Let me start by saying that my only experience with wallpaper prior to this was installing peel-and-stick wallpaper on one wall in my 12-foot camper. Needless to say, that experience was VERY different from this one.
Armed with a good attitude, a day off of work, a bucket of water, and a sponge, I hung my Spoonflower pre-pasted removable wallpaper. This is how it went.
What’s On Deck:
Choosing My New Home Office Wallpaper
After shopping around for a couple of months in search of the perfect wallpaper print for an accent wall in my home office, I stumbled upon Spoonflower — a print-on-demand company that offers artist-designed prints on a wide range of interior decor items, from wallpaper to throw pillows.
I fell in love with the Peacock Dreaming Ikat print. Its whimsical and colorful print reminded me of a cut-through way home that my mom and family friends used to drive down called the Alligator Way. You might be wondering what an Alligator has to do with peacocks.
On this Alligator way, there were small retention ponds with baby gators in it and as you followed along the winding path, skipping the busy stop lights, you’d eventually drive by a grove that was commonly populated by a couple of peacocks. If you were lucky, you could watch their vibrant and beautiful tail feathers trail behind them gracefully as the peacocks slowly crossed the street. For a little kid, gasping at wildlife was much more enjoyable than waiting for your turn at the roundabout.
As I got older, I also learned that on the final right bank turn of Alligator Way, was a standalone black, metal spiral staircase leading to nowhere. I used to think it was just a beautiful accident and whoever owned the place refused to sell — and trust me, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation. The lot itself was beautiful, even in its overgrown and unkempt state.
My mom told me that a terrible fire burned the entire place to the ground. But before those flames engulfed everything except for a single spiral staircase, it was the event venue for my mom and dad’s post-wedding party!
This wasn’t just any post-wedding party; it was an unforgettable wedding bash. With all of their family and friends in town, they booked a live band, filled the bars to the brim, and danced the night away on the lake in what was lovingly referred to as the Boat House.
But I digress.
My Spoonflower Wallpaper Installation Experience
I was excited to hang my Peacock Dreaming Ikat wallpaper to breathe a little life into my boring beige home office. After a slight miscalculation on my part during the initial ordering process, I received three rolls of wallpaper one week and two remaining rolls of wallpaper a couple of weeks after.
Once I had everything I needed, I unrolled the wallpaper and temporarily hung it on the wall using painter’s tape. My thought was that if I could get some of the tight curl out of the paper itself, it would be easier to install.
This was only partially accurate, but still a miscellaneous step I highly recommend!
Each roll of wallpaper came with a short piece of paper that was the wallpaper label as well as the instruction manual. With a seemingly short list of to-do’s before, during, and after the Spoonflower wallpaper installation, I was optimistic.
My previous experience hanging wallpaper is solely from installing peel-and-stick wallpaper on a very small wall in my Sunray 109 Sport camper. This endeavor to hang Spoonflower wallpaper was an entirely different matter.
Spoonflower Wallpaper Instructions
Here’s the full list of supplies I needed to successfully complete this DIY, renter-friendly project:
- A paint roller or clean sponge
- A bucket of water
- An exacto knife or box cutter
- A drop cloth, or an old sheet
Seems simple, right? Little did I know that a full, in-depth list of instructions with substantially more detail was available online right here.
I laid down my drop cloth/sheet, retrieved my bowl of water from the kitchen, snagged a clean sponge, and prepared a cinnamon honey matcha latte — I was ready to go.
Below, I’ll list out the steps they suggested followed by my honest feedback since nothing is quite as easy as it seems.
STEP ONE
Make sure the walls are smooth, clean, dry, and free of mold, mildew, grease, or other stains. On new walls, drywall joints should be taped, mudded, and sanded smooth. Remove any nail heads, nicks, gouges, and other surface imperfections.
My feedback: This is self-explanatory. I actually had a couple of small pin holes in the wall because the wall I chose to hang this wallpaper on used to be my gallery wall. I didn’t bother filling those in before hanging.
STEP TWO
Unroll each roll to face the same way. Use a clean paint roller or sponge to wet the back of the paper. Gently fold the top and bottom so that pasted sides meet together in the middle, as shown in the diagram below. Take care not to crease the paper. Allow each panel of paper to rest in this booking phase for at least 3-5 minutes before hanging.
My feedback: Honestly, they severely undersell the amount of water you need to activate the glue. I folded and pasted the sides then waited patiently as my glue dried up right in front of my very eyes before I even contemplated carrying a piece of wallpaper to the actual wall.
STEP THREE
Once the first panel is properly booked for 3-5 minutes, unfold just the top half of the paper while leaving the white edge with the barcode still folded. From your starting point on the wall, align the top of the wallpaper with the ceiling. They recommended going left to right or right to left, ensuring you start in a corner.
My feedback: It makes perfect sense to start in a corner, which is exactly what I did. However, to my previous feedback above, if you don’t sufficiently SOAK the back of your wallpaper, the 3-5 minutes become obsolete. By the time I got my top piece to the left corner of my wall, it was sliding right off because there was no glue adhesive activated to hold it in place.
But, if you get the back of the wallpaper sopping wet, then the adhesive works properly. I was also tackling this project solo, meaning no help, no extra pair of hands, and only one extra pair of eyeballs that are lovingly sitting under the cutest little brown eyebrows of my dog Rocky Balboa. He’s solely there for moral support, which is highly recommended while hanging wallpaper.
STEP FOUR
Once the top of the paper is in position, unfold the bottom half. Smooth the paper down the wall using a damp sponge or a wallpaper squeegee. Remove air bubbles as you go, lightly pressing them from the center of the paper to the edges.
