Hang A Peel-And-Stick Wall Mural, step by step

We have been eager to try wallpaper in our Duplex and last week we at last installed a peel-and-stick wall mural! And not simply one, but two! The process was SOOOO much easier than we expected, plus they turned out like ten times better than we had even hoped.

We had our eyes on a few wallpapers, but then we stumbled across these removable wall murals on Society6. They are effectively the same as peel-and-stick wallpaper, except that their patterns cannot be repeated indefinitely (most are 8′ wide but some are 12′). And since these small rooms are only 8 x 8′, they were ideal!

Plus, we have dealt with removing plenty of wallpaper before, so we liked the idea of something that was easily peeled off if we ever changed our minds.

Why We Chose A Peel-And-Stick Wall Mural

Besides the size being ideal for these bunk rooms in our rental property, here are a few other things that we liked:

• There were more bold, large-scale patterns and images compared to most wallpaper in our price range
• They are straightforward to install – no glue, straightforward to peel and restick if you do not line them up right the first time, etc.
• There is a demonstration video right on their site to give you an idea of what to expect when you hang them.
• They are made from a strong/durable material (nearly like a thick flexible vinyl decal with fabric fibers woven through it)

*This is not sponsored – we picked up them with our own money & found them on our own – simply figured I should put that out there since clearly I am gushing.

The Wall Mural Designs We Chose

After a lot of debating, we ultimately chose on two painterly patterns: these whales (seen below) and these oranges (seen in the first photo of this post).

We paired the blue watercolor-looking whales with the side of the duplex with the pink doors (White Truffle by Sherwin Williams)…

…and the leafy oranges with the side of the duplex with the greeny-blue doors (which are Oyster Bay by Sherwin Williams).

Plus, we snagged them during a 30% off sale at Society6, so we saved nearly $100 off their usual $299 price tag.

As for installing them, here is how it all went down (er, up?). Again, it was surprisingly straightforward to do – but it does require a bit of patience and care. The first one took us around three hours to complete, and the second one only took about two hours, so once you get the hang of it, it is much less intimidating and goes a lot faster.

Tools & Supplies Needed

You can install a peel-and-stick wall mural like these with quite few tools, but having the following will make it easier:

• Step ladder
• Level
• Pen or pencil
• Ruler or tape measure
• Flathead screwdriver
• Scissors
• Utility knife or other sharp craft knife
• Smoothing tool
• An extra set of hands (this is much easier as a two person job)

Step 1: Organize Your Panels

The 8′ peel-and-stick wide murals come with four 2′ wide peel-and-stick panels all rolled together. Since the pattern is not repeating, be sure to identify the order in which your panels need to be hung! It would be a nightmare to hang one on the right side of the room only to realize it should have been hung on the left side for the other three panels to line up. We loosely unrolled ours in a nearby room and laid them across the bed to double-check that we were working in the correct order.

Step 2: Carefully Position The First Panel

Each panel has a removable backing that easily peels off. Again, you do not need any glue or paste to install these. So throughout the installation, you will want to peel back small sections at a time. We began by peeling back the first foot-ish of the first full panel (you can see it folded down behind the top part of the mural that we had stuck to the top corner of the wall in the photo below:

Not to psych you out, but getting this first panel hung correctly is a big part of the success of this project. The good news is that these panels are QUITE FORGIVING. Seriously, we likely hung and rehung this first section 4 or 5 times while we figured out the best system. It did not lose any of its adhesion strength each time that we stuck, unstuck, and restuck it – and it did not wrinkle (even if we accidentally stuck it to itself a few times, we could carefully peel it off and it was fine).

Pointer: Use a level!!!

You will be tempted to use your ceiling or wall as your level reference point for this first panel. DO NOT. Most rooms – including ours – are not perfectly straight, so relying on your first corner to be fully square could lead to crooked panels which, even worse, could lead to gaps at the top or sides of your mural as your ceiling or wall bows in or out slightly.

Instead, you will want to mark a vertical line using a level to give you a reference point for the outer edge of your first panel. You could do this all the way down the wall, but we found that doing simply a couple of feet at the top was sufficient to get us began.

We marked ours about 23.5″ inches from the corner, so that our 24″ panel would overlap the side wall a smidge (again, to make sure we did not see gaps anywhere that the wall bowed out). We will show you how we cut off all of the overlap a little later.

Then we hung the panel along that vertical line but made sure that it overlapped the ceiling by about an inch as well. Even though our ceilings and the panels are both 8ft tall, we could spare this inch since the baseboards make the actual wall space around 7’6″ – and again, most ceilings are not perfectly level all the way across, so we hoped to make sure we had excess to bridge any gaps if the ceiling is slightly higher a little further down the wall.

Step 3: Peel, Stick, and Smooth

Once you feel good about the position of your first panel, you can begin the process that you will rely on most for this wallpaper installation: peeling off a bit more backing, sticking it to the wall with your hand, and then smoothing out the bubbles. You can see the slight ceiling overlap we mentioned in the photo below, which we will take care of later on.

You can buy a smoothing tool meant for this task, but we forgot to bring one with us to the beach, so we pulled a credit card out of my wallet and it did the job simply fine.

Our main pointer here is to work from the middle out toward the edges, both when you are sticking things with your hand and when you are smoothing things afterwards. Also, do not be afraid to peel it off and restick it if you are not glad with your placement or if it is starting to wrinkle. Remember, this particular material is QUITE FORGIVING.

Continue to apply the first wallpaper panel in this manner until you get to the baseboard at the bottom. We will trim that later as well.

