My parents had and used these when we were kids. I personally loved them and still do. My sister and I had a habit of drawing on our walls and these were a great alternative to wallcovering. I would love to find and use these in my home, but I live in the southwest and all of our walls are deeply textured. How do you think these would work on textured walls?

Not well at all on texture, my guess. I have done printmaking and a smooth, receptive surface is kind of necessary. You would need to refinish the walls just as for wallpaper, first.

If I tried to do that it would be a *total* disaster. It would certainly not look like that picture. I wish I had such a steady hand but I know my limitations.

I just spotted these on Etsy the other day! I love them. We have textured walls here in every room but my hope is when we move I can go to town! She has some lovely designs.

I am going to try this on my bedroom door with a darker stain over a lighter stain!

I love this idea, but I imagine it would be quite difficult to do. My OCD would never allow me to take this on!

I've seen a bathroom done like this but unsucessfully simply because the design did not match up. I agree w/KELLIEIN CA and I don't have OCD.

We moved to a old house in Germany 9 years ago which had wall done with this method but using 2 or three rollers using other colors which all interacted. Looked super cool. I imagined how they were done but never saw any materials for doing yourself. I think that professional painters must have done it in the 30s. There must have been some way of picking the paint up with the sponge roller (possibly in a tray?) as the pattern never got lighter all the way up and down a 10 foot wall. I look forward to seeing these making a comeback also with additional details for other colors. Good job for the woman in Romania - Best wishes for success with them -

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that chalk lines and a dry rag will cure any "OCD".

This is a very cool idea.

Does anyone have any idea how the corners can be done (either at the ceiling, baseboard or where one wall meets another)? In theory it's a beautiful idea and I would love to see a How-to!

My grandmother in Romania had a hole house like this. Each room was done in a different color/ pattern. Back then it was also popular to paint the wall and a bit of the ceiling and then draw a dark line around the edge to create a picture border on the ceiling. Kinda cute/kinda kitchy.

Mine too.. I don't have much OCD, but I am certain this would set it off.

What a great and affordable idea! I really like the patterns too. It could even work for some renters who have permission to paint. I'm a perfectionist, but this doesn't look difficult to me. You just need to do some planning and measuring ahead of time, like you would with stenciling. Any DIY project is only going to look as good as the effort you put into it.

It may not look difficult, but it is challenging to the extreme. Requires an unbroken stroke from top to bottom with even and consistent pressure. Great effect, but hire a professional.

I grew up with every room in the house done in a similar pattern. Ugh. I would not want to live with it again, just for that reason.
The pattern was typically done in a slightly silvery/shiny paint, on pastel colour background. When I was a child, there was no later paint. I remember my parents would hire two painters, every couple of years or so and it was a big production. The paint came in a powdery formula (i.e. the basic white) and then it was tinted with another powder. It was a lot of mess. Also, the painters painted with huge paintbrushes so everything had to be covered by sheets or removed from the room to protect it from getting the paint on.
It was kinda exciting for me as a kid - because I did not have to worry about the cleanup - but it must have be a nightmare for my parents, the house was truly upside down.

How much simpler it is these days, then my entire preparation consist of making sure there is no dust on the wall and taping along the ceiling, etc. All I need is a bit of newspaper on which I put my tray and the can with paint.

My 10 year old and I tried this in her room. If the results had looked half as nice as the photo here we would have been happy. You need a lot of patience, a prepped wall, and a steady hand.

This post takes me back to the old Ronco style TV ads. (In the days before infomercials.) I remember this being one of the popular TV sales pitch items - along with the Chia Pet and the Electric Egg Scrambler.

I think if I tried this I might hot-glue lath on either side to guide the roller so I got a straight vertical path. I'd do alternate columns the first weekend, then remove the lath and let the paint dry. Then I'd repeat the process the following weekend.
It's the only way I can imagine getting true vertical columns.

Lol @ Pendragon. Yeah, if it sounds too good to be true....

Having said that, the results above are lovely. More than a tad OCD here too but I'd be all over it if the tools didn't cost more than the paint. Plus, after reading the link....

"Allow the next pass to touch and slightly overlap the previous pass, so as to avoid gaps in the pattern."

...I see no instructions on how to accurately line up the pattern According to the above, the next pass would have to be precise if it overlaps. Perhaps I missed it? This *seems* like a great diy but I can't imagine it succeeding irl. And if I could afford the pro's, I'd just hire 'em later to strip the wallaper I hung myself when I was ready for a change.

i've seen this rollerwall product around for several years. my sister tried it in her hallways and it turned out really well.

http://www.rollerwall.com/patterns.html

would be very beautiful and very hard to do

I would love to see a completed wall or even better, an entire room...I'm having a hard time visualizing how the corners and edges along the floor and baseboard would look.

Seems like a great idea for painting a floor where you can have a painted border and it not look weird.

It does look awesome but I'd never let myself try it. I am envisioning patches of no paint and too much paint and tracers where I've accidentally gone over the same place twice. Ha. :)

I love rachels idea of a border around a floor I could probably handle that. I would love to see this done with a brick pattern. See being the operative word...do? Not for me.

My OCD would probably kick into high gear trying to use a pattern as complex as this one. BUT! If I found a simpler pattern to work with, while I was learning - say in the mudroom, laundry or play room, to build up both my confidence & skill, I think it would absolutely be doable. Practicing with chair rails in the breakfast nook, a frame around windows, or other architectural (physical OR tromp loileil), or even just random stripes - the only real limitaion is the imagination.

ok am I the only one who went to this site and noted that it has not been updated since the 70's/ 80's at best????????? http://www.rollerwall.com/gallery.html plus it's making me dizzy.

Knowing how challenging it is just to get basic stamps to look all symmetrical and have the ink evenly covered on the stamp, I would totally screw this up if I tried.

@Jaguar1211: I would love to know which websites you were visiting in the 70s and 80s!!

Very cool but the on the etsy site it says these are for fabric and paper only--confusing!

Getting good results with wallpaper would be easier than getting good results with that roller.

What an interesting idea and so much fun to do, a lot more than installing wallpaper, thanks for this post, I will find out more about this and recommend it to my young artistic clients.

decogirlmontreal

This so much fun to do, working with a new way to make your walls look great! This is an innovation for a plain and traditional roller. You can also come up with other ideas at Streamline Painting Denver as well.

OMG! We love love any king of unusual, textured or patterns paint rollers. Can't wait to see these available in more designs as this trend picks up.