Adding wallpaper to the middle bedroom of our beach house took only a few hours and cost under $100. It was an easy project that delivered a big visual impact without requiring advanced skills. We used fully removable peel-and-stick wallpaper, so if we ever want a change it comes off without the mess and effort of traditional wallpaper removal. Below I’ll walk you through exactly how we installed it, with tips to make the process fast, affordable, and forgiving.
Selecting your wallpaper
Two decisions kept this project quick and budget-friendly:
- Use peel-and-stick wallpaper. Unlike traditional wallpaper that needs paste or water-activated adhesive, peel-and-stick behaves like a large repositionable sticker. It’s less messy, much easier to correct during installation, and overall more forgiving.
- Wallpaper only above wainscoting. We installed board-and-batten molding in this room to make it feel brighter and beachier, and it also reduced the area we needed to cover. Doing a single band of wallpaper above the molding saved time, money, and effort compared with papering the entire room floor to ceiling.
We found a great deal on the paper we used, which helped keep costs low. Shopping around and using sales or coupons can drastically reduce the final price, so it’s worth checking multiple retailers before buying.
Tools & materials
Because you’re skipping paste, the tools list is short. Have these on hand:
- Sharp utility or craft knife
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Metal yardstick
- Wallpaper smoother (a credit card works in a pinch)
- Level (a small 9″ one works well above molding)
- Step ladder
- Pen or pencil
A cutting surface such as scrap wood or cardboard is also useful.
Planning your pattern placement
To minimize waste, check the wallpaper’s pattern repeat before you start. Our pattern repeated every 20.5 inches, so we made the space above the board-and-batten slightly less than that to fit a single repeat with a little extra. If your wall sections are taller or shorter than the repeat, you may need to trim into another repeat which can cause waste, so plan accordingly.
Coincidentally, our roll width matched the repeat, which gave us the option to run the paper horizontally for a faster install. We preferred the vertical orientation, but this is a useful alternative to consider depending on your roll width and visual preference.
Hanging your first piece
Measure and cut each section based on the pattern repeat. We cut one or two pieces at a time because our ceiling wasn’t perfectly level in a few spots, so some sections needed to be a bit taller. Cutting as you go reduced waste and let us adapt to those small irregularities.
Start your first piece by drawing a perfectly vertical level line on the wall slightly inset from a corner, rather than relying on the corner itself. Corners are often out of square, and if your first strip is off-vertical the pattern can drift around the room and end up misaligned by inches. Measure from the corner just a touch less than the roll width, draw a level line, place your wallpaper edge on that line, and then stick the sheet to the wall.
Peel away most of the backing, align the outer edge with your level line, press the sheet in place, and use the smoother to remove air bubbles or wrinkles. Peel-and-stick wallpaper is very forgiving—you can reposition panels multiple times until they’re right, which makes the process much less stressful.
Repeat this process around the room, matching the pattern at each seam. Take your time to align edges carefully before smoothing and trimming excess.
Cutting off excess at the ceiling or floor
Trim excess where the wallpaper meets the ceiling or baseboard by holding your smoother into the corner and running a sharp blade along the top edge of the smoother, keeping steady upward pressure so the cut is tight to the corner. Peel away the trimmed strip. You can trim every panel as you go or wait until sections are within reach from the ladder—either way works.
Dealing with corners
Corners are rarely perfect, so we cut the paper at the corner and then created a new piece to fit the next wall, using the trimmed scrap as a size guide. That approach kept each new panel perfectly vertical and prevented the pattern from drifting around the room. Minor overlaps or duplicated pattern can happen where walls meet, but from a normal viewing distance these small imperfections are barely noticeable.
Cutting around a window or door frame
Trim panels around window and door trim by scoring and cutting away larger sections with scissors, then making small snips so the paper folds cleanly around molding. Take your time and cut conservatively—it’s easier to remove more material than to add it back.
Ending your pattern
It’s rare that the pattern repeat will line up perfectly at the final corner. Plan to end where a mismatch will be least noticeable—behind a door, behind curtains, or a less prominent corner. Once furniture, curtains, and decor are in place, small alignment imperfections are rarely noticed.
Other peel-and-stick wallpapers to try
There are many attractive peel-and-stick options available. If you like this approach, explore other patterns and finishes to find the one that suits your space. Consider roll width and pattern repeat when comparing options to reduce waste and simplify installation.
I hope this guide gives you the confidence to try peel-and-stick wallpaper — it’s affordable, forgiving, and a fast way to transform a room. Happy sticking and resticking!
For a full board-and-batten tutorial and room planning tips, consult dedicated guides before you begin. This post contains affiliate links in its original form.