5.16.12

A few months ago I saw a post on Centsational Girl about hanging beadboard wallpaper.  I never knew such a thing even existed.   I knew it would be a perfect project for our teeny laundry room quarter-bath (just a commode - the sink is in the laundry room proper).  

It is near impossible to get a good photo of this little bathroom because of how small it is.  It is about 3 feet x 5 feet.  

Here is a composite before picture:

Not bad.  Just kind of boring.  

I bought the wallpaper at Lowe's and the brand is Allen & Roth.  It is an unusual "paper."  It is actually a very thin foam like material with a paper backing.  I'll give you my tips for working with it in a minute.

Here's my random pet peeve of the day - I hate seeing pictures of people's bathrooms with the toilet seat up.  It takes 1/100th of second to shut it and looks so much better in photos.  

I used to hang wallpaper for a living.  That gave me just a teeny advantage for this project but honestly it was pretty easy to work with.   If I was brand new to wallpapering I don't think I would tackle a bathroom as my first project.  I'm tempted to do my eating area in the kitchen and I know that would be a breeze - all flat walls, no tight places and no toilet to wallpaper behind.  

As you can see by the top picture our walls are pretty heavily textured.  I hung a sample piece first to see if the thickness of the wallpaper would cover it.  It did not.  So I hung blank-stock first. Blank-stock is just a heavy paper that covers texture.  You hang that first then hang your decorative paper over it.  

I used heavy duty wallpaper paste for the blank-stock but the beadboard wallpaper is pre-pasted.  20 some odd years ago when I did this for a living I would not hang pre-pasted wallpaper.  It didn't stick very well.  I would just treat it like regular wallpaper and use thinned down paste.  However this pre-pasted worked brilliantly.

Here are a few tips for working with this particular paper:

• Use a fresh blade for every cut - I used a snap-off Olfa cutter and after trimming each piece I would snap off the top so I had a fresh blade.  Otherwise you get a ragged cut.  
• Since the paper is a foam like material it dents and dings very easily so take your time and be very careful.  Take off your rings and make sure your nails are short.  
• The paper is paintable (and I would highly recommend painting it) but make sure you scrupulously clean off any paste residue before painting.  Otherwise you end up with a crackle paint like finish.  

I am really pleased with how it turned out and, like I said, I may do the eating area in our kitchen.  The laundry room is off the eating area and I think it would tie it all together nicely.

 

 

Comments

[Nicole]

That would look brilliant in my kitchen eating area!

[Lizz Kerr]

Holy smokes that looks good! And so much easier then real beadboard....

[Goodies By Anna]

I love that! Looks fantastic!

[Christine]

What a great look! Never would have thought of the heavy paper first. Probably would have tortured myself trying to smooth the wall with spackle. Something that we both know would really never work. ;)

[Karen K]

Beautiful and a previously unknown fun fact about your old career.

[Christine Thomas]

Nice. It looks really pretty. Good thing you said composite picture in the first photo. I was all about the really cool "corner" window at first. :)