How to make drawings on the walls with liquid wallpaper?

Liquid wallpaper is a worthy competitor to roll wall coverings. If someone thinks that they are boring and monochromatic, this opinion is wrong: this material is capable of creating a wide variety of prints.

To understand how to make drawings on the walls with liquid wallpaper, you need to know the features of this cladding, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as possible techniques for performing decorative techniques.

Liquid wallpaper is an alternative to rolled canvases, which are sold in the form of a powder or a ready-made mixture for application to the surface of walls and ceilings. The material is packed in 4 kg bags.

Raw materials are divided into two categories:

• painted material;
• white mixture.

The first varieties are produced mainly in several colors of the pastel group. The limitation of shades is easily solved: pigments and special dyes have been developed for the material, through which you can enhance the desired tone or change it by adding the desired contrast pigment.

Painting is almost always an obligatory stage in the work of cladding: this way you can beat the lack of lighting, choose the right tones for the existing interior items. In addition, the use of dyes can significantly increase the color palette of the future image, make it three-dimensional and multifaceted.

Since the material is not so simple, one cannot do without taking into account its characteristics. It is not a decorative plaster, it is a special type of coating that does not contain sand. Outwardly, it is a sour cream-like mass or a kind of dry sawdust impregnated with an adhesive substance.

The main components of the cladding are:

• cotton:
• cellulose;
• polyester;
• silk fibers;
• dyes;
• fillers;
• adhesive substance.

Liquid wallpaper has an expensive look thanks to silk fibers. Therefore, the structure appears to be textile.

The uniqueness of the material lies in the fact that the mass is often supplemented with original additives, among which are especially popular:

• marble chips:
• colored flock;
• mica luster;
• nacre.

The existing varieties of liquid wallpaper, which have an embossed surface, a foam structure and the semblance of textiles, are divided into three groups:

• cellulosic - low-cost raw materials with a predominance in the composition of paper, characterized by a minimum service life and practicality;
• silk - a premium type of liquid wallpaper with a predominance of silk fibers, which has a maximum service life, resistance to the sun;

• silk-cellulose - blended material that allows you to balance the quality characteristics of silk and the cost of paper varieties.

Decorating walls with drawings using liquid wallpaper is an original technique that has a lot of advantages.

This process allows you to:

• to bring individuality into the space: the drawings are not repeated, even if the design is carried out using the same templates;
• change the aesthetic perception of the room, filling it with fresh colors, taking into account the taste preferences of household members;
• by applying a dense layer of material, provide an additional level of sound insulation, eliminating annoying extraneous sounds from neighboring apartments;
• decorate the walls with any pattern, without limiting the design theme;

• mask and level the unevenness of the walls, evenly distributing the material along the vertical planes;
• to beat the design features of a particular room, hiding problem areas with a volumetric pattern, or deliberately emphasizing protrusions and niches;
• decorate the walls with an environmentally friendly type of material that does not contain harmful impurities and toxins, insulating the surface of the walls, which is especially noticeable in the cold season;
• gently apply on vertical planes a material that does not roll during the decorating process, does not shift the lines of contrasts and does not crumble during application, densely filling each section of the drawing.

A useful property of the material is the ability to correct the pattern if it is applied incorrectly.

Decorating with liquid wallpaper also has disadvantages, among which the main ones are:

• patience and accuracy: this process does not tolerate haste and laziness, the material cannot be applied quickly;
• uneven layers of contrasts: it is not always possible to achieve the same level between different shades of the pattern;
• cost: if you buy quality cladding, design will be expensive;
• the need to varnish the surface, otherwise the wallpaper will be susceptible to mechanical damage.

To make drawings with liquid wallpaper on the walls of an apartment, a country house or a summer house, you should stock up on:

• capacity for wallpaper;
• packaged raw materials or ready-made mixture;
• pencil;
• plastic trowel;
• rubber spatula;
• stencils;
• water for diluting raw materials;
• templates.

Interesting templates include:

• plain - simple stencils for paint of the same color;
• individual details - varieties for stage-by-stage wall decoration in different shades, overlapping one layer with another;
• volumetric - templates that require the use of putty, highlighting the surface level 2–4 mm up;
• anti-stencils - coloring the material outside the form (background), forming a backlight effect.

