Page Design Hub
Property

Beautiful Walls, Big Decisions

Your home’s walls can be fully transformed in many extraordinary ways with as little as some good wallpaper or a coat of paint. If you know what you’re doing, there are some very creative ways to give walls a little lift and enhance a home. New kitchen wallpaper, for example, can add really spruce up a place. The right coat of paint will also do wonders for increasing the value of your home. The big decision of wallpaper versus paint is common enough, and here we’ll weigh in on the pros and cons or both, especially from a resale standpoint.

Beautiful Walls

Whether you opt to wallpaper or paint, your walls must be handled with care, and they need to be prepared accordingly so that they will look their best. Numerous factors will need to be considered for any wall project:

 

REMOVAL

Prepping a painted wall quite simple. If the wall is bare, there will not be a need to prepare it, aside from scrubbing it down and cleaning it thoroughly. It might need good washing with a good multi-surface soap. On the other hand, removing wallpaper can be quite labor-intensive, depending on the type of wallpaper installed. The removal of wallpaper can be done with chemicals, too.

It’s for this reason that many realtors might advise going with paint– the ease with which it can be replaced makes it an attractive prospect for new owners. But wallpaper is still viable, especially if it’s the strippable kind.

STYLE

This is where wallpaper usually wins out by a mile. While the paint is less expensive, it’s ideal for only the simplest of patterns. If you want to make a design statement, nothing is as dramatic as a contemporary patterned wallpaper. You’ll find hundreds of inspiring images of wallpaper online. And it really does stand apart from paint. Not to say that you can’t make patterns with paint. It just takes a lot of time, skill, and work to pull off even simple patterns. Wallpaper can give you options that are ten times more intricate and can be done with a fraction of the effort.

COST

Because both wallpaper and paint exist in wide varieties, the prices will vary for both options. Paint tends to be less expensive and requires fewer supplies in its application and maintenance. On the other hand, wallpaper can get expensive if you’re looking at covering a large area. Wallpaper rolls provide about 58 square feet of coverage, and at $30-50 a roll, you’re looking at three to five hundred dollars to cover a 12X18-ft room. To paint that room would take about two-gallon cans, which would cost you about $20-100. This doesn’t include labor, and wallpaper installation can be labor-intensive. This might make getting a good ROI for wallpapering just before putting your house up for sale an iffy prospect.

The Best Value?

The best value between wallpaper and paint is dependent on many factors surrounding the desired outcome. There’s also nothing stopping you from doing both. For example, a good compromise between price and design is to choose an accent wall to use wallpaper on while leaving the rest of the room painted. This can dramatically improve a room’s look and bring up a house’s value.

The ultimate deciding factor here will be how good you can make a home look. While wallpaper can be expensive and can be difficult to replace, a good-looking house will still sell for more and be on the market for a shorter amount of time.

Related posts

Let Your Property Management Company Take Care of Everything

John J. Copple

Property Management Fees Explained

John J. Copple

Advantages of Hiring a Gutter Cleaning Company

John J. Copple