My feedback: I didn’t do this step at all. I ended up wetting the first half of the wallpaper and installing it. Then fold the wallpaper piece in half, wetting the bottom half, and then proceed to affix it to the wall. The whole concept of having all the glue ready to go was a figment of my imagination.
The recommendation to move from the center to the edges is always good advice when applying something sticky to any surface.
STEP FIVE
Book your second roll and hang it so it overlaps the previous roll by approximately 0.5″ (1+ cm). The overlap may vary from roll to roll, so be mindful and visually match the repeat. There is no need to trim the overlap. Because wallpaper shrinks as it dries, this guarantees there will be no spaces between panels. Repeat this step with each panel until you complete your installation.
My feedback: I had no issues with this step! The design I purchased repeats every two feet so I didn’t worry about lining up the edges perfectly. I was aiming for completion, not perfection.
STEP SIX
Once you’ve installed all the panels, let your paper dry completely — at least 3 hours — to guarantee it has returned to its original size. Then, use a sharp utility knife with a good grip to trim the extra paper around the frames of windows and doors, across the ceiling and by the baseboard.
My feedback: I did not wait three hours to trim! My last panel was being immensely fussy. The only way I could get it to lay even remotely flat was by using painter’s tape to secure its location and trimming a small amount off the edge. I only had about a 1- to 2-inch overlap that needed to be trimmed.
I also chose to trim the extra length at the bottom while the paper was wet but didn’t notice a substantial difference between wet wallpaper and dry wallpaper. Why, you ask? Because I’m impatient, that’s why.
My Spoonflower Wallpaper Review
For a first-timer, installing this wallpaper wasn’t the worst experience, but it definitely could have been better. If I had to redo my purchase, I would opt for the peel-and-stick version instead of the pre-pasted removable one. The peel-and-stick seems more manageable for a solo DIY project.
While I’m happy with the final results, it took me almost an hour to troubleshoot the adhesive activation for the first roll. Once I figured out how soaking wet the back of the wallpaper needed to be, the installation went much faster and with fewer errors.
The 12-foot ceilings made the process more cumbersome, as I had to continually wet the back of the wallpaper. This made the installation clumsy and complicated.
However, if you have two people working on the job, the pre-pasted removable version could still be a viable option. I do appreciate how loosely the wallpaper adheres to the wall, which is ideal for my rental property.
One miscellaneous idea that did occur to me while struggling to get the paper to stick early on, was that a spray bottle with water would be a helpful tool to reach for to streamline the “booking” process. Booking refers to the adhesive activation process.
With a spray bottle filled with water, you could easily keep the back wet without struggling to run a sopping wet sponge over it while half the wallpaper is precariously stuck to the wall and hanging on by a thread. Learn from me.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Spoonflower wallpaper come off easily?
The pre-pasted removable and peel-and-stick versions are much easier to remove compared to traditional wallpaper. During my installation, I could easily pull off a corner, add more water to re-activate the adhesive, and then press that section of wallpaper back onto the wall. Even the next day, some seams were still lifting, making it simple to remove if I chose to.
Is Spoonflower wallpaper safe?
According to Spoonflower’s website, they print their wallpaper using 100% water-based inks, free of heavy metals, formaldehyde, and APE. They are non-hazardous, non-toxic, and biodegradable. The inks used for our wallpapers are GREENGuard Gold Certified, an industry standard for low chemical emissions. To learn more about Spoonflower’s sustainability commitments as well as health and safety FAQs, click here.
Why does Spoonflower wallpaper overlap?
On their website, Spoonflower mentions that they print approximately 0.5” (1+ cm) of overlap down the side of the right side of each toll to help match the pattern during installation. This aids in aligning the design when hanging. I found this to be a helpful practice, giving me some wiggle room to match the pattern while also creating a relatively seamless-looking final product.
Key Takeaways
At the end of the day, I would absolutely order patterned wallpaper from Spoonflower again but, here are a couple of things I would do differently:
- Research wallpaper installation videos and detailed instructions online instead of solely referring to the brief instructions that arrive with the wallpaper rolls
- Test out the traditional peel-and-stick version if tackling another wallpaper installation job solo
- Ensure I purchase a repeating pattern to make installation simpler (I did this, but it was a sheer accident that worked in my favor)
- Wait until the wallpaper dries to trim the bottom by the baseboard
- Purchase small foam paint brushes to make touch-ups easy and uneventful (I had one of these to use the day after hanging to fix some seams and it was a lifesaver)
As someone stubborn enough to tackle miscellaneous projects on her own, installing Spoonflower wallpaper is something I would absolutely do again, especially since the results bring me an immense amount of joy.
Ready to find the perfect wallpaper for your upcoming project? Give Spoonflower a gander to discover cool prints that complement any home style while supporting individual artists.
Thanks for the detailed review! My only experience is with non-pasted wallpaper and I have no problem with that except that strangely enough Spoonflower’s non-pasted wallpaper is so much more expensive than their pre-pasted one. And then their website does not recommend using pre-pasted for permanent installation which is a bit worrying! Wondering how durable the pre-pasted type really is…
I know it’s only been less than a year but so far how is your wallpaper holding up?
I noticed that as well! The water-activated adhesive has worked really well over the span of a year. I also moved recently and had no issue removing the wallpaper. It didn’t leave any sticky residue either! Plus, I was able to reuse the same wallpaper in my office at my new place! Granted, it doesn’t exactly fit like a glove and I’m using small nails to tack it up, but I’ll be updating this post with that content shortly.