Today we are lucky to have a guest post from Naomi Shaw on the differences between wallpaper and paint, and why you should know about them! Thanks Naomi!

New wallpaper and a fresh coat of paint are both excellent ways to make your walls look new and your décor shine. However, while they’ll both look great for a while, and they’ll both serve your décor if chosen properly, making the decision between wallpaper and paint isn’t always as easy as it seems.

Use these tips to help you decide what’s best for your home and your walls.

What’s the Weather Like?

The weather doesn’t have anything to do with what you choose to put in your home or on your walls, right? After all, you have air conditioning and you use the heater in your winter to keep your home comfortable and toasty.

The truth is that the weather in your area and around your home really does make a difference when it comes to whether you should choose paint or wallpaper.

In areas where you have high humidity, wallpaper is likely to start peeling before you’re ready to replace it. So if you have a home in Florida where it is very humid, it is something you need to take into consideration, as it could start to pull away from the walls and turn into a costly repair job.

Paint isn’t as likely to be affected by weather as wallpaper, so in areas where humidity is very high, it’s generally a better choice. If you want texture, choose faux-finish or specialty paint.

Consider Your Walls

The material used to make your walls isn’t something you’ve likely considered too much unless you built your home. However, not all homes use the standard drywall that you see in most houses.

If you live in an older home, there’s a good chance you have plaster walls. While plaster is great for keeping your home a pleasant temperature and blocking sound, it doesn’t always hold up to wallpaper chemicals and the damage it can go through when the wallpaper needs to be stripped.

Image via Locati Architects

If you’re going to put wallpaper up on your plaster walls, make sure they’re strong and you don’t use abrasive adhesive. Otherwise, sticking with paint is your best bet.

Selling Soon?

Perhaps you just bought your home and you’re planning to stay put for as long as you can imagine. If that’s the case, choosing wallpaper or paint doesn’t have much to do with what potential buyers might want.

If you’re considering putting your home on the market soon, however, you may want to reconsider wallpaper, as many buyers are concerned with mold buildup since wallpaper doesn’t “breathe” quite like paint. This is especially true if you live in a humid area.

Paint is also the more common choice among home buyers, so you’ll want to keep that in mind. Wallpaper might even negatively affect your ability to sell your home as quickly as you want to.

Deciding what’s right for your home, wallpaper or paint, is a personal decision, and it’s one you’ll have to live with. However, taking the factors presented above into consideration is important.

If you don’t make the right decision, you can always go the other way later on, but it could be a real inconvenience and expense that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Naomi Shaw is a freelance writer who resides in Southern California. She loves to write about home decor and home renovation. In her free time she likes to find new DIY crafts and hang out with her 3 children and husband.