Have you ever wanted to wallpaper the walls of your apartment (or house) but dreaded the inevitable day of removal? No longer! Your creative urges have been liberated!
I have just experimented and figured out a way to put up removable wallpaper. It took about 2 hours for our small wall and it’s definitely a 2 person job, but it was totally worth it! Even Jesse was commented on how much easier than painting this was. It peels off easily without any damage or change to the wall underneath!
And the best part? The total cost of the project, including fabric and supplies was only….$20!
So go for it!
All you need: Liquid starch (in the laundry section at Walmart), paint roller and tray, paint brush, thumbtacks, razor blade and, of course, your choice of fabric.
Yes, that’s right! This isn’t paper at all, but fabric- Afternoon Tea Stain to be exact 🙂 Joann’s Fabrics was having a clearance sale, so I got all 6 yards of fabric for $12. As I said the other day, I think Good Deals just like to follow me around! Of course, Jesse responded with, “Our bank account begs to differ”. But that’s another topic.
When choosing fabric, I think what helped us is that ours was thin enough that the liquid starch soaked it pretty easily. I don’t know how it would work with thick fabric. But if you’re wanting thick velvet or corduroy padding your walls, we have bigger things to worry about.. <joke!>
1. First, we cut the fabric according to the height of our walls, leaving a few inches to spare. I actually didn’t leave enough inches to spare- in fact, I don’t think I measured it correctly at all. This is why I’m the vision and Jesse is the muscle. We work well like that.
2. Once we’d cut the fabric, we poured the starch right out of the bottle into the tray. The container had directions for diluting it, but I decided that was for paper mache’ people. We then rolled the starch all over the wall just as if we were painting. Don’t worry! It’s completely clear! The excess that got onto the opposite wall and ceiling faded away once it was dry, so you don’t even need to be worried about accuracy.
3. Starting at the top, we then pinned the fabric with push pins, about 2-4″ apart from one another, leaving 1/2″ of excess at the ceiling and in the corner. Working our way down, we smoothed the panel onto the wall with our hands. The first coat of starch started seeping through the fabric immediately acting as an adhesive.
4. Once the whole panel was on, we saturated the paint roller with starch again and went over the entire thing, making sure each part was completely soaked, smoothing out bubbles as we went. With a paintbrush, we smoothed the corner and baseboards.
5. That’s it! Just repeat until the wall is done! Once it is completely dry (I waited until the next morning), you can razorblade the edges and peel off the excess for a clean look. You can also take out the push pins, because you no longer need them!
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nyx says
sweet! what’s the texture like? is it smooth? rough? scratchy? if you get water spilled on it will it start to dissolve? Might try this in some places. =)
Kelly says
Our walls were texturized a tad, and not completely smooth. The fabric molded directly onto it, so you can see the same little bumps if you look closely. But it doesn’t feel sticky or rough. I would bet that water would dissolve it, seeing as it’s JUST starch, but anything more would probably take the paint off the wall when peeling it off (eventually).
seattlitelarsens says
Okay, so I’ve been wanting to paint for a while (just have to look over our lease to make sure it’s okay), and this looks like fun for a one-wall accent. Have you seen anyone else do this? Any ideas on how long it lasts? Seattle is kinda humid – that’d be a funny (or tragic) sight to see the paper come off the wall when it gets wet around here for weeks at a time.
Kelly says
I doubt humidity would affect it. Think paper mache- it’s the same thing! This is so much easier than painting, because you don’t have to repaint when you’re done!
cornerofnoandwhere says
So, for the planner in me, how do you take it off? Does it just peel off (like the excess you remove from the edges) or do you use a little bit of water to lift it first? What texture does it leave behind (i.e. is there now a bunch of starch on the wall I’d have to deal with)? This is really cool idea and I might like to try it some day…but I’m curious about how to get it off first…cause I’m that type of person. 🙂
cornerofnoandwhere says
oh, and how did you deal with matching up “panels” or was the fabric wide enough for this smaller wall not to have to mess with that? (Another issue with patterned wall paper.)
Sarah Marie says
Wow, thanks for this tutorial Kelly! It turned out so cute… maybe I’ll have to try this someday.