Wrapping cardboard boxes with wallpaper

The most common way I use to “disguise” used cardboard boxes for reuse is using wallpaper and wallpaper glue, this is because after the renovation of my house I had several scraps of wallpaper and I decided to try lining a box to see what would be the result and I really liked it.

As the wallpaper is thick, and in many cases washable, this makes it a good material for lining the boxes, the thickness of the paper makes it resistant so it does not tear easily when it is being applied, and even allows it to come off and be reapplied in case we make a mistake.

This is the first post about this subject, it’s like an introduction about it, in future posts I’ll show you how to turn a shoebox into a decorative box for storage and how to make a storage box with a specific size. Remember the storage shelf from a few weeks ago? Well it is now full off storage boxes, and you can guess what they are made off. Stay tuned to see the end result.

  

About the boxes

Any cardboard box can be wallpapered, but the end result will vary depending on the quality of the cardboard. I've had better results with boxes that have a finish, whether it's a simple white paper cover or a kind of smooth film on top.

If the cardboard that makes up the box is very thin, the glue will soften it and may deform the box, in this case it is advisable to push the sides that opened while the box is drying.

About the wallpaper

I've already tried this technique with several wallpapers and I discovered that embossed papers are not the best for lining boxes, this type of paper sometimes has designs with various materials in its composition, which makes the glue's absorption capacity different depending on the area of ​​the design, this affects the flexibility of the paper when it is folded and also causes some areas to be stretched more than others when folding the paper, which then affects the design. Here is an example of this, there are several area with bubbles, all in the grey metallic strip.

 

So far I've only used leftover paper I had at home so I've never considered the pattern on the paper, but for someone who is thinking of buying paper to do this, the choice of pattern can also be important. This is because a random pattern has less waste and is much easier to work with than, for example, a geometric pattern. To match de design there is usually wasted paper (up to 80 cm depending on the patern) and you have to take care to match the designs when applying the paper in the seam area to ensure that the designs match. Like in this photo, this is a large box, so to match the design in all sides I had to discard quite a bit of paper, and although I tried to align it, the paper retracted a litle bit and you can see the line of the union.

 

About the glue

I use wallpaper glue and although the packaging is usually meant to be diluted in a large amount of water, I did the calculations to be able to make smaller amounts. The 300 g glue pack is to be diluted in 5.5 liters of water, that is, for 100 ml of water I will use 5.5 g of glue.

For an average box, I spend between 50 and 100 ml of glue, so I know more or less how much I will need depending on the number of boxes I'm going to line. When I have leftover glue and I'm going to use it again soon I keep it in a closed glass jar, in winter it lasts for several weeks like this, but in the summer with the heat it melts and it doesn't stick anymore.

This way of lining the boxes can be used with other types of paper, wrapping paper does not work very well because it is very thin, it tears easily and does not dry evenly leaving bubbles, especially if used with glue with high humidity (like wallpaper glue). I've never tried with spray glue so maybe it is an alternative that allows to use wrapping paper. Anyway, it's always good to do a test before starting. That's what I did and I’ll show you in this short video, I did several tests using the same wallpaper but with different glues and applying it to different types of cardboard and you can see a difference from one to the other.

 

 

The first set of samples in the video is wrapping paper, and because it is so thin you can see the corrugation of the cardboard, the first sample isn't even that bad, in the second you can already see some wrinkles and in the last one you can see a lot, it's the result of the combination of the low thickness of the paper and the humidity of the glue. This card wasn't the best either, at first glance it was good because it was thick but it was rough to the touch and the outer layer was not very thick so you could easily see the corrugation of the card.

The second set is wallpaper applied to the same card and the result is already much better, the corrugation of the card is no longer noticeable, regarding the glue the result of the wallpaper glue and the white glue is very similar, the sample with paper glue has some air bubbles.

The last set of samples is wallpaper applied on thin cardboard that has a protective cover on top (like cereal boxes) this makes it more resistant to the moisture of the glue and also gives a smoother finish in the application of the paper, this can be seen in all the samples, they are the ones that show the best results, even the one done with paper glue is reasonable.

Hope this is helpful and you decide to try it out.