Protecting Hand-Screened Wallpaper From Moisture?

This is a bit of a longshot, but we’re coiming down to the wire on some design choices and I want to make the right one. We’re adding a powder room on our ground floor and are planning to use some great hand-screened wallpaper on the walls. We’d LOVE to use it in a floor-to-ceiling capacity but fear it might be too delicate a material to withstand the inevitable splashes that will occur. Does anyone have any insight or ideas as to how we could accomplish our goal (short of tiling up half the wall and wallpapering from there)? Is there any sort of protectant we might employ that wouldn’t alter the look of the wallpaper too greatly? We have a four year old boy that could wreck a junkyard, so we gotta make concessions here and there. Thanks for your ideas, people.

houseowax

in Other 13 years and 2 months ago

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callalily | 13 years and 2 months ago

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Clear plexiglass, perhaps.

nf85 | 13 years and 2 months ago

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I’ve seen several British bathrooms that had wallpaper floor to ceiling with a sheet of glass (or plastic?)  over the portion of the wall nearest the water source. I remember it looking charming rather than tacky.

callalily | 13 years and 2 months ago

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It’s a powder room, so moisture is not an issue as it would be with a shower. A four-year-old boy making a mistake, on the other hand, is a different matter. I agree with the idea to use some kind of wainscott (tile, reclaimed wood, bead board.) Or save the pretty wallpaper for two years. You could also wallpaper with Anaglypta (textured) and paint it with semi gloss (white or whatever color you like). I’ve seen it done in a powder room floor to ceiling and it looks great.

concernedcitizen | 13 years and 2 months ago

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You might try Krylon crystal clear acrylic. Test in a non conspicuous place.

BHS | 13 years and 2 months ago

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With a young boy and given that the space is a small bathroom (walls likely in close proximity to toilet and sink), I’d want to be able to sponge the wall down regularly, not just apply something that would make it moisture resistant. I’d definitely use tile or beadboard around the lower portion of the wall.