I’ve done many art projects and home repair projects in my life, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been as proud of myself as I am now. Yesterday I repaired the holes in the floral wallpaper on the entryway wall and they turned out great!! Going into this, I didn’t have high hopes. I was sure that no matter how good the repairs looked and no matter who did them, they would stick out like a sore thumb. But after repairing these holes in the wallpaper, I really don’t think anyone will ever be able to spot the holes in these areas.
So let me back up a little and remind you that the reason my wallpaper had holes in it in the first place is because I had originally planned on keeping my sconces when I put up this floral mural from Anthropologie. So during installation I cut holes in the wallpaper so the wires for the wall lights could pass through.
Then I decided to use table lamps instead of wall sconces, but that left these holes in the wallpaper. On each side I had the large hole for the wires and then smaller holes where the mounting plate for the wall light screwed into the wall. This is what the picture on the right looked like…
And this is what the picture on the left looked like…
The first thing I had to do was plug the wires into the wall. Don’t yell at me, but I haven’t disconnected the wires from the switch yet, but I did tape the switch so it can’t accidentally turn on. I’ll disconnect the cables from the switch tomorrow. But I’m the only person in the house who’s ever flipped the switch, and I won’t flip the switch, especially now that the switch is so stuck that I can’t do it anymore. But once the wires are removed from the switch, these wires are completely de-energized, so burying them in the wall won’t hurt.
Next I had to cover the large hole with wallpaper. Since this is a mural that doesn’t have a repeating pattern, I just used any piece of extra paper. I held it over the hole and then, using a utility knife with a new blade, simultaneously cut a smaller square out of the patch and the underlying mural so they were exactly the same size.
Once both pieces were cut, I removed the excess to make room for the same sized patch.
Then I attached the patch to the wall with wallpaper paste.
Next, I used light putty to fill in the screw holes and the tiny hairline between the mural and the patch.
And I repeated the whole process on the other side.
I won’t lie. I was nervous. And at that point I had serious doubts about whether this whole process would work.
After the filler was completely dry, I sanded it smooth with 220-grit sandpaper.
At this point I started going through all my paint to find just the right colors to paint these spots to match the mural. I had a lot of trouble with this because I just couldn’t imagine how to achieve a match using acrylic paints. And then I realized that using some kind of art pen would get me closer to that goal. And then it clicked. Pastels! This was probably what I needed! They are easy to use. They are mixable. And they have a very matte finish, exactly what I needed.
So I texted my mom, my on-call artist, to see what she thought. She thought it was a great idea! So I went to Amazon, picked out this 64-color set, and an Amazon drone dropped them into my backyard about two hours later.
During our text conversation, my mom asked if I wanted her to come and do this for me. I replied, “I’d like to try. If I mess up, I’ll need you to fix it. ” That kind of gave me the confidence to just give it a try, knowing I had my standby artist as a backup in case I royally screwed things up. Finally, I don’t think I’ve ever used pastels before (but as an artist, my mom has), so I figured the chances of me screwing this up and having to call her to clean up my mess were pretty high.
But people! Check this out! I did it! This is what it looked like when I first thought I was done with this site.
I mean, it looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
It turns out that pastels are very easy to use, very fun, and very forgiving.
You can add color layer by layer. You can simply mix the colors with your finger. You can achieve different textures by using different areas of the pastel. You can use the end to create sharper lines or use the wide side to create a wider and more textured look. They’re a lot of fun to play around with. It took some mixing and blending and patience to get the color just right, but I was pretty proud of my work! This is the area I’ve been working on, and when I got to this point I originally thought I was done.
But I decided to go back and add a few highlights to this petal and then darken the area directly above the petal. So this is the final version. Does it look the same as the wallpaper? No. But I don’t think anyone would ever notice that there is a patch there.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the before and after.
Best of all, I got the approval of my on-call artist. I can proudly say that she was thrilled with my work and that made me very proud.
For some reason I thought the other side would be easier, but it ended up being much harder than getting the flower together. This is what my first “finished” version looked like.
Since I wasn’t happy with it, I went back and added a few light stripes to the light area. But I still wasn’t satisfied.
But then I noticed that many of the streaky spots on the rest of the wallpaper had paint on them. Not only were they white stripes, but they had orange and coral in them. So I added some orange and pink to make a coral color and then added black on top. It was better, but still not quite right.
But after adding a little more black and gray and then blending a little more, I was finally okay with it.
I wasn’t as proud of this side as I was of the flower side, but it was okay. Again, I don’t think a casual observer would ever notice that there was a patch there.
The fact that this wallpaper is so busy really helps to hide the areas that are patched and covered in pastels.
Here is a side by side comparison of the before and after on this page.
And here’s a look at the entire mural with the patches completed. Can you tell where they are? Even standing in the room, I can’t see where they are.
Not only do the colors harmonize wonderfully, the shine also fits perfectly.
If this were in a high traffic area where a person might accidentally brush a sleeve over the mural while walking past, I would probably spray those areas with a matte artist spray. But since they’re against a wall that no one will stand or walk near, I just leave them alone.
I’m so proud of my work, y’all! And maybe I’ve found a new favorite art medium. Pastels are so much fun to work with and now I want to try making some art out of them! I want to spend some time on Instagram and find some pastel artists that inspire me.
