I'm sorry about the passing of your Dad. I think you really need to take down the wallpaper. It is not that hard and I have done it many times. It is not good to paint over it either. If you must keep the rug, the blue/gray will work with the brown rug too. I would paint the room the color of the window treatment but would take down the curtain. It is not working in the room. Something in the blue/gray family. I would leave the white comforter too for now. I would stain or paint your fathers dresser (think of it as repurposing) in a dark finish to match the headboard. Brown and blue look beautiful together so you would not have to change too much to start with. So, this will take about 3-4 weeks to do and then you can live in the room beautifully until your husband comes home and your mother will have an updated bedroom in the home. :)

So sorry to hear about your Dad, and of course no need to paint his charming dresser. However, I would really rethink the walls as this room strongly needs a clean, cohesive look with string color and the brown furniture, brown carpet, and pinky beige walls are just too many bland, drab surfaces to overcome with a coral cushion or two.

I would advise:

1) Decluttering - nothing one the walls unless it is in a proper frame (easy to find many sizes, cheaply, at thrift stores, and frames are also very easy to paint. You could make e.g. a framed cork board for little mementoes)

2) Color on the walls. Paint is easiest. I'd work with Mom to help her see the room will look fabulous and then just get in there, strip the paper, and paint. Coral, slate blue, terra cotta, are some possibilities and will make beautiful backdrops for your wooden furniture. I'd also try for painting all interior woodwork the same shade and the ceiling too! I'd probably remove the chair rail as it is too busy for a small room.

3) Leave the carpet, too $$$ to change it and Mom won't agree anyhow. Just find a pretty rug or two to put over the biggest exposed areas

4) Get rid of draggy curtain. Either just use existing roller blinds, or upgrade to some nicer blinds that can also darken the room.

5) New bedspread or comforter cover to coordinate with new walls.

6) New chair in simpler lines if possible. Those old pressed-wood chairs drag down every room they're in, in my opinion.

The above changes will give you a comfortable and pretty room and a cozy love nest for your H's next visit home! Good luck!

I can't figure out how to delete this post! My mom has said I can't take down wallpaper, paint, or do anything other than temporary things so this thread seems pointless. Thank You for the help you've offered.

Good luck to you in this journey. It will work and your mom must love having you with her now.

Good luck to you kristylou. If you need us again, we are here :)

You could try a wall map of the world in this decal and put a big thumbtack where you are and where your cutie pie is in Korea.

Pick up on this decal color and your lamp for bedding.

Then new plug in pendant next to your be.



Older daughter was in Japan/Navy. Younger daughter born in Pusan City.

Get a big rug to cover the carpet. New Manchester for the bed will help. I understand mothers are difficult re renovating. I renovated my mothers house and I swear we could have killed each other several times over. I find that if you wait till they go out, and do whatever you wanted to do the house in their absence,when they get home they scream and yell but then they agree you were right to make the alterations

She said if I take wallpaper down in this room it will look stupid with the rest of the house having it still and she has no intentions of removing it so I'm outta luck. She LIKES the wallpaper after 30 years of having it haha! And I'm only here for a year so it's not a huge deal certainly. I like the idea of a map though to cover some wall space thanks!

Thank you so much for you and your husband's contribution to our freedom. One day you will be able to decorate your own home. In the meantime there is a lot you can do with your room temporarily. The walls look like wallboard rather than paper so I understand why your mom doesn't want you to paint. Since the bed is the focal point of a bedroom you can work with that and some pictures for the wall.
I would start with the lamp on your dresser and put it beside your bed on a small table. Its a little too big for the dresser. The color will be the starting point for your bed.
Then go to Homegoods blog and they have a video on " How to dress a bed".
The blue would look nice for a quilt at the foot of the bed folded and some complimentary pillows or shams.
It looks like you are already collecting an arrangement of pictures for the walls. Ignoring the color of the walls. They are fairly neutral so the bed will shine and the pictures will detract.

Great ideas!! Yes, I don't think it's a traditional wallpaper; so to take it off would mean taking the entire wall down and installing drywall which isn't going to happen!

Your walls are covered with paneling and are paintable, if you choose to:)

AND like was mentioned, it is neutral and not in your face. I am guessing you will not spend much time in here. Enjoy the time with your mom.

Ok, it's not fab, but it's temporary, right? Let's go for an "organic beach B&B look". I'm in Oregon. It's one of the things we do. :)

I'd get a white comforter with a silhouette kind of pattern in the beige...leaves, branches, etc. Turquoise blue accent pillows, trimmed in the beige if you can find them. Use what looks like a white round table next to the bed, uncovered, and put your blue lamp on that. Take down the bike hook in the ceiling that's holding up the white hanging lamp. Use that lamp elsewhere, with a white ceiling hook. Or get a largish blue paper lantern hanging light kit online.

Find a table runner to go over the dresser top in the turquoise color. Or, buy a piece of fabric you like, turn under the edges and close them with fusible web. Put your white framed pictures on it, with a white bowl for miscellaneous stuff. A clear jar with beach glass for accent.

Frame your Korea countdown calendar in that big empty frame you have, if you can. Looks like it's about the right size. You could spray paint it a soft white. That would take up a lot of brown space.

I must not be noticing curtains in these pictures, but I'd get simple white. You can attach decorative trim to them by using ribbon (turquoise, beige, chocolate brown) and fusible web. Straight along the edges where they open would be the easiest to do.

One trick I have seen is to use woven square placemats, just tacked to the wall put within an arrangement of pictures for some interest. And they take up not so pretty wall space.

You might also look at Ikea for a good size print (a lightweight one, just the canvas over a frame). I have one hanging with two pushpins, so you wouldn't be damaging the "wallpaper".

If room, you could do a large vase to put in a corner with white branches. A bedside rug would be a good idea, too. Maybe even a woven beach mat...that would be pretty inexpensive.

Thanks for your sacrifice, and that of your husband. :)

There are a lot of things you can do without changing the room. You can make a collage wall with pictures you like. You could also get a giant blackboard and paint it a color you like, or you can take a giant cork board and cover it with burlap or a fabric you like to add color. Sherwin Williams sells temporary wall paper that can easily be removed. You could either wallpaper the walls, or to keep your Mom from being worried you can just use it as a backdrop for your picture frames you like. You could also find a book of pictures or scrapbook papers you like and "wallpaper" by overlapping the pictures to cover your wall like a collage. Ive seen this in the magazines recently with scrapbook paper and it looked really nice. Since you can't use wallpaper paste maybe removable adhesive tape will work. Fabric can be used to cover a wall, and it can also be hung on a curtain rod behind your bed for added color. And there are a lot of choices for removable wall murals, too.

All of this sounds like a lot of work, though, and I think you can do a lot just by adding curtains and bedding in colors that make you happy. Your Dads dresser looks beautiful, and if you keep it polished I wouldn't change it a bit....because if you do, it will not be how you remember him. So my best advice is to keep your room how it's been, and just add your creativity in little things that you can take with you when you leave.

One thing you can do is change the light fixtures. Get rid of the lamp on the dresser. Put a fixture on the wall with the cord inside the wall. Also the hanging light has a long ugly cord. A high lamp stand or another wall fixture will fix that.