3 Wallpaper Projects to Freshen Up Your Home Office

It’s a known fact that having an aesthetically pleasing workspace boosts mood, productivity and motivation. With work-from-home life continuing to thrive, it’s important that your home office makes you happy and invites you back to get tasks done!

Join Spoonflower Ambassador and surface pattern designer Jeanetta Gonzales to learn three different ways Peel and Stick wallpaper can transform your home office, with designs that can easily be customized for the perfect look. But why stop there? Peel and stick around and use these DIY tips for your craft room, living room or even your in-office desk.

Jeanetta: I spend a lot of time in my office and it’s always nice to reorganize, redecorate and switch things up in the space to give it new energy. Simple, small refreshes can make a big impact using items you may already have in your space or making changes to the space itself.

Looking around my home office, I realized adding some pattern that complimented the teal and light gray walls would be fun. Using Peel and Stick wallpaper is an easy way to accomplish this and even allows me to change it up and use a new design whenever I want since it is removable.

As a surface designer, I want to create my own patterns that fit each space and vibe. My office walls are white and gray with a big teal stripe on one wall. Sticking with those colors, I added a softer yellow to the color palette to make it pop more, but not dominate the teal wall.

I made two patterns to use in the space that coordinate with one another. A great pattern combo to use is florals paired with geometrics—they always work well together.

I love a good floral and knew I had patterns already made that could work well, the problem was they were the wrong color. Simple fix! I work in Adobe®️ Photoshop®️ and can easily change the colors to match the room. If you work in Adobe®️ Illustrator®️, changing the colors is easy-peasy too.

The original floral had very vibrant, electric colors, not the more subtle home decor colors I was looking for. I wanted to warm it up and make the yellow more muted and compliment it with the teal and rusty/earthy colors.

For the geometric, I selected this fun watercolor pattern I recently made. As you can see, the colors need adjusting. Using curves, levels and other Photoshop recoloring tools, I was able to match the teal, gray, rust and soft white used in the office and in the floral. I also kept it more muted and soft, keeping the watercolor feel, complimenting the overall vibe of the floral.

When designing a collection of two or more patterns, it’s important to make sure the colors are the same, or similar, and the patterns work well when next to one another. When designing, make sure you see the patterns side-by-side to ensure you are designing them to coordinate. If you aren’t referring back to the previously designed patterns, they may differ from one another in color and style.

Now that the patterns are designed, I can apply them to Peel and Stick wallpaper to decorate my home office. Check out these three projects that can add pattern and color to your own space.

I love having inspiring items on my desk. This project can help dress-up your desk for success.

Materials:

• Desk mat (I used a cork one but any desk mat like vinyl, PVC or acrylic would work) 
• Scissors 
• Peel and Stick wallpaper 
• Squeegee tool 
• Utility blade 

Steps:

1. Place the mat top side down on top of the wallpaper. With scissors, cut around the mat leaving space around the edges.

2. Remove the wallpaper backing slowly and press it onto the mat. Use the squeegee tool that comes with the wallpaper to smooth it out as you go.

3. Once the wallpaper is stuck down, flip it over and cut off the excess using the utility blade.

Now your desk mat is ready to use!

One way to add pattern to your office is to wallpaper the doors instead of the walls. I have paneled doors and thought it would be fun to add coordinating patterns inside the panels. If you have a door with no panels, you can just cover the entire door!

Materials:

• Peel and Stick wallpaper 
• Measuring tape or ruler  
• Utility blade 
• Squeegee tool 

Steps:

1. Wipe the door clean, then measure the size of the door panel using a measuring tape or ruler. Measure the wallpaper slightly larger than the panel’s size and cut.

2. Place the wallpaper in the door panel’s top inside edge. Peel off the backing and stick the wallpaper down firmly as you go. Once you get to the bottom of the panel, cut off any excess beyond the bottom and side edges.

3. Repeat on the other door panels. You can even mix and match the patterns to make an impact.

And you’re done!

We all spend a lot of time working from home and taking video calls these days. If you sit in front of a wall that could use some love, here is a solution to add wallpaper behind you, creating a background that you can easily change without wallpapering the entire wall. It even doubles as a pinboard!

Materials:

• Peel and Stick wallpaper (I am using a 2’ x 6’ roll) 
• Large board of foam core (I used a 36” x 40”, 1/8” thick board) 
• Measuring tape or ruler
• Command Strips (get the large or XL picture hanging strips)
• Utility blade
• Squeegee tool

Steps:

1. Line up the wallpaper to one of the edges of the board and shift it off the edge up to 1″ (2.5 cm). Then remove the wallpaper backing slowly as you press it onto the board and use the squeegee tool that comes with the wallpaper to smooth it out as you go. 

2. Once the wallpaper is stuck down, align the next sheet of wallpaper up to the one you just secured and cut off any excess on the edges about 1” (2.5 cm) away from the board.

3. Fold over the excess on both edges onto the back side. You can also cut off the excess for a straighter edge.

4. Take one side of a Command Strip and place it on the left or right side of the board. Repeat with the other side, then attach the second side of the Command Strips to the first ones (Velcro them together).

5. Peel off the backing of the Command Strips and press the board firmly onto the wall. The strips makes it easy to take down when you want to change it up and they don’t damage your walls.

Now you’re ready for your calls! But wait, there’s more. You can easily remove the board and put another wallpaper design on the back of it if you’d like to change the pattern. Turn it over and have a different look!