I dood it!

The map wall is done. Took about two hours. No glitches, no worries. The adhesive hook & loop and the removable mounting putty worked fine - so far. I anticipate that some of them will fail. If too many do, I may have to decide whether to bite the bullet and do the Real Wallpaper Paste schtick. Oh I do so hope I don't have to do that. This was a breeze - as can be seen in the photo, I didn't worry my pretty little head about making any pattern or regimen, just slapped 'em up there - though I did make sure they were square with ceiling and adjacent walls.

The Before picture:

with the obligatory cat, shows the awful crappy silver wallpaper I've put up with for over twenty years (really, what is wrong with me???).

Here's the After picture:

I've got rid of the two little table/cupboard thingies, replaced them with that neat old floor globe (that lights up!).  Hmmm...you can tell some time has passed between the first picture and the second - the shelves have filled up. LOL as they do.

So, I'm chuffed. Another long-desired project done. On to the next! No, wait - on to cookies and milk. Next can wait until tomorrow.

Why do I do this?

I have been slowly working on changing the "decor" in my bedroom. It has been pretty much boring, no coherency, functional, though, with lots of books and knicknacks and mementoes, photos, art work. But no "theme." Frankly, I'm tired of it. But it took me several years to come up with a "theme" I'd enjoy. I'm not one to decorate out of showrooms or catalogue layouts. I'm not talking about paint, wallpaper (er, quite), carpeting, curtains, yada yada all brand new and coordinated at the factory.  Several months ago, though, the idea dropped from nowhere into my head: Adventurer. Anybody who knows me probably LOLs at that, since I'm the world's worst Homebody.  I do love steampunk but I don't have enough interest to go that direction. What I LOVE is scientific adventuring. I have a BA and MA in biology, and I've had the good fortune of a career job that required I spend some time outside tromping around in wetlands, forests, sandhills, river banks...and I love a good biology/adventure yarn. So I thought, why not? 

I started hunting on the internet for ideas. What I learned is that if you Google "adventurer bedroom" you get a bunch of kids' bedrooms. Heh. It's hard to find the right search phrase. I did finally find a few with some ideas I can use. I started putting the pieces together in my head.

Maps as wallpaper. *Perfect!* [Have maps, and decided instead of using wallpaper paste and going the whole wallpapering route, I'm using hook & loop dots and that sticky-tacky stuff to hold them on the hideous silver wall; then if I need to take them down it will require minimum work.]

Railroad and hotel stickers from around the world; airline tickets, luggage tags, post cards, postage stamps - displayed wherever looks good. [I have lots of the last five; the first two are available all over the internet for downloading and printing. There are also vintage posters you can get images of but my wall space is limited.]

Reproductions of botanical prints on the walls. [Have a bunch from old calendars, or I know how to make real ones myself.] [Edited to correct: I know how to make museum-quality herbarium specimen sheets. Those would be cool, too. I do NOT have the talent to paint botanical prints!]

Throw Pillows with prints of butterflies and birds, and map/travel designs. [Have the fabric already.]

Old iron headboard. [I've seen perfect ones on Craigslist but my budget's really limited so I'm going to have to just troll the thrift shops until I luck out.]

Bare wood floor (I'll have to yank out the ugly brown carpet that was old when we moved in 20 years ago, boo hoo NOT) plus (maybe) grass mats, or something that looks like them. (It is too cold in the winter to go without some kind of floor covering to walk on.) [This is the step that's going to be the most work. I think. Maybe it'll be easy.]

Whitewashed wooden shutters on the bottom half of the windows. Tropical vibe (to my Nebraska mind, anyway). [Shutters installed; painting to be done in the spring.]

An old, beat-up, travel trunk. I need one anyway to store blankets and a rather large stash of sewing fabric that's currently in an unsatisfactory place. [Turns out, I have one in my garage already! It's my late husband's grandfather's saw & sander trunk. All I need to do is scrub it and get it upstairs - the size is perfect. Gramps put a galvanized steel covering over the lid so I'm going to make a padded top to cover that - the cats will love it.]

A camp chair. [Really one of my old Director's chairs with a plain Natural-color canvas seat & back replacement.] 

A big old floor globe.  [Found one! Bought it from a nearby thrift shop. It even lights from inside!]

So a lot of the stuff, I've already got. I'm just really slow in getting it all put together. In fact, except for the shutters installed, and the globe, none of it is actually done. I have it on today's To Do list to put up the Map Wall. Yet, I feel this internal reluctance. Why? (So yes, there was a point to the title of this post.) I don't know! Am I scared it'll turn out crappy? I'm making it easy to take the maps down! Whence cometh this interior quailing? Now - NO one but me (and my two cats) ever sees this room. It can't be because I'm afraid some unknown somebody is going to look down on me for having a "kids' bedroom" (mine's going to be SO much cooler than that!) 

My brain is so weird and obstructive sometimes.

So I just have to frakking Do It. Put up the maps.  Take that next step. DO IT TERRY!