I made some progress installing the grasscloth wallpaper in the bedroom yesterday, and if it’s at all possible, I’m both pleased and disappointed.
Let me start by saying that I know it’s strange that a person who is as much of a perfectionist as me loves grass wallpaper as much as I do. Grasscloth wallpaper is one of the most imperfect finishes you can add to your home. You cannot adjust seams. Colors vary from piece to piece and roll to roll, even if they belong to the same color batch. I knew all of this in advance and tried to prepare as well as possible. I tried to tell myself that I would be happy with it no matter what the pieces looked like or how different each piece was from each other because grasscloth adds such a beautiful depth and texture that no other finish can match.
With that said, two days ago I jumped right in and installed the first part that I already showed you.
I got off to a good start and felt pretty confident. This wall required five pieces and I had all five pieces cut from the same roll and numbered so I could attach them to the wall in order. So yesterday I worked from the piece in the middle (piece #3) and worked my way to the left corner, attaching piece #2 first and then piece #1. And then I stood back and looked, and this center piece was obviously darker than the other two.
I panicked a little and thought I had messed up. Maybe I got bad advice from the videos I watched. Maybe I shouldn’t have turned the pieces over. Perhaps a grasscloth wallpaper (or specifically this grasscloth) has a type of pile, like velvet, where it looks dark from one direction and light from the opposite direction.
But that couldn’t be the problem because I attached part #3 in the middle of the wall going up, part #2 down and part #1 up. Pieces #1 and #2 looked good side by side. But the middle track was definitely darker.
So when I was ready to work in the opposite direction, I had to make a choice. Do I stick with the same process of flipping every other piece (called upside down hanging)? Or should I install them all in the same direction? I still wasn’t sure if the grasscloth might have had a nap and if that was the reason the middle piece looked darker. So I tried attaching the next piece (piece #4) to the wall in both directions to see if I could tell a difference.
And no, I couldn’t. I ended up installing this piece in the same direction as the center piece, and even if they go in the same direction, this center piece still looks darker.
I finished the wall and reinstalled the top trim over the windows. But it’s a complete mystery to me why this middle piece of grasscloth looks darker than the others. Is it just the placement of the lights on the ceiling? Or is the piece that came out of the middle of that roll of grasscloth wallpaper really darker in color than the rest? That doesn’t make any sense to me.
Now I don’t know what to do in the future. Should I continue hanging the rest of the wallpaper in the reverse order? Because the reverse hanging is clearly not the reason this one piece looks darker, since pieces #3, #4, and #5 are all hung in the same direction, but only #3 looks darker. So this is 100% NOT a napping issue.
Or should I just hang all the remaining pieces in the same direction? Pooh. I really don’t know what to do here.
I’m not going to freak out about this. I’ll go ahead and get this done. And if I have a piece of wallpaper left after I’m done, I might come back and redo that middle piece. But it just doesn’t make sense to me why this piece seems darker in the first place. I really think it might be a lighting issue. In this case, I’ll be wasting my time replacing them since a new piece of wallpaper doesn’t change the lighting in the room.
But you can see that these pieces look good next to each other, even if they hang in the opposite direction.
And these pieces look good next to each other, even if they hang in the same direction.
The good news is that a large portion of this wall will be covered anyway. Even if I have to live with this one piece appearing darker than the others, I think it will be fine. I marked the height of the headboard with a piece of tape, which you can see here.
And then I can use a piece of art over the headboard, like a series of three framed pictures, which can hide a lot of those seams in those three pieces. It won’t cover all the seams of course, but it will take some of the focus away from the seams and put the focus on the headboard and the artwork.
So overall I don’t feel discouraged or defeated. The actual process of applying the wallpaper went very well. I went back to the Roman Pro-555 Extreme Tack because that’s what I’m used to and I think it’s much easier. The extreme stickiness holds the heavy grass cloth in place much better than the other one I tried. And it holds the seams really well.
I also stuck with the “paste the wall” method. I’m just very careful when applying the glue right next to the previously installed grass cloth. I use a 2 inch purdy sash brush (an angled brush) to very carefully apply the glue to the seam and so far I have had no problems with the glue oozing out through the seam and onto the surface of the grasscloth.
So I really have my method down and am pretty confident about the actual process of installing grasscloth wallpaper. However, I’m still unsure about the reverse hanging method. It’s what the pros say, and yet I’m just not sure. Even though I know 100% that the reverse hanging method is not responsible for the center section appearing darker than the others, I’m still not sure I trust it. So maybe I’ll read a bit more and find a few more videos to watch before I move on to the other walls.
