Peel and Stick Wallpaper Isn’t One Material

“Peel and stick” gets used like it describes one product. It doesn’t. It describes how the wallpaper is installed, not what it’s made from. There are at least three different materials sold under that name, and most people never find out which one they bought until it’s already on the wall.

Here’s what’s actually out there, and why we picked the one we did.

The three materials

Vinyl peel and stick wallpaper (soft PVC)

What most people picture when they hear “peel and stick wallpaper.” It’s a soft PVC film (available in different finishes), and by far the most common option on the market.

Because it’s a plastic film, it’s waterproof, durable and easy to wipe clean. It’s also the material most likely to have the characteristic “new vinyl” smell that many people associate with peel and stick wallpaper.

Polyester fabric peel and stick wallpaper

Often sold right alongside vinyl, sometimes simply labelled “fabric wallpaper,” but it’s a different material entirely made of polyester.

It’s more dimensionally stable than either paper or vinyl, so it won’t expand or shrink with changes in humidity the way paper can. It’s also strong, tear resistant and often repositionable during installation.

It’s still a plastic-based material, though—just woven into a fabric instead of formed into a film. It feels like fabric and usually has a beautiful matte finish.

Non-woven paper peel and stick wallpaper

This is what we use.

Our wallpaper is made from FSC-certified non-woven paper finished with a water-resistant clay coating and a water-based acrylic adhesive. The paper also contains a small amount of polyester fibres to reinforce it and improve tear resistance, but it’s not a plastic film and, most importantly, it contains no plasticizers.

Why we chose paper

Soft PVC needs plasticizers to stay flexible. That’s the main reason we ruled plastic film out from the start.

Paper doesn’t require them, so there’s none of the characteristic PVC smell. Our finished wallpaper is odour-free, VOC-free and uses a water-based acrylic adhesive.

You can install it on your wall the same afternoon it arrives and not think about it again.

It also behaves differently during installation. Plastic film can stretch if you’re not careful, which is part of the reason peel and stick wallpaper sometimes gets a reputation for being fiddly. Paper is more rigid. It holds its shape while you position it, making it easier to line up straight patterns like stripes, grids and checkerboards.

The honest trade-offs

Paper isn’t sealed plastic, so it expands and contracts slightly with changes in room humidity. The effect is usually small, but it’s there and that’s simply the trade-off for choosing a paper-based material instead of a plastic film.

It’s also not waterproof. The clay coating makes the surface water resistant, so a splash or a damp wipe is perfectly fine. That’s not the same thing as the sealed surface you get with vinyl, and we’d rather tell you that now than have you discover it somewhere that gets properly wet.

What “removable” actually means

We get asked this constantly.

Our adhesive removes cleanly from most walls with a little texture and several solid, fully cured coats of paint. We won’t promise it works on every wall, because that’s simply not a promise anyone can honestly make.

Over time, pressure-sensitive adhesives naturally become stronger as they settle. When it’s eventually time to remove the wallpaper, it becomes a tug of war between three things: the adhesive, the paint and the wall itself.

If the paint isn’t well bonded to the wall, the paint may come away first and if the paint has become brittle over the years, that can also become the weak point. The wallpaper works beautifully on most walls, we just can’t guarantee one we’ve never seen, and we’d rather tell you that now than make a promise we can’t back up in two years.

Which material should you choose?

Choose vinyl peel and stick wallpaper if maximum water resistance and durability are your highest priorities.

Choose polyester fabric wallpaper if dimensional stability is most important—for example in rooms with larger swings in humidity.

Choose non-woven paper wallpaper if you want something that looks and feels like traditional wallpaper, avoids plastic films and plasticizers, and you’re decorating a normal living space rather than somewhere exposed to constant water.

None of these materials is objectively “better.” They’re simply designed for different priorities.

Why we made this trade-off on purpose

We chose paper because the alternative was putting soft PVC on the walls of nurseries and kids’ rooms, and that simply never felt right to us.

A wallpaper that’s odour-free, VOC-free, FSC-certified and honest about its limitations is the only version of “easy” worth building a company around.

It won’t be right for every wall in every home but it’s the one we’d choose for ours.