The worst part of being sick? Getting shipped off to the guest room.

Sure, it's a fine place to lay your head. But there's nothing quite like staring at a bare 15 foot wall, from your deathbed, to make you realize, cover your ears children, this IS the bastard room of the house.

Luckily, a little sprucing can go a long way.

Like new curtains. Check. $8 for two silk and linen panels from Building 19.

And a new bench. Check. $40 for a chrome and white number on consignment.

And some Target plates framed in Ikea shadow boxes already on hand.

Sensing a pattern here? Same as it ever was. Budget. Cheap. Value.

And wallpaper. To cover one wall. Roughly 100 square feet. An accent piece.

Price tag? $600.

$600!

That's my cable bill for six months. My electric bill for a year. Two round trip tickets to fly to visit my girl in New Orleans. Pardon me, but I actually think it would be cheaper to glue one dollar bills directly to the wall instead.

The greater problem? I may, or may not, have done a bit of redecorating in my childhood room back in the day. And Andre may or may not remember the interesting texture I managed to leave behind, courtesy of my mad skills with a wallpaper stripper and a putty knife.

I was self-taught after all.

Yes, my long-ago antics may have been the driving force behind our initial interest in temporary wallpaper that works like a giant sticker. No steamer required for removal. But, the accompanying sticker shock, not only cured our intrigue, but created a black op situation for me, as I went deep inside eBay to uncover those elusive discontinued patterns of traditional roll and paste, that I knew had to be out there.

Somewhere.

And oh, they were. Andre doesn't call me hound dog for nothing. Total cost? With shipping, less than $50. With our grand savings, naturally, we'll be fronting enough cash to hire a pro to install the wallpaper.

But me thinks the money would be better spent, on that day far, far in the future, when what went up, must come down.