Wallpaper costs a fortune but newspaper costs next to nothing. That’s only one tip that will help you make your walls look as fabulous as someone who has spent a fortune on expensive wallpaper. No, you don’t glue the newspapers all over the walls – that would be silly – or would it? Okay, don’t glue the newspapers all over the walls, but cut them in tiny strips and then add them to the wall and you’ll be surprised at how really nice it looks. Paint a wall white, or a pale color, then cut the newspaper strips very thin – a quarter to a half inch wide – and stripe the walls. It’s a striking look that’s cheap and easy, although somewhat time consuming.
You will spend quite a bit of time cutting strips of newspaper, but after cutting the strips, the rest is easy as pie. Make sure to get the ends of each cut very straight so they’ll line up well with the next strip. You don’t have to cut just the black and white sections; cut right through the color sections as well, which will give you small bursts of color, here and there. A more colorful version of the striped wall can be made using strips of posters or glossy magazines.
A baby’s room – particularly a boy’s room – looks great when you use comic strips as wall border. Have family and friends cut comic strips from their local papers to help you with this project. You can also glue the comic strips to lamp shades, crib, hamper and other items in the room, using decoupage adhesive.
I receive tons of free catalogs that often have images of foods that are perfect for a kitchen. Cut the small pictures of cereal, crackers, oatmeal, pasta, cookies, juices and other images, then make a kitchen border. You’ll find it easier to do if you first glue the pictures onto banner paper, then attach the banner paper to the wall. The banner paper will make it easy to do a collage effect, too, rather than just aligning the images in a straight line.
Pictures from novelty magazines are a great way to make a room look like it’s been wallpapered. Take pictures of roosters and chickens, grapes and other fruits, or another theme, and cut them from magazines. Align the images, or scatter them around the wall randomly, and the room will look like it’s wallpapered. If you combine these images with the newspaper strip technique, or the banner paper technique, you can make dozens of different designs. For instance, you can attach two black and white strips on the wall – separated by several inches – then arrange hens, chickens, roosters and eggs within the newspaper strip borders. Or, you can arrange the images on the banner paper, then attach it vertically to the walls.
Maps make great wallpaper, too. Cut the maps in strips, just like the newspapers, but cut the strips wider a different look. Stripe the walls with the map strips, making sure to align them well at the ends. Of course, you can cut the maps into very narrow strips but the look isn’t quite as striking as the wider strips.
Recipe cards, printed on banner paper, will make a unique border for any kitchen. Print out the recipes on colored banner paper, then add pictures of grapes, strawberries, ivy, flowers, or other images onto the recipe cards and banner paper. The look is different than anything you’ll ever see and your recipes will be out in plain view for you to use!
You don’t have to be well off to afford nice wallpaper; you just have to use your imagination and a little wallpaper glue. Look around at other papers you have in your home. Covers from popular magazines can be shrunk and printed at home, then used as a wallpaper border for a den or reading room. Pictures of boats, shells, sea and sand can be printed out on banner paper for use in the bathroom. There are plenty of options for using ordinary paper as wallpaper; all you have to do is cut and glue!
Reference:
- Purchase wallpaper online: www.lowes.com
