Decorate your walls with wallpaper made of old book pages

When we saw the ceiling of the amazing Pocket Bar in Sydney all decorated with old book pages, we knew we had to try this at home.


We chose to do this in our computer corner, which is small (less than 10m2 - 100 sq ft of wall area), and for the obvious connection : book/computer/knowledge. Also because it's a non-strategic part of the house, so in case something goes wrong, it doesn't matter (but hey, everything went fine!)

Here's our feedback, to help you do the same and amaze your friends!

Preparing the book

First thing, you need to find the good book. Check in your basement, second-hand bookstores, opp shops, etc, take your time. 

Ideally find a large enough book, to minimize the number of pages to glue, with pages sewn in the middle, to make it easier to dismantle. The paper weight doesn't matter too much. Absolutely avoid glazed paper, it probably won't stick to the wall.

As for us, we chose a 1982 Encyclopedia Britannica, since it had a good mix of all-text pages and schema, and a nice tint. Also many topics to choose from, from locomotives to puritanism :-)

Dismantle the pages, and cut the center part with a paper cutter, to have nice and clean pages.

You can also mix different books, of different age and size, up to you.

Wall preparation

Make sure your wall is clean and dry, if necessary wash it beforehand; the wall doesn't need to be perfect, since the pages will hide minor imperfections.

Material

The required material is very basic:

• some wallpaper glue, that you'll find in any hardware store
• a large brush (ideally wallpaper brush, or a large flat paintbrush)
• for perfectionists, a spirit level
• a cutter for corners
• a credit card, or any small, flat and flexible item

The material. Not much needed really

Off we go!

This activity is quite
kid-friendly for a rainy afternoon

I recommend to start from the bottom corner of the wall, the farthest from the window.

Put some glue on the wall, about the area of one page.
Place your page carefully on the wall, starting with the page bottom.
With the credit card perpendicular to the wall, gently swipe the page to remove any excess glue, that would cause bumps. I perfected my swiping technique after a while: start on the bottom center, swipe left, then right, making your way to the top of the page. Well, this worked for me...

Place the second page next to the first one (after having glued the wall of course). If you're going from left to right, the new page left hand side should overlap the previous page right hand side. Proceed like this till you've completed the first row.

Then start the second row, by placing the first page slightly overlapping the one below.

Etc etc till you reach the top. Top and corners can be a bit tricky, but it's a matter of measuring precisely and cutting the page beforehand.

Almost there.

It takes a while since you have to glue page by page, if possible you can work in pair, one person starting on a row, and the other doing the next row in parallel. Much more fun. It took us 4 hours for 10m2, at a relaxed rate, with occasional "help" from the kids.

Well that's about it, when done wait 24 hours, the glue will dry, small bumps should disappear and you can move back in.

The end result!

Don't you feel like you're INSIDE Wikipedia?

If you've ever put wallpaper, you'll be in known territory. 

Otherwise, fear not! It's not complicated, much simpler than regular wallpaper, so give it a try and you'll be surprised by the result!

If you have any question, just drop a comment and I'll do my best to answer it.




One last thing, the whole budget is ridiculous:
$15 for the book, $15 for the glue, with enough leftover of both to cover another 10m2. What's not to like?