Thinking about adding grasscloth wallpaper to your home? I’m sharing everything you need to know about using this gorgeous wall covering!
Until a few years ago, I’d never used grasscloth wallpaper but now I’m hooked! It adds depth and dimension to a room and instantly elevates the look and feel of the space. Today I’m sharing everything you need to know about grasscloth wallpaper from where to buy it to where to use it, whether it’s difficult to hang, and more. Let’s get to it… (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})
Grasscloth Wallpaper: What Is It?
Grasscloth wallpaper is a type of wallpaper that’s made from natural fibers such as seagrass, jute, bamboo, hemp, and raffia. The fibers are woven together to create wallpaper that has incredible texture. {These grasscloth wallpapers} are a small sampling of the variety you can find:
Grasscloth wallpaper is labor intensive to produce which is why it’s more expensive than typical wallpaper. Because natural fibers are used, there’s often variation from roll to roll and sometimes even within the same roll in both the placement of the fibers and the color. Due to this variation, the seam between two strips of grasscloth wallpaper is typically much more visible than with traditional wallpaper.
For example, here’s a seam in the grasscloth in my daughter’s room:
You can also get faux grasscloth wallpaper that has the look of grasscloth but is created with man-made materials (usually vinyl). These wallpapers typically have less variation than true grasscloth.
What Are the Pros & Cons of Grasscloth Wallpaper vs. Traditional Wallpaper
The biggest pro of grasscloth wallpaper is the sophisticated yet cozy feel it creates when hung in a room. It can truly make a room fabulous! Unfortunately there are several cons that come with it. One is that grasscloth wallpaper isn’t cleanable like other wallpapers. If you get anything on it, it will likely stain/damage the paper. So you can dust or vacuum the wallpaper but you can’t use any type of cleaner on it.
Also, grasscloth wallpaper can absorb moisture so isn’t a good choice for a bathroom where there’s a lot of humidity (faux grasscloth would be an option). Grasscloth wallpaper also tends to be expensive (often 3-4 times the price) and more difficult to hang than regular wallpaper.
Where Do You Buy Grasscloth Wallpaper?
My favorite sources for grasscloth wallpaper are Serena & Lily and Decorator’s Best. Serena & Lily has a wide variety of solid colored grasscloth wallpapers and a few printed options too such as {this Gardenside grasscloth wallcovering} that is such a stunner:
Decorator’s Best sells a variety of brands of grasscloth wallpaper such as Phillip Jeffries, York, and Schumacher.
Where to Use Grasscloth Wallpaper in Your Home
You can use grasscloth wallpaper to fully wallpaper a room of your home but because it’s so expensive, it’s ideal to find a way to use less of it. One option is to add grasscloth wallpaper above the molding or chair rail in a room. We did this in my daughter’s bedroom, adding wallpaper above her painted white molding:
Room Sources: Gold quatrefoil pendant | Canvas surf scene art | Blue fringed pillow covers | Leather weave bench
You could also do the reverse and paint above the chair rail and add grasscloth below it. For example, the Serena & Lily Westport store has {this gorgeous grasscloth in washed indigo} below the chair rail. I absolutely love the variation of the blue and natural tones – it really warms up the room:
With only having this small amount wall space below the chair rail, I would guess that they were able to get away with using just a single roll of grasscloth:
Room Sources: Chandelier | Sectional | Stump side table | X-base side table
Another option is to use grasscloth wallpaper for wallpapered bookshelves such as I did with {this charcoal grasscloth} in our family room:
or this patterned grasscloth wallpaper at our local Serena & Lily store. The pattern adds so much to both spaces!
Is Hanging Grasscloth Easy?
Easy? My honest answer is no. If you have a lot of experience hanging traditional wallpaper, you could probably hang grasscloth too. However if you’ve never hung wallpaper before, I wouldn’t recommend starting your learning curve with grasscloth.
Why? The biggest reason is that unlike regular wallpaper, if you get wallpaper adhesive on the front of grasscloth wallpaper, it will stain it (with regular wallpaper, it wipes right off with a damp sponge). And if you’ve hung any type of wallpaper before, you know that when you’re rolling adhesive onto the back of it and hanging it, it’s tricky to not get any glue on your hands that’s then transferred to your wallpaper.
Also, since the grasscloth wallpaper is so much thicker than traditional wallpaper, cutting off the excess paper where it meets the ceiling and the baseboard or chair rail is much more difficult and corners are more challenging as well.
Another thing that makes grasscloth more challenging to work with is that the edges of most grasscloth should be trimmed in order to have the most seamless seams. Why? The way that all wallpaper is machine-cut is great for regular wallpaper but leaves some subtle fraying on the edges of grasscloth wallpaper. Using a straight edge and sharp razor to cut ½″ to 1″ off of both the left and right side of each strip of wallpaper will make it sharp and clean so that when you butt it up against another strip of wallpaper you’ll have a smooth seam.
Starting Your Grasscloth Wallpaper Installation
Most of the tips for hanging regular wallpaper apply to hanging grasscloth – see my post on wallpaper installation for a detailed step by step. With any type of wallpaper it’s important to plan out the placement of your wallpaper panels around the room before you start. This is even more important with grasscloth since you can see the seams. It’s best to start the job with your focal wall, which in my case was the wall that my daughter’s bed is on:
At the exact center of your focal wall, you should place either the center of a strip of wallpaper or the seam between two strips of wallpaper.
The other thing you need to consider is color variation. With grasscloth wallpaper it’s common to have some variation in color from roll to roll and even within a roll (some rolls get darker or lighter as you get farther into them). While that’s part of the beauty of grasscloth (and something you have to be ok with if you’re using it), it looks best if you transition from lighter to darker sheets gradually. This might mean opening all of your wallpaper rolls and comparing the color of them to figure out the order that you will hang them to create this gradual transition.
Also choose your wallpaper adhesive wisely! It’s important to choose an adhesive/glue that can be used on heavier wallpapers since grasscloth is weighty. My favorite adhesive is {this one}. It has a gel-like consistency that keeps it from drying out as quickly as other adhesives (which is important for me because I’m slow when I hang it!). It also makes it easy to slide your wallpaper around on the wall to position it perfectly.
Is Grasscloth Wallpaper Still in Style?
Absolutely. In fact, grasscloth has become more and more popular over recent years. If you love it, use it!
I hope that answered your grasscloth wallpaper questions! I’ll see you back on the blog next week!
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