When Jessica from Joyfolie emailed me about her brown paper floors, I jumped over to her blog to check them out.

{JoyFolie}

Click image for details.

Aside from the amazing shoe eye candy all over the place, I couldn’t help but notice that amazing finish on the riser. That’s when I knew it: I had been outbagged. I wrote her back right away saying I loved her makeover and that I was totally stealing borrowing her idea. The only place near me that I found paintable textured wallpaper was at Lowes. They have a limited selection, but I found something I liked in a medallion pattern (like a tin/plaster ceiling).

This stuff is seriously cake to install-it comes pre-glued and all you have to do is wet it, let it get tacky for about 5 minutes, then put it up. Instant makeover! For $20 a roll (11 yards by about 2ft I think), you can’t go wrong. I may actually cover my entire house in it.

If only I had known about this amazing product earlier, I wouldn’t have had to go through the trouble of cutting out hardboard to cover the risers in the first place. Remember this?

Ugh! Well, I wasted no time in covering up my painted panels once I saw the light.

Eventually I’d really like to add some picture frame molding to the bottom of the staircase walls and put this in the center of the frames. One day-when I figure out how to cut that angle- it will happen. Thank you again Jessica for sharing your brilliant idea with me!

65 Responses

  5. The Beatrice Dresser

    […] textured wallpaper from an estate sale (odd?) for $2. It wasn’t pre-pasted like the kind I used on my stairs, so I just applied it with Mod Podge which worked fine. I added the wallpaper to the drawer fronts […]

    Reply
  7. Tanya

    I love this idea! It is paintable too. I have used the anaglypta paper on altered book covers but never thought about it on my ratty ole stairs! It would even work on the sides of my stairs, which look just as bad…. Thanks fo the idea!
    Tanya

    Reply
  8. Renee

    I love this simple idea for risers, but am also wondering how they hold up? Do they scuff easily and are they easy to clean?

    Reply
    • rachaelevans

      Renee- It probably depends on what paper you use, what color you paint them, and if you wear shoes in the house. Ours are holding up pretty well, could use some touch up paint here and there, but I’d imagine any painted riser (papered or not) would need to be touched up now and then as well.

      Reply
      • Krystal

        Hi! I just recently saw this post and gave the wallpaper a try. Its textured like yours. But to my dismay, it is soft.. tears super easy… so i decided to prime it with oil primer in an attempt to “harden” it. Otherwise, bc its an old house and the stairs arent as wide as they should be, people will ruin them quickly by scuffing them.
        Have you had it tear from scuffing? Did you have to put a primer or paint on it, and did that make it tougher?
        Thanks! KM

      • Rachael Evans

        I did paint it (white), about 2 coats. Scuffing can definitely be an issue, so you might want to paint them a color that doesn’t easily show dirt.

  10. Brenda Graddy

    I think my kitchen ceiling is about get made over and painted copper. Thanks for sharing!! 😉

    Reply
  11. renee

    i acutally used this wallpaper to cover my backsplash in the kitchen! painted over it to give the pattern more definition. i cant wait to use the left overs for the stairs!

    Reply
  12. C. Hancock

    I love this! I really want to do this in my home, but I am having difficulty finding a place that still sells wallpaper. any suggestions? Thx!

    Reply
  13. Buffie

    Do you know how this holds up as far as cleaning it goes? We usually get those nasty little black shoe marks on them. Thanks! 🙂

    Reply
    • rachaelevans

      Buffie- It will scuff (I would imagine any white painted riser would though), but basically I just touch it up with paint 🙂

      Reply
  14. Michelle Johnson

    I love this! What did you do on your stair TREADS? Is that wallpaper too? Do you even think wallpaper would hold up on stair treads? I am eager to hear your response because I have some very yucky looking stairs that really need a good makeover…like YESTERDAY! Thanks!

    Reply
  16. Alicia

    Okay, I have read all of your directions and comments posted. So, if I understand correctly, I can do this on my stairs? I have cheap carpet and not a big budget. I can paper what is underneath carpet if I clean it up and sand as you did?

    Reply
  17. Monica

    I love it! It’s a great idea, if I ever have my own home I will “borrow” as well this idea. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  18. Mignon Young

    I love this and we are in the same boat with the condition of the carpet on our stairs. My question regards the treads. Did you put new ones on – or clean up the existing treads that you had? I am afraid if I pull the carpet, I may find the condition of the treads pretty rough.

