If you walk into someone’’ll instantly think “Wow. This person has it so together.” We all judge each other, and bathrooms are unfairly subjective. I had this revelation a few months ago when visiting a girlfriend in her flat.
It wasn’’t marble countertops or a rainfall shower. It was the wallpaper. One accent wall covered in the prettiest navy blue and gold botanical print lined with the paper from floor to ceiling behind her sink.
I spent the next few months staring at my beige bathroom walls wondering what I was missing. Painting bathroom walls always seemed so final to me (What if I hate it!?
It’ – what if I?’d need to spend to have someone tear it down and re-tile.
But wallpaper? I could totally handle wallpaper…or so I thought. My first attempt at wallpapering my bathroom was illuminating to say the least.
I went to my local wallpaper shop and chose this gorgeous William Morris inspired wallpaper. I didn’ – what if I?’m doing when moisture inevitably got to it. Within three weeks the corners began to peel up right next to the shower stall, and I had to peel it off like sad, ripped Band-Aids.
Lesson learned – bathrooms are basically rainforests. If you put up wallpaper there, it needs to be prepared for downpour. I did much more research before venturing out on my second attempt.
Vinyl wallpaper will be your best friend when shopping for bathroom wallpaper – they are essentially water-proof and can stand up to the steam with no problem. I found this beautiful textured grasscloth-looking vinyl that ran me about £35/roll. Not cheap, but way cheaper than getting someone to retile my bathroom.
It took me four rolls to cover the wall behind my toilet, which felt do-able in my budget and skill set. What I wish someone told me before I got started on this project is that your prep work is way more important than perfect application. Sure, I could have spent another day getting every single edge flawless, but it wasn’’re happy with.
I cleaned my entire wall down, sanded a few spots that were extra uneven, and then applied a vinyl wallpaper primer. ZZZ sounds boring, right? Try doing that and then not doing it and I promise you’’d notice a difference.
This wallpaper went up smoothly, it didn’t bubble, and eight months later my fiancé’ showing ANY signs of wear! The geometric pattern I chose is an subtle green and cream colour. It’’’m confident.
But even that low-key pattern added so much depth to my bathroom. My plain ol white vanity doesn’ white marble when set against my new wallpaper. The mirror I swore I was buying last year doesn’ NEED replacing – this paper made it seem expensive.
It really is amazing how one change can brighten up the rest of your space. The hardest part about hanging my wallpaper was actually getting it applied perfectly. All the YouTube tutorials make it look so easy.
Life involves mumbling curses to yourself in the mirror while re-positioning the same strip of wallpaper five times because the patterns won’ – let me reiterate – eight solid days of my dining room table serving as Wallpaper Headquarters. Measuring, cutting wallpaper, re-measuring because you ARE paying for every scrap you waste. Hint: Invest in a plumb line.
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I used this handy Spirit Level iphone app to draw a perfect vertical line on my wall before I even started hanging wallpaper. It seems obvious, but your walls almost never align perfectly vertically. Trust me.
Hang that first strip and if it isn’ – every strip after will be wonky. I never quite figured out corners. There is an odd angle where one of the walls in my bathroom meets a built in medicine cabinet.
To get the paper to hang, I needed to cut some relief cuts, which are small cuts you make in your wallpaper so it can relax around an object without ripping. Hanging wallpaper in that corner took the precision of surgery and some serious luck with a box cutter. But it worked.
At first, I was anxious about the whole moisture issue. Will it start to peel? Will mold grow behind it?
As I sat here writing this I realised – it’’ve had the paper up and I haven’ experienced any problems. Bathroom wallpaper doesn’t have to spell disaster if you take the proper steps. I always make sure I turn on the ventilation fan during AND after showers and if there is any excess moisture that pools on my wallpaper, I wipe it down.
Takes about 30 seconds and alleviates all my worries. Curious about my costs? I know you are. £140 on wallpaper, £25 on primer/adhesive, and around £15 on tools I didn’t already own.
A smoothing tool is 100% worth the purchase. So that’ £180 to overhaul your bathroom. Compare that to the £800+ I was quoted to have someone come out and professionally tile my bathroom and wallpaper starts to feel like a bargain.
Trust me when I say that wallpapering my bathroom has had benefits outside of just making my bathroom pretty. Every single one of my guests has commented on it. “Your bathroom finally looks finished.” is the number one phrase I hear when someone walks in. I’’ll admit it – I actually LIKE spending time in my bathroom now.
Ridiculous, right? But also kind of wonderful when you’re staring at yourself for 30 minutes each day brushing your teeth.
Since then I’ve branched out to trying peel-and-stick wallpaper in other rooms around my house.
I put a super bold black and white palm print in my downstairs toilet and it makes what would otherwise just be a hallway bathroom actually look like a “powder room.” On that project I used real paste-the-wall wallpaper, which was more expensive than the peel-and-stick but was also unbelievably easier to hang. Depending on what you’ looking for, sometimes the upgrade is worth every penny. What I wasn’ expecting however, was how much I loved it.
Ever since I hung that first roll in my bathroom, I find myself obsessed with browsing wallpaper patterns. Thinking about how I could DIY that empty hallway or what would go on the blank wall in my bedroom. Wallpaper is like paint, only with little details and personality already decided for you.
So if you’re thinking about taking the wallpaper plunge – take my advice and just jump. Pick out one wall to start, buy vinyl or paste the wall paper, and don’ – trust me, you will. Once you happy with it.
Even if you completely mess up (mine probably isn’ perfectly perfect if you look at it long enough.) your pattern matching won’ notice. What they WILL notice is that your bathroom looks cohesive and thought out, and that’s what we all want, right? !
