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Lessons Learned from Grasscloth Wallpaper

October 15, 2017 By Rhoda 44 Comments

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The whole truth on installing grasscloth wallpaper. From choosing grasscloth, to having it installed by an installer, there is a lot to know about living with grasscloth wallcoverings. It’s a beautiful product! 

You all probably know by now that I share the good, the bad, and the real here on my blog, so today’s story is about my recent purchase and installation of grasscloth.

I’ve loved grass cloth wallpaper for a very long time.  It seems that every showhouse I go in lately has this richly textured material on a wall or in a room somewhere and it instantly takes me back to the 80’s when I first saw grasscloth being used in offices around Atlanta.  In fact, the office I was working in back then had been professionally decorated with a neutral grasscloth on the entryway walls and that was my surroundings every day. Grasscloth is a type of wallpaper with natural fibers texture.  Natural fibers in this paper really captured me as do the hues.

I’ve always thought it to be quite sophisticated, textural, and beautiful, but it wasn’t until we moved in this house, that I thought I was really ready to install grasscloth in the dining room. Dining rooms are a good place to put this paper.  I contacted one of my design friends to ask her about brands of grasscloth.  I had looked online at Phillip Jeffries and all the beautiful grasscloths offered by this company, but they were pretty expensive. I knew that designer grasscloth was pretty pricey, but didn’t know how much this project would cost me.  I wasn’t about to try to hang it myself either.  I knew better than that.

So, my friend has an account with Thibaut and she said they were more reasonably priced, so she ordered some samples in blue for me to look at.  It was so fun getting them in and touching them in person.  I decided on a beautiful blue grasscloth wallpaper called Peacock by Thibaut (it’s the far left one). Schumacher is another lovely brand,  but a little more expensive.

My friend ordered them for me and I paid right at $300 for 2 double wallpaper rolls of grasscloth, which comes out to about $15 per yard.  Now this was to go above the tall wainscot in the dining room and even that small amount of wall takes more than you think.  Each roll has 4 yards of paper, so 8 yards on a double roll. I was going to add some to one wall in living room too to tie those rooms together.  I got an estimate from a local wallpaper hanger for $300 to install all the wallpaper with adhesive, so I was good to go.

The paper came in, the installer came to my house and in just a couple of hours I had wallpaper hung in the dining room.  I was in the other room as the installer moved around the dining room walls. At one point I went in and noticed that one sheet of paper was quite a bit lighter than the others around it, in fact it was gradient and looked light, medium, to dark.  The installer mentioned that color variation, but was already turning the corner from where the lighter paper was.  I probably should have stopped him right then and there and took at look at both rolls of paper, but somehow I spaced out, didn’t do that and let him continue. I loved the paper and knew that there were going to be shading differences in a natural product like this, but wasn’t expecting the big difference in coloring from sheet to sheet.

The worst spot was here.

Mark came home and immediately zoned in on the lighter sheets. They were obvious in one main focal point area of the dining room and we talked about it.  He definitely couldn’t live with it and the more I looked at it, I was sick about it.  I think I had tried to talk myself into being OK with it.

I sent my design friend a picture of the offending lighter panels and she said, yes grasscloth can be different tones and variations, but the installer should have noted that and made sure to match up color tones as he was going along. The problem was I didn’t have extra paper. It might have worked out that he could have taken pains to cut down the roll or cut into the 2nd roll and have it all match up better, but it was all such a surprise to me that it had turned out that way.  We were not happy about it, but it was already up and so I had to come up with a solution.

See the light panel on the left in the living room, it got replaced too?

I had even talked about painting the paper with paint to blend it all out and get one color throughout, but I really didn’t want to do that.  You destroy the color variation that’s in grasscloth when it’s painted, although I’ve seen beautiful painted grasscloth before too. It can look great, but I didn’t want to spend all that money on beautiful grasscloth to have to paint it over so soon.

My friend contact Thibaut and convinced them that they should send me another roll.  I was hoping against hope that we could then take down the lighter panels (there were 3 main ones that stood out) and find a good match and been with the new roll.  This went on for about 2 weeks as my friend waited to hear back from Thibaut and I texted my installer.  He didn’t feel like it was his fault and I really couldn’t blame him, although he should have stopped as soon as the light panel went up and we should have discussed it together.  He just chalked it up to the nature of grasscloth and that this is what happens with a natural product.

