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.