Tufted "Wallpaper" in My Attic

I had the hardest time deciding on a title for this post.  The title I came up with should be a clue that this is not the normal wonderful decorating before and after.  My photos will NOT make it into a magazine.  No one is going to swoon over this one. This is a totally UN-glamorous makeover, but... it sure accomplished my goal without spending a dime.

My entire upstairs is made up of my loft (that's my craft room/office/sewing room/studio) and unfinished attic space.  I did not want an attic with pull down stairs.  When we built this house, I wanted an old fashioned, functional attic that was easy to get to and had plenty of storage space and that's what I got. I love my attic, but it has a ways to go before it's set up the way I envision it.

In the drawing above, the gray area is attic space.  The outside walls are insulated with fiberglass that has the paper backing.  The inside walls have the paper backing towards the sheet rock and exposed insulation towards my attic space.  The fiberglass will come loose if you brush up against it.  It's itchy and annoying and it definitely was interfering with my plans.  We thought about sheet rocking it or covering it with paneling, but we just don't want to spend the money. 

So... my thrifty solution was to "wallpaper" it with old sheets.  I stapled the sheets onto the studs.  It has sort of a tufted look.  It would have looked better if I had stuck to solid whites or creams, but hello, this is my attic.  I was given the sheets for free.  They are old, but in decent shape.  I just love giving cast-offs a new life.

I started in my fabric zone.  

You can see the exposed insulation on the right and the after look on the left.

Here's a shot after 4 sheets have been attached.  They don't match.  

It's not pretty, but I no longer have to worry about that annoying insulation.

By the way, ignore the mess. I will soon be hanging shelves.   

For now, I'm stacking things the best way I can.

I also attached a sheet around the corner in my book zone.

I'm out of spare sheets now, but I still need to cover the walls in the paint section.  I'll be watching for sheets at yard sales.  This time, I'll probably look just for solids - white or cream, I think.  But... I could get wild and look for bright tropical colors - aqua, hot pink, lime.  It is a paint area after all. I guess it all depends on what I find first on my next yard sale venture.

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