    Reply
    • Rachael Evans

      We didn’t put new treads on (our house is only 5 years old), but generally I would think you’d be able to work with what’s there. If I was going to spend money to replace the treads, I’d forget about the paper entirely and put hardwood down to stain…if that makes sense.

      Reply
  21. Andrea

    I would never use this product on any stairs in my house.
    I’d spend all my days re-painting it.

    Reply
    • Rachael Evans

      Andrea- painted stair risers in general can be hard to maintain. It works for us though, we don’t have kids or anything and I touch them up every now and then. Not as often as you might think though!

      Reply
  23. Pia

    Did you paint the wall paper or did you just paste it on as is? Also did you find it to be very tacky? I want to do this and found the exact paper at Lowe’s but need to know if I have to buy paint too.

    Reply
    • Rachael Evans

      I did paint it, I prefer the durability of a semi-gloss paint on top.

      Reply
      • Courtney G.

        In my old house, we painted one staircase with oil-based paints, and it held up well even through a major construction project! I think I’m going to try using oil-based paint on the paintable wallpaper!

  24. cher

    I can see this as an idea for a few things that need some help in my home. My door to my garage is scratched to high heaven and I was thinking of using wall decals on it but I like this better. Closet doors and door to the pantry or weathered kitchen island. Eveyone seems so creative. I have a psuedo star type design on my ceilings and when I moved in I didn’t know what it was when I I found a dusty rolll in the garage. So sorry it ended up in the trash.

    Reply
  25. Brigid Keely

    The front entry of our two flat has embossed/textured wallpaper on the lower half of the walls, framed in beautiful dark stained wood. It’s super durable in that high traffic area. It’s damaged now because someone bashed the wall in a few places (a stroller or grocery basket got out of control I think), but we plan on replacing it with new textured paper because it looks so fab.

    Reply
  26. Laura Macken

    I love this, I’ve be en thinking about ripping up my stair carpet for a while, but didn’t know what to do other than paint the stairs. All I can say is I’m going to be busy at the weekend, thank you for this wonderful idea

    Reply
  27. Betty819

    I have a clothes hammer that we rec’d as a wedding gift, 49 years ago. It needs a makeover and I had planned to spray paint it with a primer and then a coat of white spray paint but last night when I was “tossing & turning” trying to go to sleep, I thought about this type of wallpaper and wondered why it wouldn’t work. There is already a design from the vinyl covering that covers the front and sides from the manufacturer. It would serve the same purpose I think. Worth trying it and if I ever wanted to change the color, that type of wallpaper can be painted. You can purchased that textured wallpaper at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Do you think it would work? The back of the hamper is like wicker so I know spray paint would work on that part.. Probably the spray paint would be less costly?

    Reply
  28. Dina Westcott

    Hi there. I love this idea. Did you paint the wallpaper first and then stick it on after it dries? Also, with the wall paper only being 20 inches wide, how did you cover the entire riser so seamlessly?

    Reply
    • Cathi

      Dina, when I did it, I “painted” the riser with wallpaper glue first and then pressed the dry wallpaper on it. Worked like a dream and made very little mess. I was able to re-position it as needed and trim off any excess as I went. I cut the paper lengthwise instead of across. 😉

      Reply
  30. Karen

    Hint…hint…textured, paintable, pre-glued wallpaper border fit my stair riser EXACTLY! Got it at Walmart…Better Homes and Gardens brand!

    Reply
  32. China Hutch: The Epic Conclusion

    […] The fish scales weren’t jiving with my new metallic beauty, so I knew they had to go. My plan was to paint the whole interior white after removing the paint chip scales…except those guys were hanging on for dear life. They weren’t coming off cleanly at all, so I stopped trying and re-grouped. I decided to just cover the fish scales up with some leftover textured wall paper I had on hand. Easy peasy If you’ve never used pre-glued textured wall paper before, you can read more about it here. […]

    Reply
  43. Cathi

    I did this to some of my stairs and absolutely LOVED the look….until we started using the stairs and found that the wallpaper chips off VERY easily. My 3-year old granddaughter just about destroyed them running up and down the stairs. Certainly not her fault! I’m now trying to figure out how I can get this look with paint and stencils. Wish me luck!

    Reply

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