Yes, you read that right! I’m wallpapering my washer and dryer. If you read the previous posts, this is the reason I needed to use peel and stick wallpaper from the beginning! This was my plan all along. When I reached out to the company to reorder more wallpaper because I ran out, they advised me NOT to do this because the wallpaper is not meant to adhere to metal surfaces. So do with that information what you will. You already know what I did. And that is completely disregard their warning and do it anyway! Bahahahahahaha!
I was willing to take the chance of it not working or even being a temporary solution because this washer and dryer are very old and will have to be upgraded at some point in the future anyway. So I wasn’t worried about ruining them. But I’m also not ready to replace them because they work perfectly fine and I’m not about to replace something that isn’t broken. So I’m going to dress them up a bit with some peel and stick wallpaper in the meantime.
A little back story on the laundry room…when we bought the house in 2017, the laundry room had bifold doors and your standard wire shelving. This was one of the first projects we took on, before I had done any big DIY projects. I had my husband build some shelves for me and I painted the room with some leftover paint I had from a previous project.
After living with them for years and not closing them all the time, I got tired of them being in the way when they were open so I removed them. This obviously left the laundry room wide open for the world to see, so I wanted to make it look nice!
Typically people don’t consider appliances to be aesthetically pleasing so I wanted to camouflage the washer and dryer as much as possible. Think Zach Braff as Andrew Largement in the movie Garden State when his shirt matched the wallpaper and he looked like a floating head. Classic! Also, great movie btw. If you haven’t seen it, 10/10 recommend! It’s one of my favorites. Anyhoo, I guess you could say this was my inspiration!
The process for wallpapering the washer and dryer was relatively simple. The hardest part was that a single panel didn’t cover the front or either appliance so I had to line up two sheets to match the pattern and hide the seam. I was scraping together what little wallpaper I had left, so I didn’t match it perfectly on the top of the washer, but it’s hardly noticeable. I will say, it was way more difficult to remove the air bubbles on the metal surface than it was on the walls, but it’s not too bad. Ok wallpaper company, I’ll admit, maybe you were right! But it’s not terrible and good enough for me. So far it’s all still sticking so we’re good. Again, remember to clean the surfaces with isopropyl alcohol and water. Don’t skip this step!
I also didn’t have enough for the sides of the washer and dryer but the outermost sides are hidden by the walls and the innermost sides will be covered eventually by a cabinet. But that is a project for future Selene. For now, we’re going to call this project DONE and move on to something else! Because who completely finishes projects before starting several new things? Certainly not me. I have multiple tabs open at all times. But I promise, I will come back to this and build a cabinet, but not right now.
So that’s it! I love how it looks even if it is giving grandma vibes. I’m here for it! Next time I’ll share of the things I used to style the shelves. Until next week, happy DIY-ing!
-Selene Builds Things
