Wood Wallpaper Gives the Look of a Real Wood Wall

Wood planked walls are so on trend right now in cottage and farmhouse styles.  Before Fixer Upper, who ever heard of shiplap?  Now, shiplap is everywhere!  I admit, I love the look!  It turns a builder grade home into cozy cottage charm!  We did a wood plank/shiplap feature wall in our living room last year and I absolutely love it!  I don’t think it is “trendy” and I think it will be there for as long as we own this house.  But, my hubs doesn’t quite agree with me on that.  He’s not really a fan of the look – I know, seriously!!!   I really wanted to do more shiplap/wood planked walls in other rooms in our home and he wasn’t on board with that.   So, I came up with an alternative – Wood Wallpaper.

A special thanks to Wallpaper Direct for providing me with the wallpaper for this project.

I went to my favorite source for wallpaper, Wallpaper Direct.  They have an amazing selection and I can always find what I’m looking for.  I ended up choosing THIS dimensional wood paneling wallpaper.  It’s a vinyl paper that is printed with a special ink that expands with heat and gives it a raised surface effect known as “blown” wallpaper.  It’s a soft, but dimensionally textured wallpaper.  The black and white tile wallpaper in my powder room is also a “blown” paper and has texture when you run your hand over it!  Another example is the bead board wallpaper you can purchase at Lowe’s.  It is another type of “blown” wallpaper and looks like the real deal when you paint it.  You can see both of these wallpapers used in my powder room makeover HERE.

When I received the wallpaper, I was thrilled with the quality!  The texture just makes it more realistic.  Remember when laminate flooring first came out.  It was like a photocopy of a wood surface.  It looked flat and fake.  Then the flooring market advanced to textured laminate that was much better.  It’s the same way with this wallpaper – the texture takes it a step further in looking more realistic.

I was tempted to run the wallpaper horizontally to make it look more like shiplap, but in the end, decided to run it up and down.  It took me just 30 minutes to do this feature wall.  It was so easy with no pattern matching!  It’s the look I wanted and I was able to do this project on my own!  Sure, I would rather have the real deal – but, this gives me that cottage charm that I was looking for and keeps my husband happy at the same time!

If you’ve never wallpapered, this wood wallpaper would be the perfect first project.  It’s really easy to work with and doesn’t require any pattern matching.  There are lots of tutorials for hanging wallpaper on Youtube if you’re a beginner.  This is not a pre-pasted wallpaper that you soak in water.  Personally, I prefer this type of paper.  When you hang the pre-pasted paper that you soak in water, it is such a MESS!  And, I think you have more control using wallpaper paste, which is inexpensive. Here’s the brand I use.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this wood wallpaper in my bedroom.   I’m busy working on loads of spring decor and DIY’s to share with you!  Sadly, here in PA, it seems like winter has returned.  But, the birds are chirping in the morning, and thousands of snow geese are making their way back north, so spring should be right around the corner.

Here are some more posts you might like:

My Best Wallpaper Hanging Tips

Black and White Tile Wallpaper

Buffalo Check Fabric Wallpaper