To update the tired look to any room in your house, use material instead of wallpaper. Using material eliminates the mess wallpaper can make, both putting it up and taking it down. Material can be taken down to wash when dirty and goes back up virtually with a smoothing of the hand.
To apply any material, use plain liquid starch. Apply the starch either with a spray bottle, or brush. Once dried, the starch is crystal clear and no special product is needed for removal. Once the material is taken down, no sign is left that it has ever been used. The tools needed for this application are a pair of scissors, a brush or empty spray bottle, and of course, your hands.
I will never again pay the high price for wallpaper which is difficult to hang, and even more difficult to remove. Easy and fast.
Source: My father, Donald C. Case
By Spacecase from California
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have wallpaper that I spent a fortune for, and for re-sale, would like to keep. My teenage daughter wants to paint over it with black paint. I just read how a couple of coats of primer would cover up the wallpaper, then the black, but a friend said there's some way that you can put black fabric, like curtains, throughout the room, using rods or some other way of holding them up.
A better idea might be to hang the black fabric like wallpaper. What you would need is liquid starch. Soak the fabric in it an then smooth it over the wall like wall paper. When you want to remove it, the fabric will come off easily and you just need to wash the residue from the starch off the walls.
To hang like curtains, look for those tracks and rings that they have in hospital ER's. you can hang the tracks from the ceiling and pull the "curtain" across the wall. It's great if you want to divide a room (i.e. office/guest room)
If you install curtain rods around the room by the ceiling and another one down around the baseboard. Put a pocket in the top and bottom of the black fabric.
Of course you can hang things on curtains. If it is a poster or other paper items, you can use straight pins.
Black sheets would be less exspensive than fabric
A staple gun (w/ the fabric) would be quick, easy, and a snap to remove again.
As I did myself to cover a couple of ugly walls in an apartment, I used a sheet that I liked the pattern on. Have a bowl of spray starch and a sponge. I washed down sections of the wall with the starch, pressed the fabric to the wall, and sponged the fabric with starch. do this over the entire area to cover.
If you want to keep the wallpaper as is, I think you should go with the curtain idea. If you use a staple gun, you will have holes in the wall, which will not be good for resale value, as they will have to be repaired.
On the decorating shows, they paint over wallpaper all the time, but I personally think that it looks tacky, and I would not be happy if I knew that was done in a house I was buying. I imagine that it is very difficult to remove wallpaper that has been painted over.
To hang a picture on the wall that has drapes over it, all you would have to do is make a small hole in the drape where the nail in the wall is. If you daughter wants to hang lots of posters and decorate with CD s and whatnot, and has her heart set on this black decor, perhaps it would be wise to remove the wallpaper and paint as usual. It would not be that difficult to repaint the room when it was time to sell-- make the deal that she can do what she likes with theroom provided that it is back to neutral when it is time to sell. Fresh interior paint in trendy colors is a big seller for homes on all the TV shows. Wallpaper might have limited appeal, no matter how nice you think it is.
Agree with all except for starching fabric to the wallpaper. Even though starch is mild, over time and depending on the wallpaper itself, could damage the wallpaper permanently.
A huge NO painting the walls black! Not only will this ruin your nice existing wallpaper but will take coats and coats of primer and paint to cover over it so the black won't be bleeding through!
PS Yes, do keep re-sale under consideration! And your daughters taste may change in just six months ;-)
if you have fabric that you want to use...kinda hold it up there and paint the fabric with Elmers glue and stick it to the wall..might need a few tacks to hold it until dry...when she is tired of it spritz it with water and it comes right off...then wash off the rest of the glue and presto you have your wall paper back penny
First, do not ever, ever, ever paint wallpaper. The results never look right and it's aweful to try and remove later.
We encountered a similar problem of wanting to cover up walls and found a cool system at IKEA.
It's called Dignitet Curtain Wire. It has a small bracket on each end that can be mounted to the wall or ceiling with an adjustable length of wire in between. They have inexpensive little clips that you can use to hook the fabric to the wire, or you can make a fold in the top like traditional curtains. Check it out on line. You may be able to find a similar item at a store that sells curtains.
angalipic wall paper is used for painting over. you can find it at any wallpaper store
I want to use liquid starch to put fabric on a wall. I want to use glitter/sequin fabric though. Would it work or would it be too heavy?
I have never tried this but when searching I could not find anything that mentioned what weight fabric to use or not use so it seems that it would be okay. You can search Google and find many suggestions as well as YouTube videos on how to do this.
This web site says "decorator' fabric which sounds like a heavier fabric to me.
www.hgtv.com/
Apparently you can roll starch onto fabric and paste it to the wall. This article from HGTV shows you how. www.hgtv.com/
The glitter is not heavy I would go ahead and do it it will look nice.
I have done this with light fabrics. Should be fine if it's not too heavy.
Will laundry starch hurt wood paneling if you use it to put fabric over the expensive good quality of wood paneling? I do not wish to cut and take it down. The spouse would die before painting it. Fabric covering over 2/3 of wall with chair rail finishing molding would be the solution for faux wainscoting. Light fabric could brighten depressing all over house with brown walls.
By Sherry from OK
I think it would hurt the paneling.
