How to Wallpaper Your Stairs

If you're looking for a fun and easy peel and stick wallpaper project that you can do in one weekend (and still have a weekend!) look no further than wallpapering your stairs.

This is a super-fast project that's easy enough for the most DIY challenged individual (we say that with love...because that's some of us at MUSE!). We have two ways to approach the project depending on your budget and your available time. But before we get into that let's check out some real-life stair projects from some of our customers.

Here our Sevilla wallpaper looks gorgeous against the walnut wood steps. Review pic from Stephanie.

One of our partner interior designers, Becky, having just completed her own custom stair riser project at home. We reduced the scale of this design by 50% to show more of the pattern in each stair section.

We love the fun pattern contrast here with the Pineapple Botanical wallpaper and coordinating stripes. Photo courtesy of @pointbreakcottages on Instagram.

How to Order Wallpaper for Stairs

The first step is to measure the width and height your stair rises (the vertical section you don't step on). Sometimes the measurements will be different for different stairs, so be sure to measure at least a few rise sections to be sure of the dimensions. 

With your dimensions in hand, we can give you two options to wallpaper your stairs:

Option A is the fast and foolproof method — we'd cut cut each rise piece for you. This is by far the easiest way to go, as you only have to do some detailed trimming once the panels are all applied. Depending on the number of stairs you have this could take just 1.5 hours or less to complete, with no mess, no measuring, and no stress.

Option B is the more economical option, and also easy to do — we send you multiple 27" high x ~40" wide panels and you cut the pieces out yourself. Exact panel size will depend on the size of your stairs. You can typically cut three stair sections per wallpaper panel. 

We can also reduce the pattern scale by 50% so more of the pattern is visible within each star rise, like we did for Becky's project above. Send us the details (pattern choice, number of stairs, and width/height dimensions of the stair rises) and we'll give you a quote for both options A an B, as well as our recommendations for any scaling changes. 

Our Adaline Black Floral wallpaper looking lovely. Image via Tina Stinson Photography.

This project was a HUGE transformation....from scuffed and dirty wood to THIS. Wallpaper is our City Dweller wallpaper in a 50% reduced scale.

How to Apply Wallpaper on Your Stairs

This is perhaps the easiest part of all! If you chose Option 1 and have the pre-cut pieces, just peel off a few inches of the paper backing and start sticking it to your stair rise, starting at the top and working your way down, peeling off more paper backing as your go. Super easy. You'll want to use a little care in placing the panel level at top. A crooked start makes for a crooked finish! If an air bubble appears, gently peel up the panel until the air is released, then smooth it back down. 

If you're cutting the pieces yourself, it's nice to make a template out of cardboard so you don't have to re-measure every single time. Make the template slightly larger than the area you want to cover. (You can trim any excess material after the wallpaper piece is applied to the stair.) A template works well if all of your stair rises are the same size. Remember, measure three times and cut once!

To cut out the pieces, we suggest placing two layers of cardboard on a tabletop or floor, and using a straight edge (metal ruler works great!) with a sharp X-acto blade to do the cutting. That will give you a super straight finish. You can also carefully cut with scissors. Once your pieces are cut, simply place them on the stair the same way described above for the Option 1 application. 

How Do I Get Started?

Just contact us, providing your selected design, stair rise dimensions, and number of stairs. We'll get back to you with a quote for both pre-cut pieces and DIY cutting so you can compare the price. This is an easy and budget-friendly project perfect that makes a big style statement. So what are you waiting for?