Step 4: Line Up The Pattern On Your Second Panel

If you’ve carefully placed your first panel, this part should not give you any trouble. These designs are not printed with an overlap, so you will be butting the second panel up along the edge of the first panel. Simply peel a small section of backing off and take your time aligning the pattern. You can peel it off and restick it as many times as you need to get it simply right so they line up fairly seamlessly, like you see below:

We did notice that the material has a little stretch to it, so as you smooth it down the wall, it can cause your pattern to travel a bit – meaning your pattern alignment may seem “off” as you go down the wall if you are pulling and stretching one panel more than the other one.

We combatted this by trying NOT to pull or stretch the material with too much force. And simply by generally being vigilant the whole way down. If we did not like how anything lined up, we simply peeled it back up and tried again.

Step 5: Cut Around Small Obstacles Like Outlets & Switches

If you run into an obstacle like a light switch or wall outlet, do not worry – it is especially straightforward. Simply turn off the power to that switch or outlet, and once you are ready to stick the wallpaper around it, use a flathead screwdriver to remove the cover plate. Then loosely stick the wall mural panel OVER the outlet (if it is a traditional switch that protrudes a lot, you may need to cut a small slit to allow the switch to peek out so the wallpaper can sit flatter against the area).

You should be able to feel the outline of the obstacle through the paper, so use your utility knife to carefully cut along the edges – being careful not to cut any areas that will not be covered by the switch plate or outlet cover.

It does not have to be a flawless cut, simply be sure to remove sufficient that the outlet or switch could be easily took out if/when needed. Then simply smooth the area down and screw the cover back on so it looks polished and wrapped up (you can see the wrapped up outlet in the picture below).

Step 6: Cutting Around Large Obstacles Like Windows & Doors

Hanging our last two wall mural panels presented the brought in challenge of cutting around a large window that would interfere with significant sections of the pattern.

We began each one of them the same way we did the full panels – peeling back a small section at the top and aligning the pattern. But once the window trim preventing the panel from hanging flat, we broke out the scissors and roughly cut out the area that would have covered the window.

We were QUITE CONSERVATIVE in doing this, leaving 3-4 inches of excess, and trimming more as we felt more confident we were not cutting off too much. It is a little tricky getting around corners (you kinda have to cut a diagonal slit in it).

Once sufficient is trimmed off so that you can press it flat onto the wall, then it is simply a matter of (say it with me!) peeling, sticking, and smoothing. You will still have some excess overlapping the trim, but simply like the excess along your baseboard, side wall, and ceiling, it is simply fine. You will trim it off later.

Step 7: Finishing Your Final Wall Mural Panel

I am not gonna lie: aligning that final part under the window was a little tricky. But I will show you how we cheated to keep ourselves from going crazy.

Because of the window, we hung our fourth panel (which was fairly much simply a compact strip between the window and the wall) without being able to align it with the pattern on the previous panel. So by the time we got to the bottom, it did not perfectly match up. And if we did match it up – it consistently left a big bubble or wrinkle, no matter how many times we stuck or restuck it. We tried unpeeling, shifting and resticking it half a dozen times, but with minimal improvement.

So we chose the main priority was aligning the pattern under the window so the vertical seam disappeared. Then we in fact sliced the panel apart (gasp!) at a narrow spot between the window and the wall where there was mostly white space. That way, instead of a big wrinkle, we had a smooth, barely-visible overlap.

I forgot to take a picture of the overlap on the whale side, but you can see it above on the orange side. It is suuuuuper subtle (and will be fully blocked by a bed anyways) but we hoped to show you so you did not stress yourself out about getting things absolutely flawless.

And again, here it is from further away – you’d never notice that small imperfection in the scheme of the whole room, even if it were not covered by a bed.

Step 8: Cut Off The Excess With Your Knife

You do not in fact have to wait until the end to trim off all of your excess wallpaper around the ceilings, end walls, and baseboards, but doing it last is a pleasant insurance policy in case you have to do any major repositioning (we did not – but it still felt smart to play it safe). Once you cut it, you cannot un-cut it ;)

Sherry and I had distinct techniques for this part. She smoothed everything truly well one more time, nearly forcing a crease into the edge, and then freehanded the cut along the crease.

I felt a little better smoothing and then in fact pressing my smoothing tool (aka credit card) into the crease as I cut, nearly using the card as a guide. I think my method worked better in “softer” corners like along the ceiling, but Sherry’s worked speedily along “harder” edges like where the baseboard met the drywall.

Step 9: Repeat!

Okay, not truly. Most of you will not have to repeat the process in another room like we did. Unless you were so wowed by the result that you are already planning another project. It is kind of addicting…

In all seriousness, we are so glad with how these turned out AND how painless the installation was, we ARE trying to figure out if there is another spot we could install one in the beach house or our own house.

And as for these rooms, they still need to be fully furnished. We have built the two twin bed platforms in each space (they are these from Ikea), the mattresses are coming, and we are right now looking for some bedding to finish them off.

You can see in the above photo that we have placed a temporary side table in there, simply to get a sense of the layout (the aisle is not as small as we feared after all, which is strong news).

More on these rooms to come! But for now we are simply enjoying how a few hours spent sticking these murals up on each side fully changed how they look. They are a lot closer to charming little bonus sleeping nooks than they were last week!

P.S. To see other projects that we have done at the duplex, here is how we began laying down rugs & building the kitchens, how we tiled 6 rooms, how we hung operable shutters, and here is the whole duplex category on our journal if you want to look back on all of our progress.

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