Wallpaper. I LOVE Wallpaper.

Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. Whether you want to use it on just one wall of a room to add a small statement or paper a whole room for a bit of drama, you can’t go wrong adding wallpaper to rooms in your home.

Good thing is the the wallpaper of today is not your grandmother’s wallpaper. There is so many options and styles for every room in your home.

But how do you know where to start?

First, you will want to know some pros and cons of what type of wallpaper is right for you. There are 3 types of ways to install your wallpaper…

Peel and Stick – think of contact paper for your walls.

Pros:

• Easily removable
• Lots of styles to choose from

Cons:

• Can be difficult to install as it can tend to want to stick to itself
• Can lift easily after install
• Once it is stuck to the wall, you can’t shift it to line up the pattern

Pre-pasted Wallpaper.

Pros:

• Easier to work with as you have more time to align the pattern on the wall compared to peel.
• Lots of style to choose from

Cons:

• Takes a bit more time to prepare the paper to stick to the wall, involves water and booking (folding the wallpaper with glue to stick to the glue to activate)
• Can be harder to remove

Paste The Wall Wallpaper.

Pros:

• Easy to install
• Lots of styles to choose from

Cons:

• Need to purchase wallpaper paste to install the paper
• Can be harder to remove

Where and How Much To Buy?

After you know what type of wallpaper you want to install, where do you go to buy what you need, and how do you know how much you will need?

Well, you’re in luck, I can help answer these and some other questions for you. I have installed all three types of wallpaper in my homes … and yes, I have a preference that came from experience.

Let’s start with where to buy the wallpaper.

For our home, I have purchased wallpaper from Etsy, Home Depot, Bellacor, Milton & King, and Graham & Brown. However, there are so many places where wallpaper can be purchased, and many companies who manufacture wallpaper.

One tip that I have if ordering wallpaper or a wall mural is if given a choice of wallpaper thickness, I recommend ordering the thicker option (this is usually labeled “traditional” wallpaper on Etsy). If you have a textured wall thick wallpaper is a must.

Although there are many places to purchase wallpaper these days, it will take some planning. Back in the day of “Your Grandmother’s Wallpaper” the choices were fewer and they had stores that just sold wallpaper that you could purchase and immediately take it home and start installing it on your walls.

That is not the case anymore. Wallpaper is now purchased online and shipped to you so there is time between when you purchase the wallpaper and its installation.

How many rolls will you need?

With that in mind, you will want to know how much to order before purchasing. The last thing you want is to start hanging your wallpaper and not having enough to finish the job … and then have to wait for more wallpaper to be shipped.

To figure out how much wallpaper you will need for your project you will need a tape measure to measure your walls and a wallpaper calculator.

There are a lot of wallpaper calculators available online that can help you determine how much wallpaper you will need for your project.

Wallpaper websites generally have their own calculators, but the one I actually like the best is Home Depot’s wallpaper calculator (just search wallpaper calculator on their website).

Wallpaper I think is a DIY that can easily be taken on with a little preparation.

Before you start you will want to make sure that your wall is prepped – wiped down to remove any dust (or anything else stuck to the walls). You may need to give the wall a light sanding to give the wallpaper a better surface to stick to. You will want to read the instructions that come with your purchased wallpaper for their recommendations to prepare the surface for hanging their wallpaper.

Tip: if the wallpaper you are installing has a noticeable difference of coloring (such as dark wallpaper going over a light colored wall or vice versa with a light wallpaper going over a dark painted wall) paint (with a color-matched color) a stripe of the main wallpaper color along only the area where each seam of the wallpaper will be. This is because sometimes wallpaper can shrink and if you have a wallpaper a different color than your walls, sometimes if the wallpaper shrinks it will show a slight line showing the wall color. If the wall is painted behind that area, the wallpaper shrink area is a lot less noticeable.

Once your wall is prepped, it is time to hang.

Gather your tools – a level, razor/knife (with lots of extra blades), tape measure, straight edge (that can be used to run the razor blade against), sponge (and some water for wiping away excess glue), a wallpaper rubber roller (for rolling out air bubbles) and a soft wallpaper scraper (for pushing out air bubbles). For pre-pasted paper, you will want to follow the directions for activating the paste (either having a spray bottle or water basin). For Paste The Wallpaper you will need wallpaper paste, a paint tray, a paint roller, and a paintbrush to apply the paste.

Read your wallpaper instructions for application. Some papers have a specific overlap for their pattern and some have no overlap and each strip is placed very close to each piece (such as grasscloth wallpaper).

Prepare For Success. Because most homes’ walls are not straight I recommend using a level to mark a straight line on your wall for the first piece and leaving a little overlap top bottom and first corner so that you can use your razor blade to cut off the excess.

My other suggestion is to use a new razor blade often as you don’t want to use a dull blade because it can cause the wallpaper to tear.

After your wall or room of wallpaper is hung.

Enjoy the way it transforms the look of your room!

My Favorite and Least Favorite.

So what is my favorite type of wallpaper to install and wallpaper did we use in our house?

My favorite type of wallpaper to install is Paste-The-Wall wallpaper. Why, because the preparation is cleaner meaning paint the paste onto the wall and hang the paper. I also like that the wallpaper can be easily shifted into place to line up with pattern.

What is my least favorite? Peel and Stick. This took more time to line up the pattern, make sure that I didn’t stretch the paper, and also make sure that the wallpaper’s sticky side didn’t stick to another sticky side. Once the wallpaper is stuck to the wall, there is no shifting to line up the pattern easily. Key tip, your peel-and-stick wallpaper does stick to itself, use a hair dryer and extra hands to carefully peel the paper away from itself. I also had more problems with my Peel and Stick becoming unstuck from the wall after a couple of months and needed to use a heavy wallpaper seam paste (and a lot of patience) to get the wallpaper to re-stick to the wall.

I love that we have wallpaper in our home.

I have absolutely no regrets and will most likely add more wallpaper in different areas in our home over time.

I encourage you to try it in your spaces.

My House Wallpaper Sources:

Entry Way Wall Mural: Etsy – Eazzy Walls – Art Deco Wallpaper Blue
Laundry Room Wallpaper: Milton & King – Overgrown
Great Room/Dining Room Grass Cloth: Home Depot – A Street Prints – Pattini Indigo Grasscloth