Homemade Wallpaper Paste
I was working on redecorating and organizing my laundry room. I found this old wallpaper boarder that I had. I just LOVED it but when I went to put it up I realized I had no wallpaper paste.
This project had been on my mind for 9 months and I just wanted to get it done! I need an organized laundry room! I remembered someone saying they had made homemade wallpaper paste. So sure enough I found a recipe and made some of my own. It was so simple and CHEAP! It just cost me a few pennies.
Homemade Wallpaper Paste Recipe
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp alum*
3 cups of water
Combine flour and sugar. Slowly add 1 cup of cold water and beat out any lumps. Put mixture in a saucepan. Add 2 cups of water. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat. When stiff, remove from heat and add alum. Store in an airtight container. It should keep several weeks. If the paste hardens, soften by mixing in small amounts of warm water as needed.
*Alum is a pickling spice found in the spice section of your store. It’s a preservative.
To hang wallpaper:
Cover the surface you will be using with plastic or white paper. You don’t want to use newspaper as the ink will bleed. Spread the paste onto the back of the wallpaper.
Then “book” the wallpaper by folding pasted sides together.
Then let it sit for about 5 minutes to let the paste set.
Then hang. That’s it! Isn’t it pretty! It’s a fluke that it just happened to match my chocolate brown walls in my laundry room and I just LOVE it!! Now laundry is a pleasure (almost) to do!
One more tip. I’ve had this wallpaper for over 15 years. I used some of it in one house but not all so it’s been stored in a box all this time. When I took it out some of the edges had creased and left a line. What I did to fix it was just take crayon and maker and fill in the spots. You can see in the picture above that it just went away!
I hope you will make your own wallpaper paste now! It’s so simple and for a few pennies you can make it yourself! Even if you have to buy the alum it’s still much cheaper than $8 for a big tub of it from the store! Tawra
This is amazing. We have some beautiful wallpaper in our bathroom but some of the sections are coming loose at the seams. I have been using glue stick to hold them down but it breaks down over time and the pieces stick up again. I didn’t buy the container of wallpaper paste because it seemed pricey for 3 little seams. I can’t wait to make some of this and finally get these fixed. The paper has been up for about 20 years but has held it’s looks and color quite well and we still love it. It has sailing ships but just line drawings in dark blue over a cream background. It is a special waterproof wallpaper for a kitchen or bath. Thanks for this great tip and just in time for the holiday weekend chores.
Another easy way to fix a seam (if you have enough paper) is to overlap the two pieces you are putting together line it up so the pattern matches and use a very clean sharp utility knife with a straight edge. Run the knife through twice, take the cut pieces away and press the newly cut edges together.
This is great! I have recently started to build dollhouses and collected up some old wallpaper to use on them and realized that these rolls had no glue on the back. I didn’t want to go out and spend the money for a tub of glue when all I needed was a half cup at most at a time for the houses. Thank you for this recipe! Now I’m back in business.
It looks so pretty. I have wallpaper borders in all of my bedrooms. When I placed it there about 5 years ago, I was fortunate to find some paste at the recycle center for free. When later I had to repaint the walls, I didn’t remove it and if I painted a little over the paper I wiped it away with wet rag. It was much easier to paint than the other rooms that didn’t have wallpaper. Because in those rooms I had to be careful not to paint the ceiling and it’s hard to paint a straight line in the corner of wall and the ceiling.