High Quality Wood Look Wallpapered Wall

I have partnered with Walls Republic to bring you an honest opinion of their wallpaper products. Plus, directions on how to hang wallpaper! Yeah

I am charmed and won-over by all the wood walls I see out on the web and TV shows. However, I am old enough to remember back in the 1980's where wood walls on the diagonal was all the rage and if you see that now, you think 1980's dated!

Plus, I didn't want the commitment of wood and nail holes and/or glue to hold it to the wall when I wanted a change. 

As luck would have it, I was approached from Walls Republic to try out their wallpaper and write a review. Guess what? Walls Republic has wood look wallpaper! And my favorite, after getting very large free samples mailed to me, was R1879 Brushed Wood Tuscan! I was in love.

Now to select a wall. I am embarrassed to say, after 8 years of this look being on our fourth bedroom wall...when did I leave anything the same for 8 years?

I knew it had to go. My daughter free-hand painted this on a wall in her bedroom. Sentimental, yes, but she is almost 25 and a new mommy with her own home and family. It was past time for a change. 

HOW to WALLPAPER WALLS

I took wallpaper classes back in 1977 and it has come in handy all these years of wallpaper going in and out of style. The key is to prime/size the walls first. It's easy to apply with a roller. This sizing allows for ease of installing the wallpaper and makes it so easy to remove the wallpaper when you no longer want it on the wall. You just pull off the heavy top layer of paper and the thinner backing paper will stay attached to the wall. Just use warm water and a product call DIF. Spray it on the backing paper, walk away for 20 minutes and it will pull off in one long sheet just like you put it up. So easy...but you have to size the walls with this primer to get that result.

Some tools to make it easy is a wallpaper brush, cutting edge and a very sharp blade.

Normally, the first strip of wallpaper is placed one inch less than the width of the wallpaper you are using. It would be in the second strip position because most walls are never plumb, however, I happen to live in a house built so well that my walls are plumb! Using a level on the oposing wall in the corner, I realized that I didn't have to do this step of measuring out from the corner the width of the wallpaper, less an inch and drawing a line down my wall that is plumb to start my wallpapering. I know I am totally confusing you but it's really easy.

Using a 'square' and pencil, I marked my paper for a straight cutting line. I usually make the paper overlap the ceiling one inch or so as well as the baseboard. It allows for placement before cutting these overlapping areas off.

The Walls Republic paper did not come pre-pasted, so I laid out two beach towel on the floor and rolled on wallpaper paste. The paste will wash out of the beach towels, so no harm to them.

Walls Republic suggested to place the paste on the wall, but if you think you are not going to finish the wall in one setting, do it my way and just paste as you go.

Then fold over the top about half way and the same for the bottom. This is called 'booking' and it allows the paper to absorb the paste and make it easier to hang. I usually let this set for about 5 minutes and get a drink plus place my ladder, tools and wet rag in place.

When you are ready to place the paper on the wall, lift from to top but keep the bottom 'booked' area folded. This allows for ease of placement on the top before you unfold the bottom. Smooth out from center to each side with the brush and use the wet rag to gently wipe away any glue that may have gotten on the front of the wallpaper. 

The following strips of wallpaper will have be lined up to match the pattern of the strip installed before. My 'match' was about 24 inches down, so you do need to calculate that waste in on the amount of wallpaper you will need. 

As you come to switches and outlets, duct returns, doors and windows, you will have to cut around them as I did here with this outlet. I just felt around with my fingers to find the outlet and cut with my sharp knife.

Because I am detailed-oriented, I don't like the look of outlet and switch covers on wallpapered walls.

I don't show you in detail, but I wallpaper the covers too. Basically, I put the cover on the wall, hold up a scrap wallpaper to it until I find the matching pattern. Then I mark where the cover is and cut out the wallpaper about an inch bigger all the way around. I fold over this wallpaper and tape it on the back of the cover. I then cut out the switch or outlet area and when installed, it blends in nicely to the wall.

Since I live in a geo-thermal home, I have a return air vent in every room. This happened to be on the wall that I wallpapered. So I took craft paint that closely matched the colors in the wallpaper and streaked and sponged on the cover to blend with the paper. Just another one of my OCD things!

I am so happy with the results and it really has changed the feel of this room.

Though it is hard to take a good picture of how good it looks and how real the wood grain looks, I am here to tell you that this was a good decision.

Walls Republic has good customer service, great prices and offers a high quality paper. I have wallpapered over the years with many different brands and used many companies and this is really nice high quality paper. It even has a subtle texture of wood grain when you touch it.

To be honest, the drawback of using wood look wallpaper vs. real wood is that, a repeat looking pattern on the wallpaper shows up distinctively when viewed from a distance. But if you noticed, after placing furniture...(and some wall art that I have not placed yet), it will break up this pattern and it looks soooooo good! Changes a room completely!

Walls Republic will send you 5 free very large samples so you can tape it to your wall to get a feel for how it can look. They offer a 30 day money back guarantee and free shipping on orders over $150 or $15 flat shipping on orders under $150! Now that's a good thing.


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