Interior Decorating Alternatives for Your Walls

The first thing thought of when contemplating redecorating the walls would most likely be “what color should I paint?” perhaps followed by, “or should I wallpaper?”  Then there are those who are renting and have a landlord that refuses to allow you to go beyond white painted walls. Now would be an excellent time to think outside of the box.

There are many alternatives to the common paint or wall covering. With a little imagination you will be amazed at what you could create and impress your visitors with. Look for the forgotten items you have around your home, that you no longer have any use for and can be repurposed.

You can make your own, unique wall covering. Pages from books (i.e. poetry that you love, children’s stories, and coffee table books), newspapers, playbills, magazines, or comics work great.  Maps, stationary, old blueprints, music sheets, post cards, or signage can all be used too as a collage to cover the walls. Even brown paper bags, placemats, or coins and shells can also be used as fun wall applications. There are many items that can be repurposed to display on the walls. You can use glue and/ or a decoupage technique to make and place your home-made wall covering.

Items can be placed directly onto your wall with glue. If you do not want to permanently stick your collection to the walls you can make and hang your wall covering collage a couple of other ways.

With the first option you will need wallpaper liner, a paint tray, plastic tarp, decoupage glue, large brush, smoother, and a mat knife.

Cut the wallpaper liner to the height of your walls adding a couple of inches. Paint wallpaper glue onto the back of the liner and attach it to the wall. Smooth out any bubbles with the smoother tool and allow it to dry overnight. Wallpaper liner is good for covering uneven surfaces, and paneled walls. This will also make it easy to remove, if you choose to, in the future.

Decide what memorabilia you are using to cover the walls. If you are using simple paper bags then tear the paper into irregular pieces. Keep them all about the size of your hand or a little larger. You will be overlapping the pieces when you glue them down. For pages you can glue them in even rows, overlapped slightly, or staggered in a random pattern.

Lay the paper that you decided to use into the paint tray face down. Place tray on top of a plastic tarp to control mess.

Paint a thin, even coat of decoupage glue over the entire back of your decorative paper with your paint brush.

Smooth the individual pieces onto the wall, on top of the wallpaper liner, with your smoother, starting at the top of the wall and working down. Overlap each new piece of paper by about 1/4 inch. Continue until you have covered the wall.

Paint a thin coat of decoupage glue over the collaged wall. Allow to dry for four to six hours before touching. When dry, trim your edges at the floor and ceiling.

An alternative to using wallpaper liner is to use rolls of brown kraft paper. Cut the brown paper to the height of your walls plus an additional couple of inches. Glue down your collage pieces to cover the paper, then hang the paper by using 3M poster mounting strips at the top and bottom and trim the edges. This can easily be removed with no damage to the walls.

You can also purchase decorative scrapbooking paper squares (all pieces should be the same size) at a craft supply store. Create a quilt effect look on your walls. Patch pieces together and tape together on the backside, then hang on your wall with the 3M poster mounting strips.

If you are decorating with black and white print, such as newspaper, you can produce an accent effect by using color magazine pages cut in strips placed on top to reflect the look of a molding.

Another great way to cover the walls is with fabric. Use a mixture of common liquid starch to create a paste effect for hanging your fabric. This fabric will be easy to remove when the time comes. In-depth instructions on how to hang the fabric can be found in my article “Wall Covering on a Budget for Your Abode”. If you do not wish to cover an entire wall you can also make your own decals by cutting out fabric shapes and starching them to the wall.

Murals can be great for an accent wall. The on-line flash program called Rasterbator is a fantastic resource. Using the free download you can create your own mural using a favorite photo or picture.  Upload any image and it turns it into “raster art” that prints out on separate letter size pieces of paper. The pages can then be taped together from the back or glued to the wall, like a puzzle, to achieve your mural. You may want to frame each section individually to hang for an interesting effect.

Wall tattoos are fairly new to the market. They are not your cute old fashioned ugly decals. These tattoos look professional and add a touch of whimsy to an otherwise boring wall.

If you have wallpaper that you love, but your landlord does not, apply it to several pre-stretched canvases. You can find canvases at craft supply stores such as AC Moore. Purchase a canvas that has a thicker profile and paint the edges in a color from the wallpaper first. Then paste the paper to the canvas. Hang your canvases on the walls for instant coverage. You can also use a canvas to stretch fabric or scarves over to hang on the wall.

Now get busy. Your wall will be a one-of-a-kind piece of art. As the artist, be proud of your masterpiece. When guests arrive your walls will become the talk of the party. Turn up the music and never be afraid to dance!

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