Why you should think again about wallpaper

Here are five reasons to consider wallpaper:

1. Wallpaper does faux paint better than faux paint. What takes four layers of colors, a box of stencils and sponges, and multiple days to achieve with paint often can be produced in less time with the right wallpaper.

Now wallpapers are attempting the same looks that elevated paint to its recent popularity: Faux animal skin, faux leather, sueded colors and pebbly textures are all available in wallpaper.

Real leather or textured fabrics and woven fibers can be applied, and wallpapers at the more costly end of the spectrum sometimes have hand-stenciled patterns applied to them, just as a paint treatment would.

Why meticulously measure and tape off lines to paint when there's a wallpaper design with just the thick stripes you want? Why mess with a plaster treatment when a textured paper will cover up imperfect walls just as well, and with far less labor?

2. The application is easier. Styles have gotten simpler with paper. Borders aren't as popular as they once were, and neither is mixing and matching papers. That certainly makes application easier.

New types of paper and application processes also are improving the situation for those who want a single paper on their walls.

Papers are also available that can be applied and removed without paste. The products are marketed to apartment dwellers seeking a look that can transform a room but still be temporary.

3. Down in a flash. Almost. Natural-fiber papers applied to a pasted wall are still going to try your patience when it's time for a change.

Otherwise, wallpaper has gotten simpler to change.

Peel-off wallpaper allows you to change the room on the slightest whim. A strippable wallpaper, where a top vinyl coating peels off, leaving a paper backing that can be stripped easily with water, allows you to change the room if you're willing to invest a few hours.

New removal products can help your struggle with papers that don't bend so easily to your design moods.

Many products are now available to get paper off your walls. Among the more innovative are the Wallwik cloths, which hold moisture to the walls longer than a solution that's simply been sprayed or sponged on. After the cloths sit on the wall for about 15 minutes, the glue releases, and the paper peels off.

4. Texture. Nubby, woven and natural papers are bringing back the textured look on walls that was huge 30 years ago.

Grasscloth papers still are better left to a professional than an inexperienced do-it-yourselfer. To apply grasscloth, paste is applied to the wall and the cloth is pressed onto the paste. Some of the fiber wallpapers can't come into contact with paste without risking stains.

Some papers are dramatically decorated with sand. These papers aren't easy to apply, either, but they add a rich texture to rooms.

5. As bold as you like it. Wallpaper is available in the same dramatic colors that homeowners have favored in recent years.

As for prints, everything from fanciful European papers to retro-modern hip prints to classic toiles is in.