Have you ever wanted to design your own wallpaper that you can use in your house? I have! I’ve used custom wallpaper in three spots around my home and it feels so special! I thought today I could show you how to make your own wallpaper for walls even if you’re not that artistic or great at graphic design.
video tutorial
Let’s start with the video tutorial so you get an overview on what I did. This video goes over removing wallpaper, installing it, and designing a pattern. Then, I’ll dive in with more details on how to make your own wallpaper for walls below:
If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. One of my goals this year is to grow my YouTube community. Each Friday I’ll be sharing a video. If you can subscribed to my YouTube channel and/or watch one of my videos I would be so grateful for the support! Thank you!
how to make your own wallpaper for walls
When I first designed my bedroom, I didn’t have any practice designing with angled walls. So I wallpapered just the flat part of the wall.
Over the years, that decision has bothered me. I like that my old house has interesting architectural details and want to embrace and highlight them.
We’ve since moved our bedroom downstairs and have switched this space over to a craft room. Which means I can go more bold and fun! I decided that stripes on the angles would bring the eye up the wall and onto the ceiling in a pleasing way. But instead of normal stripes, I thought rainbow stripes would be perfect for the room and my style!
Since I am particular on my rainbow colors, I decided to design my own custom wallpaper pattern. I wanted big bold stripes in a gradient and knew what I wanted didn’t exist with any wallpaper companies. So here’s how to make your own wallpaper for walls if you want something that only lives in your head too!
step 1- figure out the design
Start by figuring out what you want. Is it stripes, florals, a geometric pattern? Look around at existing wallpaper companies and see what you like and pull images that would look good in your space.
I looked for images of rainbow stripes and stripes on angled walls to help visualize what I was thinking for my craft room since what I exactly wanted didn’t exist yet.
In my closet, I created custom wallpaper because I was inspired by a piece of original wallpaper I found during demo.
Then I searched wallpaper companies to see what I could find that was similar. That helped me realize what I wanted out of my design and the scale I wanted.
There’s lots of ways to find inspiration. However you find it, make sure you can visualize what you want so you can begin the design process.
step 2- buy, gather, or create the design elements
Next, to continue to prep to create the wallpaper design, buy, gather, or create the design elements.
For my rainbow stripe wallpaper that’ll I’ll be using in my craft room, I wanted to use the same colors I painted on my stairs. So I took screen shots of the paint swatches from the paint manufacturer’s website so I could color match them.
For my closet wallpaper, I bought vintage botanical graphics on Etsy. When looking for clip art on Etsy, I like to search for the subject and then add PNG. So, for this project, I searched “vintage botanical PNG.” That’ll pull up images that have a transparent background and are easy to design with.
Note, when buying graphics to use on any site, make sure to read the description throughly. You’ll want to see if it’s ok for you to use the art as you intend. The images I bought are all free to use under the public domain. They specifically note that “commercial use is allowed.” That means I can use them and sell my wallpaper on a commercial site.
If you won’t be selling the wallpaper and just using it for personal use, it’s probably fine to use any graphics you purchase. So if the description on the graphic notes it’s for “personal use only,” make sure to not list the wallpaper for sale. Copyright laws are real and you can get fined for not following them. Don’t use characters or any image that has a copyright.
Another option that’s fun is to scan art you created! So if you (or your child) made art that you’d like to use on wallpaper, scan it to create a digital copy. I like to use the free app PhotoScan to scan art on my phone.
The best way to organize these items is to create a folder on your computer that says “wallpaper design.” Paste all the elements for your wallpaper into this folder so it’s easy to upload them. Note, this is also a great place to save the completed wallpaper design once it’s made.
step 3- design the wallpaper
Now that you have your vision and any elements needed, it’s time to begin to create the wallpaper pattern!
To design the wallpaper, use a graphic design editing software. I personally like to use PicMonkey because it’s pretty intuitive (it has a free 7 day trial or is currently $13 a month). You can also use Adobe Photoshop (which I find has a steep learning curve), or something more beginner friendly like Canva, or Figma.
design the wallpaper A- open a new image
Open a new image on the graphic design software. I like to make mine as big as possible- 6400 pixels x 6400 pixels. This way the wallpaper can have a large repeat. Using a large canvas also helps it so that it will print as crisply as possible.
design the wallpaper B- upload your elements
In step 2, we gathered our design elements. Now, select “add image” and upload any graphics, scanned art, or screenshots into the graphic design software.
design the wallpaper C- arrange the elements
Now, select the graphics and begin arranging them onto the canvas.
For my stripe wallpaper, I upload my paint swatch screenshots. Then I create rectangles (from the graphics folder) and match the color on the swatch. I make sure each rectangle is the exact same size so they’ll be uniform on the wallpaper. To do this, create one, then copy and paste it so each rectangle is uniform in size. Then crop the canvas so the stripes perfectly fit.
