I have decided that the next project I will tackle in the bedroom suite is the grasscloth wallpaper. That much remains on hold until the grass cover is high. I can’t hang my foyer mirror until the grass ceiling is in place. I cannot hang any art until the grasscloth is in place. I can’t put the curtain rods in the bedroom until the grasscloth is in place. And I always like to assemble the curtain rods before sewing curtains so that I can measure the exact finished length of the curtains rather than guessing the length. For all of these reasons (and I’m just excited to see it finished), I’ve decided that the grass cloth is the next project I want to cross off the list.
Before I get too far into this post, I would like to quickly get a handle on expectations. Yesterday I just attached a piece of grasscloth to the wall. I was hoping to get a lot further, and pretty early in the afternoon I was just about to jump into the project with both feet when I decided I really needed to slow down a bit, watch some videos of experts installing grass wallpaper, and make sure I knew exactly what needed to be done.
I’m SO glad I did this because if I had jumped headfirst into this project I would have screwed it up. For example, I didn’t know that you have to change direction when laying grass wallpaper. This is because grasscloth is a natural fiber and when dyed, the left side of the roll may be darker or lighter than the right side of the roll. To minimize these variations, place the first piece with its top side (i.e. the “top” edge as it comes off the roll) at the top of the wall. And then turn the next piece over and place the top edge on the bottom of the wall. And you continue to rotate each additional piece in the opposite direction as you move around the room. That was new for me.
I also wasn’t sure where to apply the wallpaper paste. I almost always use unpasted wallpaper, so I just paste the wall and then paste the wallpaper onto the pasted wall. It’s a super easy process, but I’ve only ever used wallpaper that can be wiped clean with a damp cloth if wallpaper paste gets on the surface of the wallpaper. That’s not really possible with grasscloth. You must be extremely careful not to get any paste on the surface of the grasscloth wallpaper, as it is not easily wiped off and can (and probably will) discolor the grasscloth if the glue gets on the surface of the wallpaper.
Even when I started the first piece I wondered why most people (but not all) glued the back of the wallpaper instead of gluing the wall, which I think is so much easier. So I covered the wall with my first piece. This worked well, but I quickly realized that for all subsequent pieces I would need to paste the back of the wallpaper instead, to hopefully eliminate the possibility of rolling or applying paste onto the edge of the previous piece I just installed.
That being said, I want to say that I spent a lot of yesterday watching and learning, and I’m so glad I took the time to do it. I found this particular video very helpful and have also read the comments for more helpful tips. The actual video never mentioned what glue they used, but a comment from a professional recommended Roman Pro-880 for grasscloth and other delicate papers. So I decided to do it. This is the exact wallpaper glue available at Home Depot.
I have to say that I found the Roman Pro-880 difficult to use. It doesn’t seem to provide much grip, and it was particularly difficult to hold onto the edges of my grasscloth.
I always used Roman Pro-555 Extreme Tack, I find it very easy to use and I never had any problems holding the edges of the paper. While I appreciate the input of a professional, I think I’ll probably go back to what I’m used to and use the Roman Pro-555 Extreme Tack for the rest of the walls. I just don’t want to have to worry about the edges of every piece of wallpaper drying. Doing this stresses me out. I just want them to stick the first time so I can go ahead and get this done.
Another thing that stressed me out (and the main reason I was thinking about giving this wallpapering job) was the idea of cutting thick grass wallpaper around the trim on the windows and doors. I know the limits of my DIY skills and it’s difficult enough to achieve these detailed cuts with regular wallpaper. I got along quite well in the closet. But grasscloth is much thicker than traditional wallpaper, and that was the one thing that made me most nervous about tackling this project myself.
After discussing it with my mom, we both agreed that the easiest way would be to remove that trim so I would just have straight vertical cuts on the sides. And once the wallpaper is in place, I can easily reattach the trim. Luckily, I no longer use construction adhesive when attaching the trim, so removing the trim is fairly easy.
I needed five pieces for the headboard wall. And so it happens that I get five pieces from each roll of wallpaper. I cut all of my pieces and marked the top of each piece with a series of pencil marks so I knew which end was “top” on each piece, and I also numbered them as I cut them.
And then I started the middle part (literally part #3 of five parts) in the middle of the wall after measuring and marking the center between the windows.
I know it’s only one part, but I was so excited when I saw that there was finally a part. I love how deep the color is. It adds such fullness to the walls. And now that I have finished the first piece, many of my fears and anxieties about this project have disappeared.
Well, they haven’t completely disappeared, but I think that’s entirely doable.
One thing I did when painting the walls was I painted the bottom lip of the crown molding the wall color and not the trim color.
This way, even if my cuts above aren’t quite perfect, the perfectly painted edge gives the impression that the cuts are perfect.
I didn’t have the same safety net when cutting the bottom edge, and with this first piece I learned that you really need to apply some firm pressure when cutting. If you don’t penetrate the wallpaper on the first cut, small fibers will be left behind that will be difficult to remove with a second or even third pass.
Luckily this area is hidden behind the headboard, so I’m okay with it not being perfect. This was a good starting point for learning all these little tricks since so much of it is hidden by the headboard.
I know this isn’t too exciting yet since it’s only one piece, but I’m amazed at how much more confident I feel just finishing this piece and also working out the plan for wallpapering the windows and doors. I was also really worried about cutting the paper off the top and bottom of each piece, but this worked out really well.
So I feel like I can get this done relatively quickly now that I have my feet wet and know what to expect. I don’t want to move too quickly because as I’ve mentioned many times, I can’t afford any mistakes with this project. If I mess up one of these parts, I have nothing to fall back on. I bought every last roll of this wallpaper in this color range that was available all over the country and I have just enough to wallpaper the bedroom and foyer with no wiggle room. While I feel pretty confident now, I can’t get overconfident or move too quickly because then I’ll mess it up.
