Wallpaper vs. Painting- Which one Should You Choose?

Struggling to make a choice between wallpaper and painting? Pick wisely. We all love to decorate our homes, either by painting or wallpaper. They make our homes beautiful, but the difficult part is making a choice between the two with factors such as cost, time, durability, and many others needing to be considered.

Painting lasts longer compared to wallpaper which will serve a little less time on your home wall. Wallpapers have many different colors and designs, for example, you can pick a wallpaper that has pictures of water features, fruits, cars and among others. Painting has mostly one color option, and while you can draw pictures that you want, it will not look as beautiful as the wallpaper.

Making the choice between painting and wallpaper is more difficult because of the different variety of options available.
Here are a few things you should note while making your choice.

1. Difficulty: Painting a wall is easier compared to wallpaper because it only requires less time and effort. Wallpaper requires more time and energy to apply and stick it on the wall. For example, if the wall is not smooth, maybe has a hole and you’re applying a wallpaper, you will have much trouble smoothing that out. On the other hand, painting only requires a rub with sandpaper and put filler in the hole making painting much easier with less effort needed.

2. Cost: Cost is another very important factor to consider. The cost depends on the quality and brand of materials chosen however wallpaper is generally cheaper compared to paint. However, there’re paints that are less costly but they will not give a good taste of your wall, same applies to wallpaper.

Wallpaper is, however, more durable compared to paint because it does not fade easily like paint. You will need to repaint every after 3-5 years or so in order to maintain the good looks of your wall.

3. Labor: painting can be done by anyone including a homeowner or unprofessional painter without seeking any help –but of Couse, pro painters do a much better job. On the other hand, wallpaper can only be done by a professional handyman. This may actually require 2 to 4 people to have it properly done. This means you need more money towards labor to put wallpaper in your wall compared to painting.
4. Time: You should also consider the time required – painting requires more time due to an extra number of processes such as priming, applying multiple paint coats and waiting for everything to dry in between and after. Wallpaper only needs the time to stick and that about it.

5. Maintenance: Maintenance of wallpaper is much cheaper because you can simply clean it or wash, and that’s all. On the other hand, paint can be expensive to maintain when the wall gets dirty. For example, if you have small children in your house, they can easily draw and scribbling on your walls which you will require another session of painting if you want to restore the glory of your walls. As for the wallpaper –wash rinse and it’s done.

6. Damage: the wallpaper can be damaged easily with sharp objects like a knife, razor and among others. Paint can be damage too but you can stay with the damage or do minor maintenance. Damage on a wallpaper often requires that it be removed and replaced with a new one –there is a very slim chance for repair.

7. Hard to remove: Energy and time input to remove wallpaper is much more because it’s usually applied with the glue. Dealing with glue on the wall is a bigger nightmare compared to sanding off paint. Paint is much easier to remove, you only need sandpaper.

Conclusion

Both wallpaper and painting are great options for your wall. However, as you have seen from above. Each has its own ups and downs. Panting takes more time, and it’s more costly compared to wallpaper. However, paint is less prone to damages and easy to apply. As it turns out, painting is generally more preferred and easier to work with compared to wallpaper.

By DYB Virtual