Design This: Newsworthy Wallpaper

By fabulouslygreen

created on: 02/28/08

This fabulous DIY wallpaper treatment came from a high-end Italian furniture catalog of all places. A $6,000 plus Italian-crafted bed set against a wallpaper of newspaper that costs--if recycled, almost nothing.

How to Fab Your Walls

It's all about experimenting with what you've got. Look around your space, or a friend's. You can use almost anything:

Pages from an old book: I couldn't sell back my outdated Norton Anthologies, so I'm prepping those wafer thin pages to cover a column in 17th century poetry. There's like, 2000 pages in all.
Postcards from the edge: If you're someone whose friends and family travel to ooh-la-la places and send good pics, use them.
Greeting cards: Sort them by dominant color, (cut them up if you're not sentimental) and create your own David Hockney-esque masterpiece
CDs/DVDs: You don't really need that outdated Windows Install CD do you? Declutter as you design by taking those cast-off CDs from home and the office and paint them to create a geometric border or wall treatment. It will look like, totally groovy.
Sheet music: So lyrical and artsy
Office swag: If you're the type to bring work home, why not do something cathartic with those oh-so-colorful TPS reports? Or try the Business Card Art Wall idea we posted earlier.

How to Make it Removable

If you're a renter or a design chameleon it's easy to make this treatment lease-friendly by using double-sided tape. Elmer's Glue mixed with water is earth-friendly to boot because it's non-toxic, removable with sponge and water and biodegradable.

Show Off Your Inner Warhol

Weekend warriors: e-mail us your photos of your fabulous wall makeover. If we like it, we'll make you famous. Or at least give you kudos.

Visit me at Fabulously Green for more modern design ideas with a "green" twist.