I originally ordered this and the other white and grey brick as samples, but this one was far better for our needs. The light actually picks up the texture of the paper and gives it more depth than the other white and grey brick paper available. This one is much brighter than the other paper as well, and I knew I liked it much better the moment I stuck it to the wall. If you do order samples, I do suggest you move them around to different spots of the walls to get an idea of what it'll look like in different times of the day in different light. I needed ten rolls of paper and wanted to get it right.
I knew that this was going to look good, but I was not prepared for how stunning it turned out. It's gorgeous. SO very gorgeous.
When I was younger, I used to help my mom with traditional wallpaper (wallpops paper itself still smells the same and is the same thickness for anyone familiar with old wallpaper), and I was good at "booking" to make the glue stick and then helping to line up seams and working out bubbles. But that was messy and took much more time than this.
I was able to walk my husband and son through how to line up seams. My biggest fear was this was going to be like the super sticky kind of contact paper that ends up sticking to itself and making a useless piece of paper when it happens but that is NOT the case. Even if it does stick to itself, it doesn't tear apart when you pull it off itself. Working out bubbles isn't hard. If you're working in a well-lit area, you'll spot them right away, v. in shadows, where you can't see them until someone else points them out or you move the lights. If you've got significant wrinkles or bubbles, just pull the paper up from the bottom and smooth it back down the wall again.
This pattern has a repeat of eight bricks. There is only one area where it's kind of noticeable, and it's the brick that looks like it has a letter "k" grouted into the upper left corner of the brick. That is really the only reason you can actually SPOT the repeat. If the pattern didn't have that, I'd love it even more, but I love it all the same. There is one brick in the pattern where the grout doesn't line up the way you want it to until you remind yourself that grout isn't supposed to be perfect anyway. It's the overall look that you're going for, and you have to remind yourself. My mother actually thought we installed a brick wall and was shocked when I told her no, it's wallpaper. Be prepared for people to go up and touch the wall. They're not going to believe that it's not real brick, and then they're not going to believe that it's paper.
HELPFUL HINT: If you bought an old house and are using this, keep this in mind: sometimes, walls aren't even. My house was built in 1973. That might mean, that you, like us, may find that a horizontal pattern drives you nuts as you realize your walls are not even. Trust me: you can still use this paper and it will still be okay. We knew we were going to run into this problem and decided NOT to line up a grout line against the ceiling. We cut the top of the paper in the middle of a brick instead to align at the ceiling. It allows for a little more forgiveness if you should run into that situation and the top brick no longer "lines up" at the top- and you discover the paper is either "running uphill or downhill." If you use the top of a grout line at the ceiling, it won't be noticeable up there, but it WILL be in the middle of the wall, and that's what you want to line up. So cut the top to where the brick doesn't start at the grout line. I promise, it doesn't look stupid that way!
Also, if you remove the paper and press down the right side as you go, the backing comes off easily and the side *generally* aligns fairly easily. We learned that probably four sheets down a long wall that we papered that extends from our living room, through our dining room, and over the cabinets as that wall extends into kitchen.
If you have any areas of your walls that are textured from bad corners (we had one really rough corner), this went around it perfectly.
I have another paper I ordered (the tailored metallic one that looks like it has rivets in it) when I ordered the brick and that's going up in the lower half of my master bath and I'm now looking at the backsplashes that are available because I think this is the way to go. I originally thought I'd put the brick up as the backsplash, too, but have you seen the backsplashes? They're actually shiny, like real tile, and can handle being splashed. I'm excited to see the three I like in person.
This is probably the easiest renovation we have ever done and yet it looks like we spent a fortune and worked our butts off to get this look. And we're renovation pros!
