This mural wallpaper project we are sharing today was one of the easiest projects we have done so far for the boy’s bedroom and the one with the most impact!
Since the boys are going to have to share one bedroom until we can make the renovation that will change some spaces of our 6-car garage into new bedrooms, we wanted to make this one a super special one, adding some of the elements that all 3 of them love the most.
After a few conversations it was in agreement that we would do a space/Star Wars themed room, but they wanted to keep it very simple.
That’s when we thought about an accent wall mural, I had just painted the mural on our 5th wheel, so while I was excited to make a mural for them, with the move and all other projects I have going on in my office space, painting a mural was low in my priorities until I ran into the guys of EverWallpaper!
While they are a mural wallpaper company based in the UK, they ship to the USA and my murals arrived just as fast as if they were shipped from the USA.
So now that you know the story, let’s go over how we installed this super cool wallpaper!
Choosing the kind of Mural Wallpaper
The most important thing to take into consideration when selecting a wallpaper is whether you want your mural wallpaper to be temporal or permanent.
- For a temporal application (think rental friendly or if you change your mind easily) a peel and stick mural wallpaper would be the best option, most peel and stick leave very little glue residue that prevents damage, making it a super DIY friendly option.
- For a permanent application, pre-pasted wallpaper or regular paper wallpaper that needs to be pasted (the traditional) would be the best option.
In our case, we knew that we wanted the wallpaper mural to be permanent and since it will be in our boy’s room, we wanted a mix of durability and affordability.
Selecting a wallpaper design for your walls
One of the things I love the most about Ever Wallpaper is that they offer such a variety of designs, no matter what your theme is, you can probably find it OR you can create your own design and have them print it for you, how fun is that??
In the case of the boys room, I had a brainstorming session with all of them and had them tell me all the themes they liked, then I searched their designs and saved everything I found into a folder (you can create folders if you sign in for an account, for free)
Then I had them vote for their favorite, and they all really liked the idea of having a space-themed room. What really sold it for me was that this design had three astronauts, so they kept saying that it was them there, exploring space.
Measuring and proofing
Measuring our wall was pretty easy because I was going to remove the TV that was there already and place it in a different room. For us, it looked like a rectangle, but if you have a weird shape, just remember to measure the longest part to make sure you have enough material to cover the whole wall.
I sent this same picture and the measurements, and they sent me the proof back with the placement of the wallpaper so that I could check and approve it before printing.
Shipping and unpacking the wallpaper mural
One thing that I was very surprised with was that shipping took just as little as if I would have bought the mural in the US, both of my wallpaper murals came rolled together and protected in a very sturdy cardboard roll.
We were so excited to see the designs!
They come split into different sheets, and they all have a top portion that shows the panel number and also a mini picture of the whole design.
The boys asked me to cut some pictures, so they could imagine how it would look better =] In the picture below you can see our moving mess as well as a preview of what the mural in my Office studio will look like.
Getting materials for installing a wallpaper mural
One thing I really like about working with peel-and-stick wallpaper is that other than cutting tools, you don’t need much, but to my surprise, the materials to install this wallpaper mural were not that much. The biggest difference was that we needed to get wallpaper paste since the thickness that we selected does not come pre-pasted.
We live in the mountains and our local hardware store did not carry wallpaper paste, so we had to make a special trip down the mountain to get it, but since I’m re-doing other rooms of the house, I used the trip to get a bunch of other material I needed as well.
In the end, these are the material we used to install the wallpaper mural
- Space Station Wallpaper mural by Ever Wallpaper
- Wallpaper paste
- Brush
- Scissors
- X-acto knife
- Wallpaper squeegee
- Measuring tape
- Level
- Self-leveling laser level
- Masking tape
- Screwdriver (if you have outlets on your wall)
- Wet rug to wipe off wallpaper paste excess.
I was lucky to already have all the tools because I had worked on various projects that involved wallpaper on our RV, but if you don’t have them, I would totally recommend getting a kit, so you can get a better price on the tools.
Below are some recommendations:
This is the kit I purchased when I started doing wallpaper projects.
This pack is specially designed for wallpaper that needs pasting
Prepping your walls for wallpaper
One thing that I loved about this wallpaper was that I didn’t need to paint the wall previous to installing the wallpaper, the only prep that I had to do was to take the TV out and fill those holes. Since we are not using the cable company that the previous owners had, I decided to close that hole as well, we kept all the plugs and just purchased new paintable outlet covers (in case we decide to paint them o match the wallpaper)
Just in case, I cleaned the walls with a deglosser since I do that every time I paint walls.
Installing the wallpaper
I have to note that this wall was the second wallpaper installation I did, for the office wall mural I attempted to hang it by myself, but it was super hard. So I instead waited for Ken, and we installed them together.
The very first thing I did was to make sure that each panel was in the right order, this is super easy since they include a top part that has the number of each panel, we made sure to only cut them as the previous one was installed to avoid any confusion.
I started by using my self-leveling level and made sure that the first panel was level, to do this I draw a light pencil line on the right side of the wallpaper, I did this before adding the paste to make sure that I could move it around.
While I did this, Ken would cut the top part of the wallpaper, so we only had the design panel. This wall was straight for the most part, but the office wall was a different deal and I had to move it a bit so that it would align better.
Once we were ready, I used a brush and applied a good amount of glue to half of the wall.
We figured out with our first installation that this was so much easier to maneuver and make sure that the seams aligned as close as possible.
Once we applied the wallpaper, we moved it around if necessary. You can also take it out and re-apply it. It was so much easier than I expected since I was prepared for it to be super hard.
I made sure to use the squeegee and gently remove all bubbles and extra glue from the half-panel.
Once I was happy with how the top looked, I made sure to trim the top excess (they give you about 3 cm extra in the top and bottom for better installation)
Ken then lifted the panels, so I could get there with the brush and apply the wallpaper paste to the rest of the wall, making sure that I covered as close to the seam as possible. On the right, it’s fine if you add wallpaper paste to pass your mark, since you can just wipe it down with a damp cloth.
Once I was happy with the panel not having any bubbles, I used my x-acto knife and trim the bottom paper excess. The best tip to check the wallpaper is to look at it with your head as close to the wall as possible so you can see a side profile, this will show every little bubble or imperfection.
We pretty much repeated the process one panel at a time, in our case for this wallpaper mural, we had 7 panels.
On some of them, Ken would help me smooth the top panel as I kept going down the center of the panel, adding more wallpaper paste. That way we could go a little faster.
The whole process took us about 3 hours, maybe?
It definitely felt faster than I thought was going to be =]
The final panel was so awesome to install, and since our last panel was not a full panel, we made sure that we trimmed the edge with scissors, and left a little piece on the right edge that I then cut with the x-acto knife at the end.
Since we started so late in the afternoon, we left the last two panels for the following day, it was so fun to finish this for the boys.
It made such an impact and the most important thing, the boys are beyond excited about their shared room =]
More wallpaper mural designs from Ever Wallpaper
Finally, since I know that you might have a different theme than the one we selected, I wanted to share some of my personal favorite designs from their huge collection! Just click on each image to see more details!
