Wallpaper vs. Paint: Making the Right Choice for Your Home

Decorating or redecorating your home is an exciting endeavour, allowing you to reinvent spaces to match your style and tastes. When it comes to walls, two primary options emerge — wallpaper or paint. But how do you choose between them?

There are several key factors to weigh up when deciding whether wallpaper or paint is better suited for a particular room or home. Assessing priorities like budget, durability, ease of installation, aesthetics, maintenance needs, and versatility can help guide your decision-making process.

Durability: Long-Lasting Wallpaper vs. Eventual Touch-Ups With Paint

Durability should be a major consideration as you likely don’t want to redo major decorating projects too frequently.

Wallpaper Offers Extended Longevity

Once professionally installed, high-quality wallpaper is designed to last for many years without issues like fading, peeling, or chipping.

The materials and protective coatings used in designer wallpaper lend themselves to enhanced durability and longevity. Unlike paint that sits on top of the wall surface, wallpaper integrates into the wall itself for added resistance.

• With quality wallpaper and proper installation, you may enjoy your chosen design for over a decade without the need for replacement. This saves not only the cost of materials but also the labour of installing new wallpaper years down the road.
  
  

Paint May Require More Frequent Touch-Ups

While innovations in paint technology have certainly enhanced durability, painted walls typically require more maintenance over the years.

Exposure to natural and artificial light can cause even premium paints to slowly fade over time. Additionally, painted walls tend to be more vulnerable to scuffs, moisture damage, or accidental impacts that remove paint from the surface.

• These types of paint flaws often necessitate touch-up work, sometimes requiring repainting entire walls or rooms to blend new and existing paint properly. So, the initial investment in materials and labour for painting may need to be made more frequently.

Cost Considerations: Wallpaper Investment vs. Paint Affordability

Budget is often another primary driver when selecting a wall treatment. Broadly speaking, paint tends to be more affordable upfront, while wallpaper requires a larger initial investment that pays off over time.

Wallpaper May Carry Higher Upfront Costs

Designer wallpapers manufactured from higher-end materials understandably come at a premium cost per roll. Additionally, specialised labour is required for proper wall prep and installation. This combination of material and labour costs typically adds up to a higher total expense compared to DIY painting.

However, considering the durability and longevity of quality wallpaper, the initial expense may offset the overall cost over an extended timeframe. If you can swing the upfront investment, wallpaper could save money over repainting the same room from scratch every 5-7 years.

• As a benchmark, high-end wallpaper installed in an average room may run £800-£1500+, while painting the same room may be £150-£400. But if the wallpaper lasts 12-15 years with no need for replacement, it can pay for itself in longevity.

Paint Offers Affordability Upfront

For those prioritising affordability and budget-friendly options, paint is very wallet-friendly. Paint prices depend on the quality and brand, but premium paints cost between £25-£40 per litre.

For a 10’x12’ room using approximately 5-8 litres, materials stay under £100 in most cases. Adding the cost of some essential tools and supplies as a one-time purchase, total project costs for paint often range £150-£250.

While repainting costs add up over years of homeownership, paint still wins in terms of affordability and access to DIY decoration. For temporary living situations or rooms prone to evolving style preferences, frequent repainting may not be an obstacle either.

Ease of Installation: Wallpaper Projects vs. Paint DIY

For those wanting to decorate walls themselves, the learning curve presents another point of comparison. Wallpaper generally requires more specialised skills and labour intensity for prep and installation. Painting has fewer barriers to entry for DIYers willing to put in some elbow grease.

Wallpaper Projects Involve Multiple Layers of Prep

Beautiful, flawless wallpaper installation relies on meticulous prep work, including:

• Removing old wallpaper if present
• Repairing imperfections in the wall surface
• Applying adhesive primer
• Precisely measuring and cutting wallpaper
• Carefully transporting pasted strips to the wall and smoothly integrating seams

This multi-step process demands patience and specialised tools. While DIY-friendly wallpaper options exist, many homeowners opt to hire professional paper hangers to ensure quality results.

Painting Can Be Completed With Basic DIY Skills

For those possessing basic DIY skills but lacking advanced expertise in paper hanging, painting may provide an easier and more accessible option. Simple yet effective painting requires:

• Clearing and covering the room, including trim, floors, and furniture
• Repairing minor wall flaws like small holes and cracks
• Lightly sanding glossy surfaces to improve paint adhesion
• Carefully applying 2-3 coats of paint in a “W” pattern
• Allowing proper dry time between coats
  
  

Using basic tools like paint rollers, brushes, trays, and drop cloths, single rooms can be painted over 1-2 days. While techniques like creating custom finishes take some practice, painting itself has a faster learning curve for novices.

Aesthetic Potential: Wallpaper Drama vs. Painted Palettes

Both wallpaper and painted walls offer routes to realising your desired visual environment — from subtle and serene to bold and dynamic. Wallpaper typically provides more dramatic impact, while paint can better facilitate an evolving colour palette.

Wallpaper Delivers Striking Visual Interest

With countless prints, textures, colours, and materials available, wallpaper opens a world of options for customising your home’s aesthetic. Whether your taste runs modern, bohemian, traditional, or minimalist, quality wallpaper aligns with nearly any decorative style. Consider a few standout aesthetic perks:

• Visually enlarge a small room by selecting light, monochromatic patterns
• Generate an intimate, cosy effect with richly coloured damasks or flocked papers
• Craft a contemporary graphic statement with metallic or high-sheen wallpapers
• Shape formal dining rooms with traditional embossed patterns like damasks or brocades
  
  

For those seeking serious visual impact, mid-to-high end wallpaper choices make stunning style statements that paint alone cannot easily achieve.