This is a great way to cover up blah walls. I did this on a painted wall and removed it when I sold my house. the faberic starch stays in the fabric and not on the wall, when you remove the fabric it will be stiff from all of the starch. Just wash and use again. Starch is not a glue so your corners might peel away, just reapply more starch.
I am envisioning fabric on the upper half of the wall, with wood paneling on the bottom? Right? Sounds good. Is there some place where you could try a patch of this to see if it sticks and to see what happens to the wood underneath? A painted wall is more durable than some kinds of wall paneling. I would do a test spot first.
Why not use mirrors, light paint on ceiling and light colored carpet and window treatments. You can also use painted screens or art panels hung on the walls. I would not use anything over beautiful wood paneling for fear of ruining the finish. Good luck.
Can I stencil a design or paint after attaching the fabric to the wall with the starch? I have a lot of white fabric and want a design.
You should be able to do that provided that you use fabric paint.
You risk the paint bleeding through to the wall if you're not using the right products. Test a sample before hanging to make sure your stencil paint is safe.
You could applique or machine embroider your pattern and then hang. Use colosafe thread or a prewashed fabric so no risk of color bleeds when hanging.
Seems your best plan would be to do a lot of testing before actually attaching the fabric to the wall.
Sounds like you are talking about a big project.
Do you have a place where you can do your testing just as it would be on finished wall? Maybe a laundry room or even a closet?
If not, then I would suggest you do your testing on a table and use all of the same material you plan to use on your wall.
The walls that I have seen looked good but all of their work was done on the fabric before it was placed on the wall and their first trials were a disaster so they were very glad they did the testing.
Be sure to use all of the correct paints that are recommended for this type of project.
Does anyone know how I can hang embossed vinyl fabric on a wall like wallpaper? It's 54 inches wide and pretty heavy when you're dealing with a 9 foot length.
By Julie
This is from an article I found on the web:
I started to look for temporary projects that were quick, and simple and I came across one that I think will be fun and make a big difference: Using fabric as temporary wallpaper.
I wanted an accent wall in the bedroom. I found a how-to article, "The Quick Fix Fabric on Walls" at RentalDecorating.com. I'd like to know if anyone has tried this technique and if the results were successful.
When you need to remove the fabric, it peels off the wall - no harm done
The instructions are simple: Wash the wall, then use push pins to fasten fabric along the wall's top edge. Apply fabric starch to the wall (with a paint roller or from a spray can), starting at the top and smoothing the hanging fabric over it until you reach the floor. Hang another panel, matching the pattern and repeat the starch and fabric application down the wall. After the wall is covered, you trim the fabric.
You don't have to do an entire wall, either. You can cover any portion of a wall, or just a section and "frame" it with fancy trim.
I picked out my fabric, a giant silk floral with a pretty sheen (a white bed headboard and a bookcase will go against the wall, so that will cut the print's impact). I pinned it up in the living room in two panels, just to get practice matching the panels. I lucked out in that the 2 2/3 yards I needed for each piece came within a few inches of the pattern repeat.
Test run with laundry starch
I tried several craft and home supply stores, but couldn't find fabric starch. So I went to the grocery store and got a spray can of Niagara starch - and it worked!
I washed a section of wall, then sprayed it with the Niagara starch. I used a piece of fabric left over from lining a bag - it's about the same weight and texture as the silk. The next morning, it was still there. No bubbles or peeling and even the tiny frayed threads were still splayed out on the wall.
When I peeled it off, it came away from the wall easily. I think that you could even wash and use fabric from this project in something else later. I am going to keep looking for a plastic-based starch before I complete this project in earnest - I am concerned that a corn-based starch could draw insects. The Niagara Starch didn't list ingredients on the label, and I haven't found it online yet either.
FROM ME: Since the fabric is heavy, you might want to also tack it up at the corners with some really small nails that you could maybe touch a dab of paint over the heads of the nails to hide them. I saw on another site, someone also tacked it up with small painted boards (like molding) and they liked the results.
I need to make starch for soaking my strips of material in before applying to the wall as a border. Has someone done this before?
By Anne Thomas
I did my sister's bathroom in fabric, and all I did was get fabric adhesive from Michael's (or any craft supply store). With the room ventilated, you spray on a small amount, then put on the fabric, using a squeegee to keep out the wrinkles. If the room is going to get a lot of moisture, you may want to put on some Scotch Gard. Good luck!
How do I clean the years of finger prints off fabric wallpaper without damaging the fibers and color? The fabric is a multi textured silk - varied shades of green?
try using the foam rug cleaner and a sponge. Try a small section and see how it works out.
Liquid starch can hold up fabric for a temporary wall covering. This is a page about temporary wallpaper for renters.
If you want a unique wallpaper, but easily removable, try stenciling the least expensive muslin fabric (I found mine for 86 cents a yard at major department store). Make sure to use fabric medium when stenciling. Then put up the fabric with laundry starch. The upside is that when you decide not to use the fabric for wallpaper any more, you can make curtains and other home decor out of it. By Debbie Z
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
I have textured/bumpy walls. Will I be able to hang semi-heavy weight fabric (gabardine) on my walls with liquid starch like wallpaper?
Does anyone know how to use liquid starch to cover your walls with fabric? We live in a mobile home.
