Wallpaper is back
It’s hard to apply and harder to repair.
Wallpaper has been completely swept aside by faux paint fever in recent years, and anyone who has dealt with a room full of no-longer-fashionable paper, may have a recoil-and-hiss reaction to a wallpaper sample book.
Maybe it’s time to give paper a second chance.
“Wallpaper is coming back,” says Diane Mack, a decorating company sales consultant in Clive, Iowa. “We’re seeing sales start to pick up again.”
If it’s been a while since you’ve seen a sample book, wallpaper has been reinvented with a more modern look, better application and removal methods, and textured styles that look better than plain old paper.
We took another look at wallpaper and saw stuff any wall would be happy to wear.
“People are either, ‘Yes, I’ll look,’ or, ‘No, I don’t want any paper,’ ‘ says interior designer Pam Stone.
Here are a few reasons you should be in the first group:
1. Wallpaper does faux paint better than faux paint.
What takes four layers of colors, a box of stencils and sponges, and multiple days to achieve with paint can often be produced in less time with the right wallpaper.
Now wallpapers are attempting the same looks that elevated paint to its recent popularity: Faux animal skin, faux leather, sueded colors and pebbly textures are all available in wallpaper.
Real leather or textured fabrics and woven fibers can be applied and wallpapers at the more costly end of the spectrum sometimes have hand-stenciled patterns applied to them, just as a paint treatment would.
Why meticulously measure and tape off lines to paint when there’s a wallpaper design with just the thick stripes you want? Why mess with a plaster treatment when a textured paper will cover up imperfect walls just as well, and with far less labor?
2. The application is easier.
Styles have gotten simpler with paper. Borders aren’t as popular as they once were, and neither is mixing and matching papers. That certainly makes application easier.
New types of paper and application processes are also improving the situation for those who want a single paper on their walls.
Rippable wallpaper that goes on in pieces is one recent solution to that problem. Take PaperIllusion by Village. Rather than carefully aligning and pasting, PaperIllusion goes up in a tear.
The paper is meant to be ripped into random shapes. When layered, the pieces take on the appearance of marble. Smaller pieces are also easier to work with for the novice paper hanger.
The product has proved appealing to DIYers and has a sophisticated look to go with its innovative technique.
Papers are also available that can be applied and removed without paste. The products are marketed to apartment dwellers seeking a look that can transform a room but still be temporary.
3. Down in a flash. Almost.
Natural fiber papers applied to a pasted wall are still going to try your patience when it’s time for a change.
Otherwise, wallpaper has gotten simpler to change.
Purchasing a peel-off wallpaper allows you to change the room on the slightest whim. A strippable wallpaper, where a top vinyl coating peels off, leaving a paper backing that can be stripped easily with water, allows you to change the room if you’re willing to invest a few hours.
New removal products can help your struggle with papers that don’t bend so easily to your design moods.
Many products are now available to get paper off your walls.