DIY Wallpaper Ideas

Not so long ago, wallpaper lovers were required to make peace with huge commitments to their design projects. Once that harsh chemical glue was dry, starting again meant scraping remnants from the wall with a razor blade and possibly repainting, depending on how badly the removal process damaged the wall's surface. The only alternative was to cover the adhesive and tape the wallpaper sheets to the wall, then pray for rig invisibility and the right humidity levels from season to season.

Temporary wallpaper has done for the wallpaper lover what the slider once did for the furniture fanatic - freed up loads of extra time for redecorating, eliminated the certainty of post-project headaches, and created endless potential for an afternoon spent designing the perfect room.

Decorating with temporary wallpaper doesn't have to be much more difficult than applying and arranging removable wall stickers. If you're wondering where to begin your room redesign project, start with these five ways to decorate with temporary wallpaper:

1. Create a focal wall. When painting a room simply isn't enough, pick a wall, any wall. It could be the one with the window, the one across from the window, the largest one, or the one with the least amount of furniture nearby. Once you've selected the Chosen Wall, dress it in patterned temporary wallpaper to highlight the color you spent so much time picking. If you're using peel and stick wallpaper, start at one corner near the ceiling and smooth as you stick. Put aside a little extra time for standing back to admire the difference an accent wall can make.

2. Revamp a closet. Cumulatively speaking, you probably spend a significant amount of time storing and organizing the pieces that make up your wardrobe and rooting around an overlooked nook for something to wear each day. Why not make your closet space a nicer place to spend what amounts to a couple of hours each month? Choose a stylish temporary wallpaper pattern and cover all three walls to create a cuter closet that just might make you want to keep the door to your wardrobe wide open.

3. Spruce up the blank wall space beneath kitchen cabinets. An abundance of visible appliances and gadgets can call attention away from the gorgeous wall color you spent hours carefully applying to your kitchen walls. Adding temporary wallpaper in a complementary pattern to the backsplash between your cabinets and countertops is one way to draw the casual eye away from all that electronic bulk. If the kitchen has long been your decorative white whale, pay attention to the forgotten spaces in between - it's the first step toward experiencing the elusive design nirvana.

4. Cover bruises. My 4-year-old's enthusiastic transitions from the basement into our kitchen eventually led to a doorknob-sized hole in the wall slightly to the left of the doorway. Repairing the damage included spackling the hole and heading to the hardware store to browse scores of paint samples in pursuit of one that matched our current wall color. Covering the damaged wall with temporary wallpaper (and scoring a new look in our hallway in the meantime) would have been a much simpler solution than filling in holes and repainting. If you've got kids, clumsy roommates, or oversized furniture you like to move around every few months, consider keeping a roll of temporary wallpaper on hand for a decoratively satisfying way to hide bumps and bruises.

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DIY Wallpaper Ideas