DIYer Shares Clever £4 Wallpaper Hack With Stunning Before And After
- Mădălina, 31, transformed her bedroom and hallway walls for just £4
- She saved money by collecting free wallpaper samples and only buying adhesive
- The job had its ups and downs, as she resorted to a blender to mix the paste
- However now she has two stunning feature walls which look professional
Feature walls are rising in popularity again, and while a room can be greatly improved with a lick of paint, sometimes we want to go all out and create a statement wall. The only problem is, these kinds of transformations are costly.
However, one savvy DIYer has worked out a clever wallpaper hack which completely transformed her hallway and bedroom walls for just £4. Mădălina Rongo-Domnița, a 31 year old shop supervisor from Swansea, shared her trick with money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I’ve always liked to create things. I used to make ‘candy-wrapper’ purses and bags, as well as hand-embellished shoes and clothing, but I’ve never done anything in the home.
‘I joined multiple DIY groups on Facebook, in which I found many great ideas. Pinterest was also a source of inspiration. When I decided to create a unique wall for my bedroom and hallway, I came up with the idea to combine multiple wallpaper samples in a ‘honeycomb’ style for the bedroom, while the hallway has square and rectangular shapes in a diagonal pattern.
‘I started out with the hallway, as the whole idea came from my desire to waste as little as possible from existing samples I had. I ordered some more samples, which were free, until I had enough to cover the wall. I made sure the suppliers offered free P&P as well, so I wouldn’t need to pay anything at all. I only paid £2 for shipping on one of the sample packs, as I was able to get 12 decently-sized samples from this supplier and I thought it was worth it.
‘Most of the samples came in an A4 size, so I cut them into shapes and made an ‘organised chaos!’ I mixed vertical darker shapes with horizontal lighter ones.
‘Next up was the bedroom. Instead of ordering online again, this time I asked my local Facebook groups if anyone had any unwanted wallpaper cuts or ends, to save it from going in the landfill. I created the honeycomb shapes by Googling the shape, printing it out and then stencilling it onto a piece of cardboard. I then used this hexagonal cardboard to draw the shape on the wallpaper and cut it out.
‘Besides the free samples, the other supplies I needed were wallpaper adhesive, which I bought as a powder for just £1.99. I had more than enough for two walls, and I still have plenty left. I also used a brush or roller for applying the paste and a craft knife to trim the pieces around the edges once they were already on the wall. I already had these tools, so I basically only paid £3.99 to decorate both of the walls.
‘After cutting the samples to size, I prepared the wallpaper paste, applied it to the back of the samples and applied them to the wall by hand. I measured the space between the pieces by eye after trimming the pieces that needed it.
‘The biggest obstacle came with the wallpaper adhesive. I decided to save money by getting powder instead of a ready-made one. The packet said ‘just add water’, so I thought it’d be nice and simple. Little did I know, I’d end up using a sieve and my hand mixer to finish the process! Once I got the lumps out of the mixture I could apply it, but even then some of the thicker wallpaper samples had edges lifting up a bit from the wall. I fixed that with good old superglue…
‘Next time I’ll definitely buy ready-made wallpaper paste. I’d never get a professional in - this cost under a fiver for two walls so it was well worth taking the time to mix up the adhesive like cake batter!’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘These walls are truly impressive - they look professional and you’d never have guessed the job involved free samples and superglue! Maybe she can come and do my wall next - I’ve got my hand mixer at the ready!’
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The walls are super unique and Mădălina definitely has an artistic eye for placing the samples to give an excellent overall look . I’m very impressed with her skills.
