Paint and wallpaper are the first things that come to mind when you mention giving a new look to any wall. Wallpaper, however, does not come in all the fun prints you can imagine. Sometimes it is that scarf or lesso or kitenge print that has the character you are looking to stamp on your walls.
Fabric can also be applied to a wall to look like wallpaper. It is a project that takes two days to complete. Here is a quick DIY tutorial for putting fabric on the wall.
You will need:
• Fabric: Consider the weight of upholstery fabric that you use; if you use regular cotton, you will have bubbling problems.
• Liquid Starch: It is mostly available in the laundry section of major supermarkets
• Paint roller
• Paint brush
• Bucket or paint tray: This will be used to hold your starch.
•Thumbtacks or pushpins: To hold your fabric in place before you starch it.
• A knife
STEPS
1:Pin the fabric to the wall with thumbtacks before you get it wet. This helps to get the fabric exactly where you want it. It also lines it up if it is a pattern that needs to be lined up.
If you are doing fabric from floor to ceiling (or wall to wall), make sure you leave plenty of extra at the edges because the fabric will shrink as it gets wet and dries.
2: Once the fabric is in place, pour the starch into your bucket or paint tray and start “painting” it over the top of your fabric with a paint roller. The starch will soak through the fabric and essentially glue it to the wall. Saturate your fabric with the starch.
Make sure to get as much of the edges done as you can. Use a regular paintbrush for the edges since it is hard to get a roller into the corners. Do as much as you can without taking out any thumbtacks and then let it dry with the thumbtacks still in place.
This will probably take overnight. We recommend you leave windows open in the room because all of that liquid starch will make the room humid.
3: Once the first coat is dry, remove the thumbtacks and starch over the areas that you missed. Also do a second coat of starch over any areas you think might need it.
A note about the color of the fabric: when the fabric is wet with starch, it will be a lot darker than what it was originally, but it will dry much closer to the original color.
4: After the starch has dried out, you can trim your edges. Run your knife down the corners of the walls and where the wall meets the ceiling and floor skirting. You can use a ruler if you need to make sure the edges are square.
Wait until the fabric is dry to do this step, wet fabric is much harder to cut than dry fabric and starched fabric is more like paper than fabric, so it is easy to cut.
5: Once your edges are trimmed, you will probably need to go over the edges with starch again, just to make sure they are secure. Once that dries, you are done!
Note: If you want to remove the fabric someday, just grab a corner and peel. You will need to wash the wall with warm water to remove any residue. This process is great because it’s easy to remove, yet durable. Happy DIY’ing!