Spoonflower wallpaper review

Welp, this is a post I totally wasn't planning on writing... but when I realized I was going to have to upload pictures of my new self-designed wallpaper to a third party if I wanted to share them on Spoonflower anyway, I figured I might as well talk about it here, too.

As a fabric lover (okay, hoarder, whatevs), I fully did not anticipate that the first thing I'd ever design and buy from Spoonflower would be wallpaper. Spoonflower started with print-on-demand fabric, and I'd say it's what they continue to be known for.

The only other thing I've received from Spoonflower-- a free fabric swatch!

The thing is, the fabric reviews are pretty terrible and I'm leery of purchasing any Spoonflower fabric, even though there are tons and tons of awesome designs to choose from-- uploaded by the designers themselves. I've read multiple message board chains and reviews saying that the fabric fades terribly after just one wash. How well the fabric design holds up ultimately depends on the ink colors and type of fabric you choose, but I just don't have it in me to research what combo of ink and fabric I should choose in order to make sure it lasts past one washing. The fabric prices are also pretty steep.

The wallpaper prices, on the other hand, are pretty reasonable for a peel-and-stick, removable and repositionable, woven vinyl wallpaper. Spoonflower is far from the only print-on-demand wallpaper service, but I went with them because they had decent prices, and I was already familiar with them.

I looked at a lot of designs already in the database but decided to design my own because I couldn't find a design in the colors I'd already settled on (my wall had just been painted purple so I needed something to go with that). Plus, bonus, you get a designer discount on your own designs. Just 10%, but a discount nonetheless.

I made a design in Photoshop using an antique floral bouquet image on a linen-look apricot background. (Pro tip: found this tutorial from Scathingly Brilliant on making a pattern repeat super helpful). I ordered about 14' of the woven wallpaper and it arrived super quickly, faster than I expected anyway.

And once it arrived, I loved it! It was pretty much what I wanted and expected. It was maybe even a little better than I expected on the image resolution, when it came to the flowers anyway. On the background, on the otherhand, you can't see the linen-look design at all, which is probably my fault-- I think I don't have enough contrast there. I also didn't use Spoonflower's color chart when making my design, so that probably was part of it too.

Putting up the wallpaper sucked. But I think that's the case with any wallpaper. In fact, the fact that you can reposition this paper probably made it was easier to put up than other wallpapers. Hopefully I'll get better because, to be honest, I'm hooked! I'm examining walls in my house with a new eye, trying to find places to put wallpaper. The best part is, you can take this stuff down with no wall damage, so I can get as quirky as I want with the designs.

I still don't think I'm brave enough to buy Spoonflower fabric anytime soon, but Spoonflower wallpaper is awesome. In fact, I've decided to make my design available in my Spoonflower shop. And I'll be posting the entire project this wallpaper is part of soon on my YouTube channel.