Last, I delete the swatch screenshots as I only needed them for getting the right color.
For my botanical wallpaper, I upload the botanicals and begin placing them in the middle of the ribbon back ground. The edges were tricky because I had to cut the botanicals in half and use the other half on the other side so they’d repeat nicely.
To cut the botanicals in half, I selected the graphic and cropped in in half. I repeated this step for each side. Then I put them next to each other to make sure they perfectly match up. Last, I put them on the edges (left, right, top and bottom)
design the wallpaper d- save the pattern
Once I’m happy with my design, I save it to my computer. To do that, I select the button “download.” Then I select “print” which means the file will be saved at a size big enough to print (which is important with wallpaper). Under “file type” select “PNG image” – this will save a larger file than a JPEG. Finally, select “download.”
step 4- upload the wallpaper
Last, upload the image on Spoonflower. This is a site where anyone can create a wallpaper or fabric pattern for free! Just go to spoonflower.com and hit the button “upload a design.”
Next, the upload page comes up. Select “choose files” and then you can select the image that was just created in the graphic design software. Find the image and press the button “upload.”
Before the uploading process can begin, click the copyright square that confirms that you have the rights to use the image you’re uploading. This ensures you’re only uploading images you have the rights to- so make sure to follow the guidelines that Spoonflower outlines.
Press “upload” and that is when your image is created into wallpaper, fabric, and home decor! This may take 1-2 minutes to process.
Once the image is uploaded on Spoonflower’s site, you can edit it to change the repeat and scale.
Then, when you’re happy with the design, you can see it rendered as wallpaper- this is my favorite part!
You can also see it on home decor! How fun and satisfying is that?!
step 5- order a sample
Before ordering the wallpaper for your home, order a sample.
This may seem like an extra step that’ll cost you time (and a little money), but it’s important to see the sample up close and make sure there’s not any issues.
Also, ordering a sample is a step Spoonflower has you take before you can set the wallpaper for sale on their site.
Make sure to order a sample in the same material you’ll be using on your wall. That way you can test it out on your wall and see how it works on your wall texture. They offer peel and stick, a pre-pasted smooth, a traditional pebble, and a grass cloth.
If you plan on using Spoonflower for ordering lots of fabric and wallpaper, I suggest ordering a sample pack. I have one and reference it frequently. It has a sample of each of their fabric options (there’s a lot!) and each wallpaper option.
step 6- order the wallpaper
Once you’ve reviewed the sample, if there aren’t any changes, order the wallpaper. For my rainbow stripe wallpaper, since I wanted bold stripes each color is a different wallpaper pattern. So I needed to order 7 rolls (one of each pattern) to complete the rainbow across my wall.
Each roll is 24″ wide so it was easy to calculate how many I needed. On the peel and stick and pre-pasted wallpaper options, you can order a bunch of different lengths (3′, 6′, 9′, or 12′). I got 9′ lengths for my walls and had about 1′ extra.
If you’re interested in ordering my rainbow stripe wallpaper for your home, here’s the link!
The fun thing about these stripes is that you can really make a custom look and put them in any order!
If you’re interested in any of my wallpaper designs, here’s a link to my shop on Spoonflower. You can get all of these patterns on wallpaper, fabric, or home decor. And you’ll be supporting me (which I truly appreciate).
Note, this post isn’t sponsored at all (though I’d be happy if it was, I genuinely love Spoonflower). I do make a small commission if you buy any of my products through Spoonflower.
vintage botanical bow wallpaper
I love Spoonflower because they support artists and makers. They print on demand so there’s very little less waste. Which is great for the environment. They also are very fast. I ordered wallpaper on Wednesday and that night it had shipped out. It’ll be here on Monday and I didn’t pay a rush fee. They aren’t always that fast, but I have found they have a quick turnaround.
I also really like that you can buy matching fabric. This makes endless possibilities for creating! Matching dress to wallpaper? Check! I’ll be working on my son’s room soon and will be making him custom drapes out of fabric I designed.
small scale rainbow stripe wallpaper
Anyway, I’ll stop this love letter (lol) and show you how the rainbow stripe wallpaper looks in the room! Because now you know how to make your own wallpaper for walls. Let me know if you have any questions on the process and I’ll answer in the comments.
after
Here’s a wide image so you can see all of those pretty colors together! I love them. It does look like a rainbow circus, but it’s a craft room so you might as well have some fun!
I really like how the mirror reflects the stripes!
About a month or so ago, I had a vision for rainbow stripes in here. It’s been fun to see that come together with my own custom design! If you want to see how I hung this wallpaper in detail, watch the video because it goes over that.
Next week I’ll be skim coating the other wall in here (which had more texture on it), and then I’ll show the whole room wallpapered!
I hope you enjoyed this post on how to make your own wallpaper for walls. Let me know what you think of it!
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