I got in the new roll of grasscloth (thank you Thibaut!!) and my installer charged me $100 to come back out and take down the 3 panels that were so glaring and we went through the roll together and matched up each piece so that it was a much better blend.  Luckily, the old panels peeled right off and he was able to put the new ones up in no time.

We are so much happier with it now and it was worth it to me to pay him extra to fix the situation.  Lesson learned on grasscloth!  The darker shades can have color variations and you need to be prepared for that.  This wall was the most crucial and the one you see looking in the dining room.

It looks SO much better now!  There are still some color variances, but I can totally live with this now. And seams do show in grasscloth, so that’s something you have to be OK with too, that’s just part of grasscloth. Grasscloth adds such a level of sophistication and depth to a room.

One thing I learned about grasscloth is that it’s supposed to be installed by flipping every other piece that goes up to supposedly keep this problem from happening.  I did ask my installer if he did that and he told me he did flip the paper every other sheet.  But we found out from the 2nd fix that it didn’t always match up with that method either.  He flipped the sheets and we looked at them both ways and sometimes both sheets going the same direction looked better than the flipped sheet did.

So, go figure!  I’m certainly not an expert on grasscloth and this project turned out to be way more expensive than I thought it would initially, but after all is said and done, I got my beautiful grasscloth up on the walls and we love it now!

It was a $700 project when all was said and done.  Would I do it all over again? I’m not sure for the price, but I do love the texture and elegance it brings to the dining room and can’t wait to finish all the details in there to really make the dining room shine. You may not want to use grasscloth wallpaper in a high traffic area.

I need new lamps in there as well as eventually some window treatments. I want a snazzy new fabric for the dining room and we want to eventually get Plantation shutters in here too.  It think  it’s going to all be beautiful when it’s all put together!

We are about to start working on the living room next (well, Mark’s part is coming next) and I’ve already painted the upper walls in here to blend with the wallpaper and he’s doing the board and batten treatment. Can’t wait to finally get this main floor all done and I’ll then start adding accessories and figuring out where everything will go. This isn’t a big room at all, but I think it will be pretty and cozy as the first room you see coming in  our front door. Stay tuned for more!

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Filed Under: House Renovation, Projects and How-To 44 Comments

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Calypso in the Country says

    October 15, 2017 at 4:17 pm

    It looks beautiful! I have always admired rooms with grasscloth but could never commit, myself. I am looking forward to watching this gorgeous room transform!
    Shelley

    Reply
  2. Kathleen says

    October 15, 2017 at 6:16 pm

    I love the color; it looks almost denim on my computer which, in my mind, keeps it from being too serious or too formal.
    I appreciate that you took the time to walk through the process and enlightened us ~ costly exceptions can end up taking a bite out of the project as you move forward!
    Nicely done – congratulations!

    Reply
  3. Leila says

    October 15, 2017 at 9:55 pm

    Goodness and what a headache that was. Do sorry but so glad you solved the problem! The final result is stunning.😀

    Reply
  4. Jennifer says

    October 15, 2017 at 10:06 pm

    It looks beautiful! That’s good to know because I was thinking about putting it in my home as well.

    Reply
  5. Diane says

    October 15, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    So sorry u had such a difficult time getting the wallpaper up. But u stuck with it and now it’s done and so very pretty. I’m looking forward to the next few posts as u and mark move along on ur projects. All the best. Hoping ur next projects go smoothly. U certainly “paid” ur dues on the grasscloth

    Reply
  6. Sue says

    October 15, 2017 at 10:37 pm

    Rhoda,I think you did the only thing you could. For an extra $100, you were able to correct the situation. Thank goodness you didn’t have to redo it all. Tragedy avoided.

    Reply
  7. Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says

    October 16, 2017 at 7:11 am

    The minute I read your post I started chuckling and I had to read it to my hubby. See, we tried selling our house for several years and we got “it’s dated”. Well, who knew we were future thinkers. Our bedroom had grasscloth on the walls as well as another bedroom in the lower level. Our grasscloth was not as dark as yours. The walls turned out beautifully.

