If you have followed some of my blog posts you know I like to draw lessons from everyday tasks and life experiences. So yesterday, well, I'm just going to say it. Wallpaper kicked my a##! Yep, I was hanging wallpaper in our media room and just when I was about to wad it up and throw it out of the second story window, I stopped to recognize what was happening.
I'm a perfectionist. I like everything to be perfect. Symmetrical. Balanced. Even. In this case, bubble free. Well, that is NOT how this project was working out. The wallpaper comes in about a 20" wide roll. I purchased mine at Target and it's a "simple" peel and stick...Until you get to the final piece.
Things were moving along nicely. It took some patience but it was really going on well. Nice and even. Bubble free. And THEN... I got to the final section. Which in hindsight, should have been the first piece I hung. Meaning I started on the wrong side of the wall. But, neither here nor there, here I was, on the ladder wrangling a long, sticky, uncooperative piece of wallpaper.
I wanted it PERFECT! I wanted the top edge to line up along the ceiling line and in the corner perfectly. I wanted the perfect straight line to continue down the seam of the wall until it came to a perfect line I would cut along the bottom border. I wanted it to continue seamlessly from the piece next to it.
Well...what ha-happened WAS...It did NONE of those things. It wouldn't line up properly on top. It wouldn't proceed down the wall in a nice line. It kept sticking to itself. Bubbling. Pulling up the piece next to it. Every attempt to restart and try again, and there were about 27 attempts, unsuccessful. Until I had a large bubbly piece of sticky paper all stuck to itself, partially stuck to the wall, tearing off the adjoining piece and one very frustrated girl!
I stopped for just a moment prior to throwing it out of the window and asked myself, "If you were to write about this, what would you say?" (Yes, I talk to myself. All normal people do!!)
And this is what occurred to me, in my pursuit of perfection, I was ruining the piece I was working on, along with the piece next to it. Instead of accepting, it may not line up "perfectly". It may not be a perfect line down the wall. It may not be 100% bubble free. I was at risk of ruining half of the wall.
Now, I could stop this post right here because I think I've made my point. I could go on to over explain my point. Or I could just simply say, beware of the pursuit of perfect. Is it worth ruining what you are working on and everything around it?
And the second lesson. Wallpaper is a jerk!