Let’s Paint Wallpaper!

Have you ever painted wallpaper? I imagine that some people have done so but I had never tried it; probably because once I got tired of wallpaper, I just took it down. I’ve been helping one of my sons refurbish his first home. We’ve been painting, removing & replacing trim, etc. I had already removed a wallpaper border in the kitchen and had planned to remove the wallpaper in the master bath….that is until he suggested we try painting it.

Table Of Contents

Original wallpaper
Painting the wallpaper silver
Did the seams lift?
How about adding trim?
Attaching the trim
Adding more trim
Finishing touches
Finished accent wall
Before, During, After
Supplies Used
Instructions
For your convenience
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Original wallpaper

The wallpaper in the master bath was installed on just one wall. The wallpaper is heavy, the print is raised, and looks like seagrass. As I mentioned, I had planned to take it down. I was so surprised that my son wanted to leave it. I was more surprised to hear that he wanted the paint color to be silver. Not grey, but silver so that the wall would have some shine to it.

This is a picture from the real estate listing. We’ve since removed the mirrors, painted the vanity dark grey and the walls a light grey.

Painting the wallpaper silver

I had my concerns over painting the wallpaper. I thought the seams would lift and curl once they got wet. If that happened, would we just take it down or find a way to fix the seams? After talking about my concerns, my son was still intent on seeing how it would look painted. We found silver paint at Michaels and picked up two 8 oz bottles.

I started painting the main part of the wallpaper with a 4″ roller. I then used a 1″ angled paintbrush to paint along the top, sides, and bottom of the wallpaper. One coat was enough to cover the paper really well so I only needed 1 bottle of the silver paint. Now, I just needed to wait for it to dry to see how the seams held up.

Did the seams lift?

After allowing the paint to dry, I took a look at the seams. My concerns were realized, they did lift a little and the upper right corner of the wallpaper bubbled. I figured I could glue down the upper corner but the lifted seams were still going to be obvious. On a positive note, the silver paint enhanced the pattern on the wallpaper and it looked really good! Now, we just needed to decide if we were going to leave it that way or find a way to camouflage the seams.

How about adding trim?

After some thought, I decided to add trim to the wallpaper to cover the seams. I remembered that Home Depot has PVC trim in a variety of sizes so I went to take a look. I found a 1″ trim that had rounded corners. I thought it would work really well! All I would need to do is cut it and glue it to the wallpaper! I bought eight 8′ strips for $3.29 each. Before installing the trim, I applied some Elmer’s glue to the bubbled piece of wallpaper in the upper right-hand corner and pressed it down with my hand. The first piece of trim would go along the top of the wall. I measured from wall to wall & used my miter saw to cut the length, mitering the corners. This trim is so thin that you could easily cut it with a small hand saw. I just happen to use my miter saw when cutting trim.

I taped the top piece of trim along the ceiling line, then measured the length needed for each of the side pieces. Once those were taped in place, I cut one strip for the two seams. One seam was 21″ from the left wall and the other seam was 7″ from the right wall. After taping up the two ‘seam’ pieces of trim, I calculated where the last two pieces would go to make the pieces look like they were a planned pattern. I then measured the lengths, and cut those.

*When installing trim, it’s important to measure each piece individually. None of these 6 pieces was the same length.

After taping all the pieces of trim to the wallpaper, it was apparent that gluing them to the wallpaper was not going to work because the walls were too uneven. I would have to use my nail gun.

Attaching the trim

Now, I don’t mind using my nail gun to install trim. In fact, it’s one of my favorite tools! It’s just that if I had been able to glue the trim to the wallpaper, all I would have to do to finish the job was caulk around the outside edges. By using the nail gun, I would now be spackling the nail holes, sanding to smooth it, then painting the trim before doing the caulking. The bonus of using the nail gun, though, is that it’s fast and I know the trim will be secure.

Adding more trim

Once all the strips of trim had been installed, my son suggested we add some cross pieces to give it a more interesting look.

There was leftover trim, so I measured the width between each of the vertical strips and cut several pieces of trim.

I placed the horizontal strips in a random pattern and used my nail gun to attach them to the wall. Once all the trim was in place, it was time to spackle, sand, paint, caulk.

*Caulking tip: When using your caulking gun, or tube of caulk, hold your finger near the tip and smooth the caulk as it is dispensed. This will prevent too much caulk from coming out of the tip and save time by smoothing the caulk at the same time it is being applied.

Finishing touches

Caulking around the edges of the outside trim made a big difference in the appearance of the wall! I also needed to touch up the silver paint because when I was painting the trim, a little white paint got onto the silver. I wiped the paint off, but the silver paint became dull in those areas.

Finished accent wall

I never thought that painting this wallpaper would be so easy and look so good! Adding the trim was the perfect touch to make it a statement wall! The cost of the paint & trim was just about $30.

Before, During, After

Supplies Used

Painter’s tape
White latex paint
Silver craft paint
4″ roller with 3/8″ nap
Small paint pan
1″ angled paintbrush
8 strips of 1″ PVC trim
Spackle
Putty knife
Sanding block
Caulk & caulk gun
Nail gun
Air compressor
Miter Saw

Instructions

Using a 4″ roller, paint wallpaper with paint color of your choice
Using a small angled paintbrush, paint along the edges of the wallpaper
Measure length and cut trim to fit using a miter saw
Tape trim to wall with painter’s tape
Attach trim using a nail gun or hammer and small finishing nails
Fill in nail holes with spackle using a putty knife
Lightly sand spackle using a sanding block
Paint trim using a small roller or paintbrush
Caulk any areas as needed

For your convenience

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