Speaking of alternatives to wallpaper, I spied an awesome DIY wall treatment in Dave's Lakeview Redux House Tour. Player piano music rolls used as wallpaper! Genius! Dave shared with me how he used the old relics to line his entryway.
Wheat paste is often a good choice for temporary wallpaper but because the printing on the music rolls is water soluble, David wasn't able to use that method as it would have made the text bleed. Instead, David chose to use vinyl wallpaper adhesive to attach the rolls to the walls. As a renter, David recognizes that he will some day need to remove this wallpaper treatment so he first applied sizing to the walls.
After cutting lengths of paper in the necessary size (plus a little extra to allow for shrinkage), David rolled paste onto the wall in a swath wide enough for a couple of strips of paper. With paste on the wall, David carefully applied one strip of music at a time. Once the paper was on the wall, and before the paste dried, he used a sharp blade to trim the excess from the top and bottom.
After applying all the paper to the walls, David carefully reapplied paste over the paper. The key word here is carefully. David said he applied paste to his roller and, in one movement, rolled it from top to bottom. Applying too much pressure may tear the fragile paper. David points out that with the delicateness of the player piano paper, there will be bubbles and creases in the paper after it is applied to the wall. Rather than trying to get the sleek smoothness of regular wallpaper, David embraced the imperfect nature of his wall treatment.
Part of the appeal of using player piano music is that is it taking an obsolete item and finding a clever new use for it. Of course, not everyone will have rolls of player piano music on hand for a project like this. As David pointed out to me, this method would work with just about any paper. You could use wrapping paper, old dress patterns, sheet music, or book pages.
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Comments (6)
This is a really cool treatment.Something old turned into something chic!
Nice!
Just one thing, though---the creases are due to the paper expanding after it is hung. Any paper will do this, not just thin paper. That's why with regular wallpaper you apply the paste to the paper and then let it sit for 10 minutes or so to give the paper time to absorb moisture and expand. Then you hang it. While this may not be possible with player piano rolls, it is something to consider when hanging other types of paper.
Whenever possible, apply paste to the paper, fold it over on itself to keep it from drying out, let it "book" for 10 minutes, then apply it to the wall.
awwwww....what a waste of player piano scrolls! Don't get me wrong, it looks pretty cool, but there are a limited amount of those scrolls out there, and to use them as a temporary wallpaper treatment just seems unfortunate. Player piano enthusiasts would not approve. I did have a piano teacher that papered her wall with sheet music though, and that looked pretty fun.
Ah, that explains the wrinkles. I know you book wallpaper prior to hanging, but thought that it was something to do with making the paper stick. Never thought about the paper expanding when wet. It would be very bad to try and book these; they would fall apart. As far as ruining old rolls...old ones (most of mine are form the teens and 20s) that were stored poorly are super brittle. There is no way that you would be able to use them on a piano...the mechanism would literally shred them and then you have to take things apart to clean out the mess of paper. I know from experience :-( The old rolls have very limited use and this is a way to enjoy them out of the box.
I just found a music book that is a replica of sheet music from the 1880's that I want to do this with. I definitely want to be a "good wallpaperer" though and use the sizing, as this afternoon I'm removing wallpaper from previous owner who didn't :(
I like the bubbles and creases. Great job! Very creative and cool-looking.