I needed contrast against the window after I got the wallpaper up, so I painted it out in the dark blue I used in the room, then trimmed it out with white molding:

Swoon.
As I mentioned before, I made two panels to hide the imperfections in the built ins:

I adore it!!
I started working on the shelves just a bit, but they will get a big redo as well:

As much as I love the apple green with the blue, it’s not staying. :) I know! I know! I considered leaving it on the backs of the built ins, but it’s just going to be too much with the other colors I’m using. Now I’m trying to decide what color to paint the backs:
And if I should put the wallpaper on the insets in the doors and if so, paint them?

Right now, I’m leaning towards blue on both spots, but we’ll see! (I should probably mention the other colors going in the room are red and just a touch of yellow with lots of white molding.) I don’t want to much blue, but I’ll wait till I get the area under the chair rail redone before I worry about this part. :)
For now, I lurve:

I need to figure out where else I can use that wallpaper!
To see how I created art with paintable wallpaper, check out this post!
**I'm adding this to Traci's "Best of March" party!