Give Your Wall a Lift With Peel and Stick

Laura | @HartLaneHome
by Laura | @HartLaneHome
3 Materials
$52
90 Minutes
Easy

Walls boring? Maybe you live in a rental, or maybe you just hate the mess that comes with real wallpaper and paste?


The last one is absolutely me. I hate getting my pasting table out, I hate gooping the paste on and having it splatter, hoping I’ve planned enough for the shrinkage that happens when the paste dries, and even worse, the dreaded removal when I’m tired of it and it peels off in a thousand tiny little pieces AMIRIGHT?

I recently tried my first peel-and-stick wallpaper and it’s LIFE CHANGING in the decor world for me.

IWallpaper can be daunting for first timers, peel and stick is a little fiddly to get on because it’s so sticky, but once it’s on, it sticks well, is removable without damage to your wall underneath and looks exactly like normal wallpaper so here’s my top tips on how to apply.

First you’re going to want a choose a good quality peel and stick. I got this constellations one on sale at amazon for $26 a roll, and I needed 2 rolls because I have 9 1/2 ft ceilings. Whether you buy in store or online it’s important to make sure that the batch numbers match on all rolls that you need, otherwise you’ll find that the shades and pattern can be off slightly.

When you do your measurements for calculating rolls, make sure to take into consideration the height and width of your wall, width of the wallpaper, and also the ‘pattern repeat’ measurement. If it’s a big pattern, you lose a lot to wastage when matching up the next strip to the previous and that needs to be considered.

My absolute top tip which I do regardless of whether it’s peel and stick or ordinary wallpaper; if your wall needs 2+ rolls, then always open both rolls and alternate a strip from each, that should always make sure you’re minimizing wastage from pattern matching.

This was such a small and awkward space to work in so it did take me around 1.5 hours to do. If it was in an open area with no toilet to work around and somewhere I could have fitted the ladder in better, an average sized bedroom wall would probably take 3 hours. The most important thing is not to rush or get frustrated, good quality paper is very forgiving and allows for being pulled back up a couple times if you crinkle it. I smoothed it out using just a clean rag (so my hands didn’t dirty the wallpaper) and hand pressure, rather than a plastic tool that was recommended in instructions as I felt a tool may cause damage. I had no issues, it sits perfectly with no bubbles or creases.

Pasted wallpaper shrinks, and I was cautious of shrinkage with this paper out of habit but I decided not to do any slight overlapping, I just lined the second piece up right next to the first piece so the seams were touching and no shrinkage occurred.

Since both pieces were edge pieces I just started in the top left corner and worked my way down, cutting around the toilet as needed with a scalpel and then repeated for the other side.


If you are doing this on a larger wall, I always recommend to start with a piece that will be second in from the end piece and make a plumb line to ensure your first strip is aligned straight, keeping the following strips aligned. There are a tonne of tutorials on how to plumb line for wallpaper and if I decide to wallpaper a larger wall I will post a how-to on that also!

Resources for this project:
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  • Thea Thea on Mar 01, 2020

    Also, my pet hate is how this type of thing keeps its rolled shape which makes it difficult to get flat. How do you get around that?

  • Linda Allen Linda Allen on Mar 16, 2020

    Where do u get the paper

  • Beverly Beverly on Apr 13, 2020

    Cau you use this paper on textured walls?

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