Découpaging your walls with pages from an old book, antique maps, or magazine covers can instantly transform a boring wall into a conversation piece. Your wallcovering will be one of a kind, a quality that even the most glam wallpaper can't give you. Some of you might think that tearing up a book for any project is sacrilegious. If you fall into this category, use a book that's already falling apart, or that has a damaged cover. To learn the steps for this project, read more.
- First things first. Carefully pull the individual pages out of your book or magazine. Running an X-acto knife across the inside of the spine helps to make this step swift.
- Now, neaten up the edges with a ruler and a craft knife, making sure they're relatively straight. Do the same if you're using old maps, or even use a paper cutter if you have one. You can leave the edges as is if you're going for raw look, though.
- Lay down a drop cloth or newspaper on the floor below the wall you're covering.
- Open up your windows, and make sure the room is well-ventilated.
- Using a sponge brush, apply wheat paste to a small portion of the wall.
- Now, line up one page flush with the wall, and apply it, burnishing out any bubbles with your hands as you press it onto the wall.
- Continue to apply wheat paste and press your pages onto the wall, lining them up neatly until the wall is covered. If you want a more raw look, you can overlap the pages and even stagger them a bit.
- Make sure you've burnished out any bubbles. Sometimes using a credit card here will help.
- Now, allow the wall to dry.
- Using a synthetic bristle brush, apply a coat of Polycrylic Protective Finish, which will protect the pages from peeling, scuffing, and other damage.
- If your adjacent walls get messy from applying the Polycrylic, you can easily clean it up with a sponge and some warm, soapy water.
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I love the idea of this, but when I think about doing it to my walls all I can think about is how impossible this would be to remove once you get sick of it. I guess you could always repaint over it, but eventually it's gotta come down....
1I did an accent wall in my kitchen like this using soaked off wine labels. And then all my friends started bringing me other cool ones! And then we moved and I had to leave it behind, boohoo. I just used plain old wallpaper border paste. As it was not in a high-traffic area, I just coated it with a watered down solution of Elmer's Glue to protect it, so it would have come off easily with any regular stripper.
2I would love to do this but unfortunately we rent. Our landlord however is very laid back and said we could repaint. I wonder how hard this would be to cover?
3my husband and i did this on one wall of his bedroom, back when we were still dating and he was living at home, with an old, old history book with black and white maps and yellowed pages...we just used mod podge, or whatever that stuff is called...then when he moved out, his brother took his room and painted over it
now we rent, but i would definitely do it again when we own
4That picture gives me a headache
5I just used plain old wallpaper border paste. As it was not in a high-traffic area,
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