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How to Brown Bag Walls and more by Karen Manasco
Inspired by Bonnye Manning, produced for this page by Karen Manasco of www.wuvie.net.
Though still in progress, this is a shot of the corner of the room before and after:
So your walls are dull. Drab. Boring and maybe even damaged. See examples
here
and here, where you can see the seams of the sheetrock on the ceiling.
Look at this one, and you'll see why I chose to use the technique on the ceiling as well as the walls.
Perhaps you live in a home like ours, which was created with the materials on hand.
Okay, so it's never going to be on the cover of a magazine, but it's yours and it needs something.
Why call a decorator and pay top dollar for something you could do yourself.
Why drag questionable chemicals into your home?
An easy and attractive solution? Brown bag your walls!
A view of the corner taken with a flash, so it actually appears lighter than it is in the room. Look closely, especially to the left of
the image and you can see the dimpled walls. Our walls have what was supposed to be decorative mud patches all over them. Not a pretty
sight. If you are lucky enough to have flat walls, two thumbs up to you. I'm not going to sand off all the bumps, that would be a major
undertaking and I simply do not have the time, nor the energy, nor the lungs for such. Yes, we will be changing the colors of the items
in the room. Silver and gold? What were we thinking?
Please know in advance that you are not limited to brown. We'll cover all the options later.
No, we're not suggesting you save lunch bags for a few years, it is easier these days. Bulk brown paper is available in large rolls. Tear
it up, paste it to the walls and stand back. Wow! No, you don't have to wad it up and then unwad it either, you use it right off the roll,
no extra work. Decide you want to move the furniture around and now you have a hole in the wall? Slap paste on a small piece, stick it to
the wall and run Draw Tite back over it. It is truly that easy, and it blends in. No one will ever know you made a repair.
The first thing I'll say is this technique is so easy and affordable,
and can be picked up or dropped at any moment. You are not chained to
finishing a wall in one day, nor are you obligated to apply it with strict rules other than sticking to the recommended materials.
Prime, smear, stick and seal. Yes, it is that easy. Kids can do it!
Let's get started. Keep in mind, this instructions are not carved in stone,
but rather are my approach to the project. Feel free to alter according to your taste.
MATERIALS NEEDED
The brands listed are essential for achieving the mottled / marbled look.
I have tried to alter the paper, the paste and the sealer, but even as Bonnye mentions, it isn't worth messing with.
The materials listed work. Substitutions do not.
Yep, it's a mess right now, but definitely a mess in progress for the better.
Hans sits atop the wood burning stove, anxious for this mess to be over with so he can go back to sleep peacefully.
will be applied. Don't apply paste to the outside, make certain it is on the inner side, the side which touches the other paper as it is
on the roll. (Hope that makes sense!)
First, tear the edges off in strips along the edge. Then tear the middle section into pieces of various sizes and shapes.
Don't try to be fancy, just tear the paper up. Typically, pieces are torn into sizes about the size of a dinner plate, slightly
smaller or larger depending on your preference. Put the straight edges in one pile, and the other pieces in another pile. Using the
straight edged pieces, apply those first along the ceiling (unless you are doing the ceiling, too) and any edges that will need to be neat.
After you've played with the technique for a while you will discover how you can squish and press the edges of randomly torn pieces to 
form straight edges or edge an item such as a ceiling fan.
Personally, I find it easier to work when you have already torn quite a bit of paper. Often I will lay out a big roll on the bed, stretch
out about three feet, tear off the edges, then tear off the remaining three foot section. When you have three to four 'mini rolls' with the
edges torn off, begin tearing them into dinner plate sizes or size of your choice, then gather about 20-30 pieces together, keeping them rolled
up in groups. This will allow you to paste one wad at a time, knowing how many pieces you will have to work with.
If you intend to use the brownbagging method on the entire room, including the ceiling, it is not necessary to use straight edges where
the ceiling and the wall meet. Instead, just put the pieces into the seam and spread the paper over both the ceiling and the wall.
You will find that with this method, you will likely end up with numerous pieces of edging that are not necessary. Fear not. Simply run
the excess pieces through a shredder. You now have animal bedding, gift bag stuffing, padding to ship something in the mail and more.
THE MOTTLED EFFECT - TECHNIQUE TIDBITS
Stay with me on the following explanation. In order to achieve the mottled look, it is my experience that you will need to apply the paper
gently, then seal in the same time frame. However, this may sound funny, but you do not want to press the paper into place, nor do you want
to roll the sealer on too firmly, or you will in essence press the paper to the wall too tightly and you will lose the effect.
As you apply a pasted piece to the wall, ensure it is on the wall without big bumps or creases, and ensure the edges are touching the walls
but don't squish it to the wall. If someone were to watch how I apply it, they might think the paper will never stick, but trust me, if
you use enough paste (you'll get the hang quickly) the paper will glop to the wall without much effort. This is what you are after, just
keeping the paper on the wall until you roll the sealer over it.
APPLICATION - PASTED PAPER
Using an old cookie sheet, or something large enough to contain a bit of paste mess, lay one piece at a time in the tray and grab a small
glob of paste out of the bucket with your bare hands. Yep, your bare hands. Smear it all over the piece, not too light but not too thick
then fold the piece in half (gooey side to gooey side) and set it aside. This is known as booking in the wallpaper world.
Continue making little 'books' with the paste until you have a nice stack of them, oh, about 20 of them or so. I'm not in a race to work
fast, but don't work too slowly, or the papers will absorb so much paste that they become difficult to separate. Try to work somewhat quickly
or else the pieces tend to become a massive stack of muck, tearing as you try to open the folded pieces. This is why I tend to stay with
about 20 pieces. When you are finished making a pile, turn it over so that the first paper book on top is the one you pasted first, it is
ready to go on the wall.
APPLICATION - SEALER
After you press all of the 20 or so pieces to the wall, ensure there are no terribly large bubbles, folds or otherwise, and roll the sealer
over it. Be sure to scrape off any drying globs of paste or it will look like a white speck on the wall if you seal over it. Don't worry if you overlap more sealer onto the wall, because remember, it is also a primer. Because you want to allow the primer
/ sealer to dry before applying the paper, it is better to work about the room instead of in one section at a time. This gives the other
areas time to dry so you can go back to that section after you complete another.
Okay, so a few days have passed, you've been working in other sections, and you turn around to see...gasp! A bald spot? The bald spot is
a section of the wall or ceiling where the paper may have absorbed the sealer, leaving a flat spot that does not shine when the light hits
it the way the rest of the wall does. Alas, this is no problem and no one will know how you fixed it. Often, after I have finished applying
sealer to my 20 count pieces of brown paper, there is still a bit of sealer left on the roller. I simply turn on all the lights in the room,
then walk around looking for these bald spots. Find one? Swipe the roller on it. When it dries, no one will be the wiser.
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