Fabric and Starch on the Walls...

The downside to renting an overpriced apartment is we're limited in how we can decorate. I would love to be able to paint, but of course that's not allowed and I'm not brave enough to ignore the limitations of our lease. We looked into a wallpaper that is easy to remove but that was surprisingly expensive so then after a bit of research I learned of a wall treatment technique using fabric and starch. Marcus of course thought I was nuts, but a few days ago he decided that we might as well try it and since he doesn't procrastinate (unlike me) off we went to the fabric store.

The actual picking out of the fabric was kind of amusing. Marcus and I had the dimensions of the wall we wanted to cover but only had the dimensions in inches. We then did a variety of random calculations trying to figure out how many yards of fabric we would need to cover the wall. It was hilarious we were dividing and multiplying and debating and coming up with a bunch of random numbers I think we just confused ourselves but eventually we reached the conclusion that we would need 9 yards of fabric. (We later learned we only needed 8 oh well we were pretty close).

The actual process of putting of the fabric was relatively smooth. We used a paint brush to apply the starch to the wall and then just put the fabric over it and then more starch directly on top of the starch, then used a flat putty spatula thing to smooth out the bubbles. The result is subtle since the fabric we chose isn't that vibrant but it does add a little texture and color to the room.


Close up of the fabric.

Marcus working on the wall.

In progress. The upper part had been starched at this point and the lower part still needed to be done.