Current stencil prints include:

• single tree:
• fluttering butterflies;
• Egyptian ornaments;
• grape bunches;
• simple geometric shapes;
• a scattering of flowers;
• large stylized flowers and leaves.

If you plan to make a panel drawing or a kind of three-dimensional picture on the wall (for example, a pharaoh in monochrome technique), you should take care of purchasing a molding, ceiling plinth or baguette, placing an accent in the frame.

Drawing is carried out in three ways:

• on the finished cladding;
• by means of stencils;
• filling the voids with wallpaper in contrasting shades.

In order for the material to adhere well to the surface of the walls, the planes are treated with a deep penetration primer, which ensures maximum adhesion of the wallpaper. After it dries, you can apply the material to the prepared sketch.

The second method is drawing a pattern using stencils on the finished cladding. To do this, first, the entire wall is filled with liquid wallpaper using a construction roller or a special pistol. It is important to ensure that there are no unpainted areas on the surface that show the base of the walls. When the cladding layer is dry, stencils are applied, applying them in the right place and filling with a thick mass. This allows you to make a three-dimensional drawing that stands out from the general background.

The main method is to fill each contrasting area with wallpaper of the desired color. The method is quite laborious, as it does not tolerate haste, although everyone can do it and does not require special skills.Wallpaper is applied in sections, filling each fragment of the pattern, without overlapping its borders. To do this, the material is applied 2 mm beyond the line and immediately trimmed with a small spatula.

Usually, such cladding cannot be done in one day. In order for the coating to be uniform, you need to stock up on water, soaking the joints and leveling them with a spatula.

If the store does not have the necessary stencil, drawing skills are far from ideal, you can select an image on the Internet, enlarge it to the desired size and print: this is how we create the desired size in a given theme.

You can sketch on glass by drawing it with a black marker, then place it under direct light, forming a shadow of the desired size on the wall. This method cannot be called convenient, since its own shadow will interfere with the repetition of the contours.

Since the material gives an unusual type of surface, it is worth using the lightest and most airy elements of the drawings, performing the design in the form of:

• curls and wavy lines with carved leaves;
• games of contrasts of two shades;
• simple plant motives;
• summer sketches.

Interesting design ideas are compositions from children's cartoons and a marine theme. However, you need to carefully approach the topic of the drawing: some pictures can have a negative perception (for example, Angry Birds birds or Spongebob character).

In order for the drawing to look harmonious in the design of the space, moderation must be observed. The accent zone should be small: at most, it can occupy one wall, sometimes it is enough to highlight the accent of the vertical plane.

If the room is small, it is worth choosing a design technique in the style of a panel or a small picture.

Using stencils in your work, make sure that their size corresponds to the area of ​​the room: small strokes will be lost against the general background of a spacious room. In this case, it is worth choosing a large drawing, having drawn it in advance on the prepared wall with a pencil.

The sketch will allow you to see the future print and assess its relevance in a given place in the room: such walls are a decoration of the room, they cannot be covered with furniture or hidden under hinged shelves.

Stir the dyes while the material is dry to ensure an even color. Buy material with a small margin: it will take 10-15% more to create a picture than with a simple facing. Do not use adhesive tape to fix the templates: it can be removed together with the cladding layer.

Do not stencil the drawing earlier than two days after applying the main background. You cannot immediately process adjacent areas of the drawing: this will not give the expressiveness of the lines.

To understand what unusual drawings of liquid wallpaper on the walls look like, you should turn to the options made by experienced craftsmen:

• you can decorate the wall of the nursery by means of the contrast of black and white wallpaper, placing them in the form of a checkerboard;
• the living room can be decorated with a stylish accent of contrasting squares by decorating the fragments with the corners up the center of the wall;
• having drawing skills, you can decorate the wall with a realistic sea turtle, highlighting the picture with elements of the depths of the sea;

• if the room has little open space on the wall, it is worth playing up this drawback by means of a picture, completing the background and drawing in contrast to the main cladding and framing the edges of the panel with a white plinth;
• you can decorate the accent wall of the kitchen with a bright single flower by performing it with the help of different shades of liquid wallpaper.

In this video, you will find instructions on how to apply a pattern with liquid wallpaper.