Wallpaper on Spoonflower

My maternal grandparents owned a paint and wallpaper store in Miami, Oklahoma in the 1950s and 1960s.  The introduction of wallpaper on Spoonflower has brought back a lot of memories for me.
I used to spend summers with my grandparents and everyday, except Sundays, we'd go to Davis Paint Store and spend the day.

One wall of  the store was covered with storage bins.  There were flaps over each of the bins, each flap covered with a different design of wallpaper.  Inside each of these bins were rolls of wallpaper matching whatever design was on the outside flap.  I'd lift the flaps and stare in at all the rolls of wallpaper.  I enjoyed looking at the different designs and feeling the textures of each design.

There was a tall wooden cart with wheels that had a large ball of twine.  When a customer came in to look at wallpaper and then make a choice, my grandfather loaded the rolls up on that cart and pushed the cart to the checkout counter.   If there were several rolls of wallpaper, my grandfather bundled them with the twine from the cart.

I particularly enjoyed it when someone would come in to buy a gallon of paint.  Then I could watch the can of paint shake up and down and all around.  It was a simpler time then.  No television, just a radio.  No cell phones, hand held games.  The only game I played on those hot summer days was tic-tac-toe with my grandmother. She and I would sit out front and mind the store while my grandfather rested at noon on a cot in the back of the store. 

It occurred to me the other day that that wall of different wallpaper designs that was inside my grandparents' paint and wallpaper store had been recreated in my "Fear of Commitment" half bath and laundry room.  It's covered with different swatches of Spoonflower wallpaper.  Here's a picture:

The wall is covered with Spoonflower wallpaper swatches of some of my designs.

 

The window is curtained with a hemmed and trimmed piece of fabric showing swatches from one of my Spoonflower design collections.

My fear of commitment to wallpaper comes from an incident when I was growing up.  My parents had wallpaper in every room of their 1950s ranch style house.  At some point, my parents decided they would rather have paint.  What followed afterward should never be experienced by young children.  Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth as water was sprayed on the walls to loosen the  wallpaper paste so that the wallpaper could be scraped off!

But, make note, Spoonflower's wallpaper is not like the wallpaper of old.  It is so simple to put up and even simpler to remove. The texture is lovely and the colors in all the varied designs are rich and vivid.

Check  out Spoonflower  and their new wallpaper and decal designs. 

Wallpaper and Decals too!

In addition to fabric, Spoonflower announced this morning that it will begin printing wallpaper and decals  using indie designers' designs.  This is exciting news.  I had the opportunity to try out the wallpaper and I ordered swatches of several of my fabric designs to see how they looked on wallpaper.  Fantastic.

Spoonflower's printing process picks up all the color and detail that a designer puts into his or her design.  There is a visible richness and depth to the design when printed on wallpaper.

The surface of the wallpaper is smooth and just slightly -- very slightly glossy -- actually I would call it a "glossy matte" which I know is a contradiction.    

Here are two photos  of my design, Blue River Stalactites printed on Spoonflower Kona cotton and printed on a swatch of Spoonflower wallpaper:

I am afraid of wallpaper, commitment phobe that I am. I took one swatch and applied it to one of my walls.  The surface of the wall was very slightly textured.  The paper is easy to work with and easy to apply.  I left the swatch on for five days.  On the fifth day I removed it.  The wallpaper is easy to put on and easy to remove.  There is a brief video shot of my hand removing the wallpaper in the video above..

As Spoonflower says, the wallpaper is great for people who rent their homes, apartments, duplexes, etc. 

Spoonflower is an easy web site to work with.  Setting up your home page and shop is fairly simple.  If you have questions, there are lots of other designers to answer your questions or you can contact Spoonflower directly.  Spoonflower posts regularly to its blog and  there are lots of answers to common questions posted there.

There is no fee to join.  You can upload a design and see what it will look like in fabric, wallpaper or a decal for free.  Your designs will need to be proofed before they can be put up for sale which does involve money but Spoonflower tells you about creating collections so that the proof swatches will be as inexpensive as possible. And, if one of your designs sells, even if it is just a swatch, you will receive ten percent of the sale in Spoondollars which can be applied to your purchases of fabric or wallpaper. 

If  you have ever thought about designing your own fabric or wallpaper, give Spoonflower a try.  Spoonflower . . . what a concept!