Hey guys, today I’m sharing my process for how to cover walls with fabric.
So, why’d I choose fabric? Two reasons:
1- it was way cheaper than the wallpaper that I found in the same print;
2- hanging wallpaper intimidates the heck out of me
A peek at my mudroom design coming up! And I am seriously loving this artwork from Katie Phillips Art. It is going to be the shining star of this room!
Supplies
Not much. You only need a few things: (affiliate links included- see my policy here)
- the fabric you are using (here’s a link to what I used)
- some liquid starch (linking on Amazon for your convenience, but I found it WAY cheaper at a local discount store) (I used two 64 oz bottles for my project and had a little to spare)
- a box cutter with a good blade
- something with a good edge to work the fabric into the little nooks and crannies. I used a drywall smoothing blade, which worked great!
- A paint tray, roller, and liner.
- Some thumb tacks- a good handful
How to cover walls with fabric: step by step
1- Make sure that you are starting with a good clean surface. If you have a strong color or pattern on the walls, you’ll want to paint over them to keep it from showing through the fabric. Remember my stripes that were in here? Gone now:
2- Measure your fabric, allowing an extra two inches on all sides. Then measure again. Ask me how I found out this is important. And how I almost ran out of fabric due to a bad cut.
3- Find a large, clean work surface to spread your fabric on. The only place that I had room to do this was the kitchen floor. It doesn’t matter which side of your fabric is up or down- it’s all going to get saturated in the next step:
4- Pour your liquid starch into the paint tray, load up your roller with the starch, and roll the starch over the fabric, covering it completely.
Yup, the liquid starch definitely changes the color of the fabric, but don’t worry- you’ll see it return back to normal as it dries.
5- Once the fabric is covered with the liquid starch, fold the fabric over onto itself.
6- While that’s simmering, take your roller, load it up with more starch, and roll the starch on the walls where you want your fabric.
7- When your walls are covered, get your fabric and position it on the wall. Have your thumb tacks ready to go for this part. I would recommend that you have a friend help you here. There were definitely a couple of times that I had to call on Michael because it kept slipping down before I tacked it (Hence, no pictures of this step) and it helped to have an extra set of hands.
8-Use your hands to smooth, smooth, smooth! Any wrinkles that you see in the fabric are easily smoothed out with your hands, but the smoothing blade does a great job as well.
9-Tack your fabric at the top when you have the fabric about where you want it to be. The thumb tacks will help hold the weight of the fabric while you do the final positioning, and will keep the fabric in place while it is drying out. Make sure you allow for two inches on the top of the fabric, baseboards, and walls.
10- Continue your way around the room until you have all of your walls covered. As you go, use the smoothing blade to push the fabric into corners, door jambs, etc., to ensure a clean edge.
11- Wait for your walls to dry completely before you trim off any excess. Dry time took several hours for me.
12- Use your box cutter, with a sharp blade, to trim the excess fabric from the baseboards, doorframe, and ceiling. These pics are the extra fabric that was against the door in the pic above. You can see how I had used the smoothing blade to really push the fabric into the corner, which made it much easier to get a good clean cut with box cutter:
But how do I…
…deal with corners?
I wrapped the fabric completely around the corners. If you use the smoothing blade to push the fabric into the inner corners and get a good clean line, your corners will look perfect when dry!
…handle fabric ends?
I just folded the ends of the fabric over and used the smoothing blade to make a good sharp line. Although initially the pattern lined up perfectly, as it dried, it shifted a bit (shrunk I guess?).
So if you are a perfectionist, this would probably really bother you. If this is you, might I suggest a fabric without such a geometric pattern, so that lines like this will be less obvious? I am so not a perfectionist though, so this doesn’t bother me in the least. Say-lah-vee!
…get the starch from the roller into tricky places, like corners and the top of the wall near the ceiling?
I used a paint brush for this part- just dipped it into the starch and basically painted it on the walls in any tight spots. We’re planning to add some molding to the top so I wasn’t too stressed about the ceiling, but I did make sure to do this in the corners where it could be a tight fit with the roller.
…handle going over the tops of doors and windows?
I just measured several inches beyond the door and cut. Then, I cut a smaller piece of fabric to size, lined it up with where the fabric piece over the door ended, folded the fabric ends together, and smoothed them out. Basically, I just patched a piece over the top of the door. Here’s what it looked like when completed (sorry for the bad pic):
So you really can’t tell at all that the piece over the door is patched- it looks like one continuous piece of fabric. Honestly I did it this way because I figured it would be way easier than trying to measure and cut the fabric accurately (since I was running out of fabric from a bad measuring job earlier…ahem…) and because I was confident that I could get the fabric pieces to line up (they did!).
The result:
It’s not done- I still need to trim the excess from most of the walls- but you can get a really good idea of what it will look like.
