One of my favorite rooms in my old house was my office. The walls were an orange peel finish and I used a tan and a creamy buff paint and color washed the walls. Then I wallpapered a little nook in the pages of a book. Helter Skelter to be exact. This was my favorite area of my home and drew raves from my friends.
Anyone can wallpaper their home in non-traditional paper and create a stunning effect. I chose the book Helter Skelter for a few reasons, one is because I find it a little bizarre and I'm always looking for ways to gently shock people. But the more important reason is that I knew I'd need more than one book to complete my nook. Helter Skelter has a lot of pictures and several pages with writing that only covers a portion of the page, I was looking for full pages of text. So knowing that one book wouldn't do I wanted to have the same book for the rest of the area. I wanted to the font and spacing and age of the book to match. Basically, I didn't want anyone to know it was more than one book. I knew that Helter Skelter had been very popular when it was printed in paperback and from my many trips to used book stores I knew I could easily find another copy from the same period so they had the same basic degree of aging. The aged, yellowed pages were also the exact shade I wanted.
So, if you're thinking about wallpapering an area with a book or another non-traditional "paper" consider how much of the product you'll need, can you get it all, will it look the same, will the backside bleed through, etc. In other words, think about your project thoroughly before you begin. As with most projects that don't follow the rules there can be some drawbacks, but if you work through it you usually get amazing results.
First you'll have to make sure you have clean walls. Wipe them down with a mild detergent, just as though you were going to clean them. (You do clean your walls at least once a year, right?) If the walls are painted a dark color there is a very good chance this color will bleed through so you may want to prime them with a white primer. I worked on orange peel walls and it was "ok". It would have looked so much better if I had had flat walls. If you have walls that have sand texture you can sand them down a little bit.
Once the walls are ready you'll need to size them. This does not mean measuring but is actually applying a product called wallpaper sizing. This product makes it easier for your paper to stick to the walls and stay in position. It also makes future removal much easier. Paint a thin coat of sizing all over your workspace and let it dry. Follow the instructions on the can but usual drying time is about a half hour.
Then you can begin papering the wall. Paste the wall in an area that is slightly larger than your piece of paper and then place your paper on the wall. Move in a regular fashion, lining up the edges of your paper so you keep a straight line. Overlap the edges just the slightest bit, like an eighth of an inch in case there is a bit of paper shrinkage but this occurs much less frequently with actual paper than wallpaper.
Try not to slop any of the paste onto the tops of the pages and wipe it off with a damp cloth if you do. The paste creates an odd finish on top of the paper that you don't want.
Once you're done and the wall has been given at least twenty-four hours to dry you can put on the finishing coat. This can be a coat of spray shellac or you can paint on a layer of varnish. I like the varnish because it's easier to control and gives a better finished look. Now your walls are done, sealed and can be wiped down when you do that annual wall cleaning.
If a paperback isn't inspiring you I've seen people use maps and atlases, magazines, and children's stories. I've always wanted to do a border in a children's picture book with a wood trim border on top and bottom to frame the story, but have never got the opportunity. If someone takes that challenge on please send me a picture of the finished product.
Don't be limited by my suggestions. Branch out and create your own interior decorating works of art.