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      October 16, 2017 at 8:49 am

      You know things cycle out and back in again, I’e seen it too many times in my decades of decorating. But grasscloth to me is a classic design element that’s been around for years. Today’s grasscloth is fresh and modern.

  8. Lynda says

    October 16, 2017 at 7:48 am

    It looks beautiful! My mom loved grass cloth too and we had it in our house growing up. It is very elegant.

    Reply
  9. Deanna Rabe says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:06 am

    That color is lovely! I wonder if that look can be achieved with a painting technique? Hmmm.

    I think it’ll be just beautiful with your board and batten and the plantation shutters, too.

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      October 16, 2017 at 4:47 pm

      HI, Deanna, I’m sure a similar treatment can be done with paint. I’ve seen fabric/linen done before so that would be a similar look.

  10. Kay says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:38 am

    Wow, love the color! I had an oatmeal color put up in the entrance 0f a previous home and the wallpaper hanger laid out the pieces beforehand which might have helped in your situation. I don’t remember color variations like this but it was helpful to see the pattern (flipping every other one) before she started hanging the paper.

    Reply
  11. Sandy says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:50 am

    It looks beautiful now! Thank you for sharing the honest problems as well as the lovely final result.

    Reply
  12. Laura says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:54 am

    So glad you bit the bullet and had it re-done. It would have made you unhappy every time you walked into the room.

    It looks fab!

    Reply
  13. Carrie says

    October 16, 2017 at 8:55 am

    I LOVE the finished result! Oh my goodness seeing the mismatched variations stressed me out though! I’m so glad you were able to correct it. It’s beautiful!

    Reply
  14. Roxanne says

    October 16, 2017 at 9:15 am

    It’s always a shame when something you had eagerly anticipated turns out to be stress inducing. But the end result is stunning! I’m a “blue” lover, so I can’t wait to see how everything comes together!!

    Reply
  15. Bonnie says

    October 16, 2017 at 10:28 am

    Sorry you had to go thru all that but at least it’s over & beautiful! When we hung this oversized damask kind of wallpaper in the breakfast room and parts of the kitchen to hide the second layer of wallpaper we couldn’t get down with a steamer, it turned costly too because of all the matching big print that we lined up at the top. It is kinda a FC look which went with my furniture well but I am not a big fan of wallpaper because of all the stripping of it in this house. Most was glued with cement -LOL! We live we learn. We did paint over some with oil based primer in the hall bath just to see how well it work. Worked like a charm! Congrats on the beautiful rooms – the blue is awesome!

    Reply
  16. Becky in 'Bama says

    October 16, 2017 at 10:29 am

    Thank you for being willing to be ‘real’ about the process. The end result is quite stunning! Growing up in the 70’s – my mother used ‘beige’ grasscloth in the tiny dining room of our home. Thankfully, I recall that I was at school so I didn’t have to hear her agonizing over the process. Took her days to get it the way she wanted it.

    Reply
  17. Jane H. says

    October 16, 2017 at 11:13 am

    It’s very pretty! I wouldn’t have been able to handle the color variation on the first go round. Glad it all worked out. Love the color.

    Reply
  18. Barbara Moore says

    October 16, 2017 at 12:17 pm

    Sure is pretty!! But your story doesn’t help my fear of wallpaper one little bit. I love the look, but just can not pull the trigger. Fortunately I can enjoy it through you!

    Reply
  19. Eleanor says

    October 16, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    Rhoda, thanks for being real with us and sharing your story! I love grasscloth and am happy to hear that it is coming back again. My Dad had put some grasscloth in every house he’s lived in; I agree that it is a classic. Love the peacock blue that you picked!

    Reply
  20. Rebecca M says

    October 16, 2017 at 2:02 pm

    It’s too bad you had to go through that, BUT, it looks wonderful now! Enjoy!

    Reply
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Thanks for stopping by! I’m Rhoda, from Atlanta, GA and I love decorating and DIY projects. Decorating a home doesn’t have to cost a fortune and I’ve spent years thrifting at antiques markets and yard sales, finding those treasures that make a home unique. I’m here to inspire and encourage other women to find their own inner creativity. Won’t you join me?

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