DIY Homegirl and Liquid Starch Walls

The lovely Angela over at DIY Homegirl featured my framed vintage wallpaper panels on her post last week about ideas for brightening up spaces of renters who are stuck with white walls! Click below to go to the article...

I go through phases of loving white walls versus wanting color and wallpaper, but I appreciate all the ideas she's got. I'm especially liking the idea about the temporary chalkboard wall and the electrical tape chevron. Also near and dear to my heart is using fabric with liquid starch...a cheat we use on low-budget set design for indie films.

For the set design of my short film, Mouthbreather, we used fabric and liquid starch to create the richly textured and wallpapered home of a cat lady, all without pissing off my landlord (yes, we shot it entirely in my own apartment).

Here's the before and after...

The original wall was white, and I painted it with Behr Silver Screen for that lovely grey with lilac undertones. A far cry from my cat lady digs. Once we put up the wallpaper for the set, I kept up the kitchen wallpaper after we wrapped and didn't take it down 'til I moved out two years later.

Tribeca Film Fest & Maker Studios' online channel Picture Show featured Mouthbreather just last month. You can watch the full short film and see the full on wallpaper/starch set design here.

Thanks, DIY Homegirl, for the shoutout and for your awesome ideas!