The fabric dries very stiff, and it is definitely secure on the wall. It will only come off if someone pulls it off.
All in all, I am super pleased with this project. It took about 4 hours, and it saved me about $75 compared to wallpaper and was a lot less intimidating.
Want a quick peek at the finished mudroom?
Next on the blog: Monday, Monday on, er, Monday, with my Pin of the Week, Hi-Lo, Real Estate Spy, and more! Plus, Tuesday I’m sharing the most important tip that I can give you for painting. See you then!
Update: I wrote an update to how these walls are holding up, as well as all of the FAQ’s I’ve received on this project, here.
Don’t forget to Pin this project so you can save it for later!
this is awesome! Can’t wait to see the entire finished project!
Thanks! I am excited too! It is actually turning out like I envisioned it in my head 🙂
I have done this for many years !!!! When I get tired of it…..I just spray it down with warm water….let it set a few minutes….then strip it right off….toss it in the washer….wash & dry it…and recycle the fabric into something else. I never layed it on the floor…sounds messy to me. I just used the starch & put it in a paint roller try, and rolled it on the walls with the paint roller. Work in about 4 ft. sections…and tack it to hold in place. Smooth with wall paper brush & hands. Do next section. Love it. I’ll never use wallpaper again !!!!!
Tack it only at the very top. Forgot to mention that !!!?
So you just tacked the fabric to the wall and then rolled the starch right on it? That would be MUCH easier! The floor wasn’t too messy (just a quick mop before and after), but I’m all about skipping steps if I can! Thanks for the tip! I’m trying to figure out what room I can do this next in and will try it your way next time! 🙂
No…I used a paint roller to apply the starch, in 4 ft sections. Then I used a tack at the first corner through the fabric to hold it. Pressed fabric to the starched wall….smoothing it with a wallpaper brush and my hands. Then I put a tack at the very top of that section, just to be sure it was secured. I had never heard of using fabric like that before….and held my breath that it wouldn’t come off !!! It was beautiful !!! No trying to match up patterns !!!! I had a beauty shop for 26 yrs, and got many raves about it. The fabric still looks new. No one wanted me to change it….so I just changed out decorations to refresh it. After I retired…I changed it. Just getting ready to do it in my kitchen, but I may scotchgard that. I have pictures….but not here in FL.
Sounds much easier! If you get your pictures, I’d love to see them!
Very nice. When I did our dining room wall I poured the starch into a large dish pan and submerged the piece of fabric then placed it on the wall.
Thank you Susan! I have heard of that method too- seems like everyone who has tried this has their own method! I bet your dining room turned out beautifully!
Great job. I am going to try this?!
Thanks Jo Ann! It is such a fun and easy project! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Can this be easily removed for apartment dwellers?
Hi Gayle, yes ma’am it is very easy to remove and it doesn’t damage the walls at all. It would be a great solution for apartment dwellers!
Thanks for the great info. I was wondering if it would take scrubbing to remove the starch?
No, just wash the fabric.
I saw this many years ago with Matt and Sherry.
But have joined the list of renters and this is what I am going to do.
Oh my goodness, I used to LOVE Matt and Sherry! I still think of that as the glory days of HGTV, when there was REAL design going on! Fixer Upper notwithstanding 😉 Anyway, I think that was when I first saw this project too. This would be a great project for renters. I’m planning to do this for my brother’s house- he’s renting as well, and it will give a much needed update to his space! Good luck, and let me know how it turns out!
Is the starch difficult to get off the wall? How would you do it?
The starch is very easy to get off the wall- I just use a warm wash cloth and wipe it down! Give it a try! 🙂
Do you think that this would work for a bathroom?
Hi Alme! I do think it would work in a bathroom. Since this post, I’ve had several people comment that they’ve done this in a bathroom and the fabric stayed put for years! I’m not sure if I would do it because our bathroom walls get dirty sometimes (my boys seem to get toothpaste everywhere when they brush their teeth!) and I’m not sure how well it would clean. Good luck!
Say-lah-vee ??? Did you mean “C’est la vie?
Of course, that was just my attempt at humor 🙂
Wow, I have waited much to long to search for answers that all renters have. I will definitely being attempting this. Thanks!
would this work on concrete walls?
Hi Carol! I am sorry for the delay with reply! I’ve never tried this on concrete walls, but I think this would work just fine! You could always try just a small piece and see how it works! Good luck!
Would this work with upholstery fabric? Or silk?
Hi Charlotte! This would definitely work with upholstery fabric. I think it would work with silk, however, I would do a spot check on the silk to be sure that it wouldn’t ruin the fabric first. One of the good things about this project is that if you get tired of it, you can take the fabric down and reuse it if you want to- but I’m not sure how well silk would hold up to that. Good luck!