First of all, I wanted to say thank you for all your comments and prayers yesterday. I know our prayers for Chivis are not in vain.
On a lighter note, I have never wallpapered anything before. And actually the idea of it scares me a little bit. Mainly because wall paper is generally very expensive and messing a bunch of pieces up could get very costly. But this next idea was neither expensive or difficult.
Before I show you how I did it, let me tell you why I did it. The upstairs room had a lot of hard surfaces in it (wood and metal mostly), so I needed to bring something into the space to soften it. The layering of the different book pages provided that softness along with a lot of texture. This idea was also great because the drywall on the ceiling wasn’t done really well (by the previous owners) and the seams were very visible. Of course we could have fixed this with some joint compound, but the book pages did a fantastic job of hiding the less that perfect drywall job! So, here’s how you do it.
1. Gather a number of old books and tear out the pages.
2. Buy wallpaper paste. I chose this brand because it said it would stick to a glossy paint surface.
3. Take a page at a time and brush the wallpaper paste on one side with a paint brush.
4. Apply each page to the wall/ceiling and smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles with an old credit card or hotel room key. (All you Dave Ramsey followers can finally get some use out of your credit cards again!) 🙂
Here’s my wonderful mom showing us how it’s done! She actually did most of the ceiling herself. Did I mention she’s amazing?
And here are a few cropped shots of how it turned out!
Get a better view of the book page wallpaper and the entire room on Monday when I reveal the entire space!
Until then, love on your family this weekend, won’t you?
What a cool idea it looks so effective xxx
i love love love this idea! so creative!
decordior.blogspot.com
Amazing! I love it! I actually was thinking of doing this with maps, but want an impermanent solution because we rent. I haven’t quite come across anything yet that would work. Do you know of anything?
Back about 2005 I saw where a designer had given his old wood floors this same treatment! He covered the paper heavily with clear acrylic for protection. They looked fantastic! This does too, especially with all the angles in the room. Very well done and great choice!
That’s very similar to a hotel toilet I saw last year that was papered with old song-sheets. It looked great! http://toftsnummulite.blogspot.com/2011/08/holiday-inspiration-look-no-planes-ii.html
I once saw a guest bathroom in Chicago wallpapered with old time magazine covers.
Way cool.
I’d love to do this in a bathroom. What a great idea!
This is the second big project of yours that I’m about to attempt! I plan to “wallpaper” the wall going up our stairs. It gets a bit of contact from little fingers, so would you recommend something to apply as a top coat so that I can wipe it down from time to time?
I would guess most sealers would work pretty well. If you choose to use a polyurethane I suggest a water based poly acrylic. It will stay clear while a oil based product will yellow.
Send us some pictures when you are finished. We would love to see them!
I want to do the same thing except with comic book pages. I’m just worried about bleed through as the pages are not as thick. Any suggestions?
I have seen a wall done with comic book pages in a coffee shop, search the blog for a post about “Pour Johns”. It looked great, but even so, it is ALWAYS a good idea to do a sample area. Find a scrap piece of cardboard, wood, or drywall and try a few pages. It may take a little time, but will be worth it to know how it will go before you take on the whole wall. Can’t wait to see how it turns out