Paint Creates Subtle Backdrops With Evolving Colour

For some homeowners, paint serves as the perfect neutral backdrop that bends and flexes with life’s changes rather than making an overt decorative declaration. A few factors supporting paint’s continued prominence include:

• Affordable colour experimentation: Testing colours via paint costs far less than buying rolls of wallpaper in several patterns or colours. Paint allows you to trial run options until discovering the perfect shade.
• Trend flexibility: Painting over existing colour when style preferences shift takes reasonable time, effort, and money — a tougher prospect with wallpaper.
• Crisp backdrops: Rich or bright accent pieces and artwork pop beautifully against painted walls in lighter neutrals or white. Paint prevents backgrounds from competing visually.

Maintenance Needs: Cleaning and Protecting Walls Over Time

When weighing wall decoration options, practical maintenance issues also come into play. Between wallpaper and painted walls, the clear winner in ease of care goes to paint.

Wallpaper Requires Special Care Regimens

Over time, wallpaper attracts dust and stains just like other surfaces. But paper materials limit cleansing options to specially formulated wallpaper cleaners. Agnostic household cleaners like multi-surface sprays or soapy water can warp, fade, or damage wallpaper.

Additionally, the textured surfaces of many wallpaper styles require gentle attention when dusting. Abrasive scrub brushes or heavy pressure can scuff, peel, or scratch delicate finishes.

Despite innovations like stain-resistant and scrubbable wallpapers, hands-on care takes finesse and specialty supplies.

Painted Walls Allow Carefree Cleaning

DIY gurus and professional home stagers alike recommend painted walls for ease of maintenance and cleaning. With proper prep and primer, most latex house paints stand up to:

• Gentle scrubbing with multi-surface cleaners
• Diluted dish soap and water mixtures
• Disinfectant sprays like Dettol
• Magic eraser spot treatment
  
  

Beyond sweeping touch-ups to repair small scuffs or marks, painted walls clean up fast and fluidly as life happens without fuss. For family homes seeing lots of activity, washable paint provides a sanity-saver.

Removal Considerations: Taking Down Wallpaper vs. Painting Over

Another realistic logistical consideration comes into play when it comes time to remove or update existing wall treatments. Both wallpaper and paint have options in this regard — but wallpaper typically requires hiring professional removal services, while paint allows DIY improvements.

Wallpaper Removal Often Requires Professionals

Removing wallpaper, especially products installed for extended time frames, proves extremely difficult and time-intensive for DIYers. Complications include:

• Wallpaper adhesive drying into a hardened glue-like bond over years
• Multiple layers of wallpaper building up over time
• Ink or backing materials staining the wall underneath once paper gets stripped
• Risk of ripping layers of drywall itself if forcing removal
  
  

Seeking professional wallpaper removal services helps sidestep frustration and less-than-ideal results. But it tacks on several hundred pounds in additional costs.

Painting Over Simplifies Updates

Fortunately for the paint camp, refreshing or changing painted spaces comes with reasonable effort. With proper prep between cycles like sanding glossy areas and repairing flaws, new paint adheres seamlessly to existing layers more often than not.

While completely removing all existing paint down to the bare plasterboard or plaster boosts long-term adhesion, the option to simply paint over paint streamlines upgrades. During sale prep or while tuning personal spaces, quick cosmetic paint upgrades check the box.

Versatility Perks: Wallpaper Textures vs. Paint Sheens

Both wallpapers and paint offer versatility in their own regard — special finishes provide custom

isation options in each room.

Textured Wallpapers Add Dimensional Interest

Beyond introducing colour, print, and pattern, wallpaper offers textural depth for added flair. Options span:

• Subtly textured vinyl papers resembling delicate linen, cotton, silk, or grasscloth
• Heavily embossed patterns creating prominent dimensional designs
• Flocked finishes featuring soft velvet-like textures as a striking alternative to flat papers

Textural wallpapers non-visually enhance a space with depth and tactile beauty. These versatile choices perform well in accent walls, dining rooms, bedrooms, and more.

Paint Sheens Adjust Light Reflection

When choosing paint, you can also pick different sheens, which are levels of shine. These options let you customise how your walls look:

• Flat: No shine. Good for ceilings and low-traffic areas. Hides imperfections well.
• Eggshell: Slight shine. More durable than flat. Good for living rooms and bedrooms.
• Satin: Light shine. Works well in living spaces that need easy cleaning.
• Semi-Gloss: Medium shine. Best for trim, kitchens, and bathrooms.
• High-Gloss: Very shiny. Used sparingly for accents like doors and cabinets.
  
  

Choosing the right sheen helps you achieve the look you want, whether you prefer understated walls or shiny accents.

Making the Best Choice for You and Your Home

In the end, deciding between wallpaper and paint depends on your budget, lifestyle, and style preferences. Here are some questions to help you decide:

• What is the room used for? High-traffic areas need more durable options.
• How much maintenance can you handle? Consider the effort needed for touch-ups or cleaning.
• How long will you stay in the home? Short-term homes might benefit from paint for flexibility, while wallpaper can be a good investment for long-term stays.
• Do you want a bold look or a flexible background? Let your style guide you.
  
  

Think about your priorities and what fits your needs. Some people choose a mix, using wallpaper for one accent wall and paint for the rest.

Consult the Experts For Personalised Advice

Getting advice from professionals can help you make the best choice. Painting contractors and wallpaper installers can provide:

• Custom advice for your rooms and style.
• Knowledge about the best products for durability and value.
• Skilled installation for perfect results.
  
  

Experts can help you achieve your vision with beautifully finished walls. Professional advice ensures you get the best outcome for your decorating projects.

Use this information to confidently create a space that matches your personality and priorities!