5 Cheap Ways to Spruce Up Your Walls (Besides Painting)

As the Fall Colors Contest rolls on, we've been looking at lots of ways to use paint in your home, but there are other options for your walls as well. Click below for a few suggestions including easy fabric walls, budget artwork, and more...

Hang a panel of fabric on a wall to add interest without spending a lot of money. For similar ideas, look into large-scale artwork on a budget or ways to decorate with leftover fabric scraps. Photo: Turbulent Fabric Collection from Marimekko.

If you have a lot of small, inexpensive artworks, hang them in a grid or cluster to make a big visual impact. This photo of Jess2Nola's clustered artwork shows that you don't have to spend a lot on frames; try mixing up the arrangement with clips and corkboards.

Decorating a part of the wall with wallpaper or wall decals can bring definition to a space. Meg and Ross used wallpaper to section off an alcove in their kitchen.

With hooks or peg trim, you can display a collection on the wall. Solaana's jewelry storage system adds color to her bedroom wall and keeps her collection organized.

In their bathroom, Meg and Ross used liquid starch to adhere fabric to the walls. This is a great solution for renters who can't paint, since the starch leaves the walls undamaged. When it's time to move, pull down your fabric, scrub the walls, and you're set.

I wonder if you could use starched fabric on the bed wall to make the bed look more important...

posted by dcexplorer on October 8th 2008 at 2:56pm
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where do i find that shelf above the toilet??

posted by goldlamp on October 8th 2008 at 4:38pm
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starching fabric to the wall is an idea i have always wanted to try - but im a bit concerned with the clean up after taking it down...

anyone have any experience with this? how bad is the wall after? how intense will that scrubbing be???

thanks!

posted by kungfookimmie on October 8th 2008 at 6:49pm
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one word of caution with the starched fabric... I did that with cut outs of black fabric and while it looked fantastic, it left faint purple stains in the exact silhouettes of the shapes when I took it down after a year and a half. I think this was because of the color I used (black), the fact that I used cheap fabric (I may or may not have washed it first, I was using scraps and don't remember), and the fact that it got direct sunlight at times (the ones out of direct sunlight stained a lot less).

that said, I used a bleach pen to remove the stains and you couldn't see a thing on the white walls afterward.

the clean up of the actual starch was really easy.

posted by everythingistaken on October 9th 2008 at 5:06am
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I love these tips. I have used several of them in my apartment. I love the art cluster.

oh, and I think the shelf is from the container store :)

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=60830&PRODID=60609

-Eleazar
http://www.blogazar.com

posted by blogazar on October 9th 2008 at 5:52am
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