fabric walls or ceiling

[crobar]

We just returned from Branson, one of theaters had clothe covering the walls. They made big squares (20ftx20ft?) gathered at the center. Anyone know how to do it? Is it cheap or expense? How about on the ceiling?

[CraftyDiva]

Don't know about the gathering, but I've seen people who have put up fabric on walls. It's like hanging wallpaper, only instead of wallpaper paste you use liquid starch. Soak the fabric in liquid starch, put on walls, smoothing any wrinkles with a wallpaper brush. Once it dries it's there, but to remove, just peel away a corner of the fabric and it comes right off. Fabric can be reused for other purposes (after washing of course) and the walls will wash clean from any starch residue.

You can also make padded walls with quilt batting and fabric (great soundproofing). Take 1x2's, wrap fabric and batting over the wood srtips and , pulling fabric away from the wall, nail the strips up. Cover the strips by leaving fabric fall over them, then do the same at the bottom of the wall. At the bottom you'll need to nail thru all, fabric, batting and wood strips. You can cover the nails with a wood or fabric trim, I guess you can do the same at the top as well, if you didn't want to play with all that fabric. You can get cotton sheeting up to 105" wide by the yard (colors are limited, but you can dye it if feeling up to the task). You could make tuffs with covered buttons as well, and nail those where you want them.


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[Fire-Man]

Originally Posted by crobar

We just returned from Branson, one of theaters had clothe covering the walls. They made big squares (20ftx20ft?) gathered at the center. Anyone know how to do it? Is it cheap or expense? How about on the ceiling?

The only customer I did it for was on the bedroom walls---------We used a 3/4 by 1 1/4 strip at the top of the wall, touching the ceiling also another strip at the baseboard---we screwed these strips to the wall using 2 inch drywall screws. Around the window and door was done the same way. If this was ever removed then only the screw holes would have to be repaired. After attaching the strips then we padded the wall with dacron about 3/4 thick--edge gluing all edges to the next piece. This dacron was attached to the ceiling strip with staples and was trimmed at the top edge of the strip at the baseboard. We then just attached/stapled Gathered material to the top strip----pulling snug and stapling to bottom strips. Then we used a matching Gimp/trim over the staples attaching it with a hot melt glue gun. This customer used a Gimp with little tassels hanging from it. It really looked good. It can be done without needing extra trim/gimp, but could be a little tougher. If you have questions about (This way) PM me and I will try to help. I owned and operated a reupholstery shop for about 25 years. Good Luck! Randy

[Beeman]

Sounds like you'd have to make it removeable for cleaning.

[giddy]

I've put fabric on a kitchen-dining room wall and on bathroom walls. Both rooms had paneling 4 foot up. I used fabric that was 44-45" wide, selvage edges were at the ceiling and along top of paneling, just got the length I needed going around the walls. I put this up probably 20 years ago, I believe my ex still has in up. I just pulled the fabric tight and stapled at the ceiling and at top of paneling, stapled in the corners, then used narrow trim on corners, top at ceiling and top of paneling. Very simple and actually it looked like wallpaper(it was floral). When you get tired of it, just take it down!

[Jenn]

I stapled it up, hiding the bottom stapled through edge under the floorboard (folded over from the ceiling). Never removed it- moved two years later. Quite happy during my time. Bathroom.

[clamjane]

I have seen them doing that more and more on some of the television decorating shows. It looks really good, but I was wondering if it is a fire hazard. Do you have to treat the fabric with anything or is that not really an issue. I was also wondering if you could cover foam panels with fabric and maybe gain a little extra insulation?

[lmnde]

Talking about soundproofing - we have a two story frame house - on a raised wood foundation - it is extremely loud and you can hear everything both from inside and outside. The kids voices echo enormously, if they drop something upstairs in their rooms, I can hear it downstairs in the opposite part of the house. We also have very different tastes in music - LOL - and even when played nice and quietly - everybody else has to listen [suffer] to it...

I am getting ready to renovate my teenagers rooms and have been wondering about soundproofing. Any ideas or suggestions anybody, short of going all the way to remove the sheetrock and add extra insulation etc? While the batting and fabric sounds like a great idea for my own bedroom, I don't think it will hold up or look very nice for a longer period of time in the kids rooms. Will carpet halfway up the wall help? I think that would also help keeping the walls look clean[er] longer...

I am open for suggestions. Thanks!

[beaglady]

I'm sure fire resistance, or lack of it, is an issue, especially if the fabric is gathered or padded. Commercial wallcoverings are required by code to have a UL listed flame spread rating. Fabric at the fabric store is usually labeled that it does not have a fire resistance rating.

[ET1 SS]

When covering a wall with fabric, you can leave holes in the walls for an inset little shelf and set a speaker in there, when you cover the wall with cloth, the sound will come through great, but you will never see the speaker.

I have done drop-ceilings with panels, and I alternated some of the panels for white terry-cloth and hung speakers above them. It worked great!

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by clamjane

I have seen them doing that more and more on some of the television decorating shows. It looks really good, but I was wondering if it is a fire hazard.

I think it would be a great hiding place for mice, much like dropped ceilings and such.

Lynda