Should I install Peel and Stick Wallpaper?

The Extreme solution to make it stay on the wall!

My experience with peel and stick wallpaper is more like a short story. Here it is:

Once upon a time, I hung very cute peel and stick wallpaper in a baby's nursery. After a frustrating but successful installation, I left. Later that night the wallpaper fell on the baby as she slept. She woke up screaming. I never hung peel and stick wallpaper again.

The End.

As nice as it is to have a temporary wallpaper that is cheap and easy to remove for apartment dwellers or other short term use areas, it does have its drawbacks. Most peel. and stick wallpaper is vinyl, similar to shelf paper. So, for example, you get many vertical bubbles, which tend to create vertical ridges when they are smoothed out. When you try to move it to match up the pattern, when you pull the edge of the paper you create a tweep or bulge in the paper that does not lay down smoothly, but with a bump.

Here's what I recommend:

A professional wallpaper installer like myself uses the type of paste on traditional wallpapers that is removeable. It is always installed without any ridges. You can very often find the same pattern that is on a peel and stick than is on the non-woven or pasted wallpaper.

So just treat yourself to a well hung, well matched, ridgeless wallpaper that brings color and life to your space. There's no reason to settle for peel and stick wallpaper!