Your bathroom may need to be decorated a little differently to other areas of your home. The moisture innate to the space can make certain features hard to pull off, which begs the question, “Can I hang wallpaper in the bathroom?”
While wallpaper has certainly come a long way bathroom conditions (moisture and humidity) can affect adhesive over time. If you’re determined to use wallpaper in the bathroom, here are a few ways to do it.
- Splashproof wallpaper: If you want to wallpaper the area near your bathroom sink or shower, opt for waterproof wallpaper. Most styles are made of vinyl, which gives it a fighting chance. Vinyl wallpaper is even designed to be wiped off for easy cleaning (which makes it great for the kitchen).
- Small area: If your bathroom is broken up into small spaces–as with a separate toilet room or changing area–hang wallpaper in those spaces and opt for a complimentary paint color near the tub to join the spaces together.
- Powder room: A powder room or half bathroom is the perfect space for a bold wallpaper. Because there’s no shower to create steam, the wallpaper won’t be affected,
- Accent wall: Add your waterproof wallpaper on one wall of the bathroom (preferably the one opposite the shower) for a feature wall.
- Frame it: If you find a wallpaper print you love, but can’t manage to get it to stick to the walls, buy a large picture frame, or a few frames in different sizes, and cut the wallpaper to fit. Framing the wallpaper adds color and texture to the room without requiring you to repair peeling corners after a hot shower.
Before you get started, clean and prime your bathroom walls. Vacuum baseboards and wipe down walls to remove dust, toothpaste, and dirt. Remove light fixtures, outlet covers and switch plates. If you’re wallpapering a wall that has holes from pictures or shelving, fill the holes and sand until even. Use a brush or roller to apply wallpaper primer to ensure the paper will stick now and come off easily when it’s time for a change in the future.
Measure your wall and then apply those measurements to your wallpaper with pencil marks. Cut clean lines to create wallpaper panels. If you have a repeating pattern, be mindful of how the panels lineup to create symmetry on the wall. Have a rubber smoother or wallpaper brush on hand so you can smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles as you apply each panel.
