Wallpaper Silhouettes

As someone who usually thinks of an ugly floral in grandma’s kitchen when I think of wallpaper, you’d pretty much never hear me advocate for its use in your house. As someone who has helped remove wallpaper on several occasions, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it if I ever thought I’d have to take it down. But, today I stand (type?) before you to tell you that Seth and I have decided to wallpaper the ceiling upstairs.

I know it sounds insane, coming from someone who generally hates wallpaper. But I found the coolest embossed wallpaper that was SO CHEAP at $0.35 per square foot.

The wallpaper is paintable, and reminds me of those old school embossed tin ceiling tiles. We’ll probably leave the wallpaper white, since it’s on the ceiling and I don’t want it to feel too dark up there, but I like that it’s versatile. Most importantly though, it means less mudding and sanding the joints in the ceiling drywall, because the wallpaper will hide minor imperfections in a way that paint can’t. That’s the main reason we decided to say yes to wallpaper. It’s faster than several coats of mud and paint, and it also saves our (especially Seth’s) necks and shoulders.

To prep fresh drywall for wallpaper, you have to prime it. Otherwise, the wallpaper glue gets sucked right up by the drywall. Once primed, the ceiling is ready to go. The wallpapering process is surprisingly simple. You lay out a piece long enough for your space, paint some wallpaper glue (available for pickup at Lowe’s but NOT Home Depot, FYI) on the back and wait until it’s dried a little, so it’s tacky feeling. Then you start at one end and slowly stick it to the ceiling, being careful to do it in a straight line along a parallel wall so your pattern is straight. Once you lay the first piece along a wall, you can lay the rest of the pieces parallel to that first piece by making sure the patterns line up exactly. As you go, you can use a utility knife to cut out holes for light boxes or trim the ends of the piece of wallpaper. You can clean up any glue that gets on the floor or walls with a damp sponge.

I’m not going to show you the full finished product until the big reveal, but what do you guys think? Am I insane for using wallpaper? Or are you seeing the genius that I’m seeing?