DIY wallpaper glue made from flour. How to make wallpaper glue yourself, with your own hands

At home, you can make glue from ordinary flour that is in no way inferior in quality to that made in an industrial environment. It can be used not only for crafts, but also for gluing paper wallpaper.

Advantages and disadvantages of flour paste

Flour paste is intended only for gluing light materials. Moreover, the quality is in no way inferior to store-bought adhesives. Plus, if, to increase the shelf life of such compounds, manufacturers add substances that are not very beneficial for human health chemical substances, then home-made paste is absolutely safe. It does not cause allergies, is easily washed off the skin with water even without soap, and your hands do not crack or peel after using it.

Properly welded paste can also be used for wallpapering. True, it can only be used to glue light canvases onto paper based. Since such compositions are easily soluble in water, old wallpaper will be easily removed from the wall - you just need to wet it with water and then remove it with a spatula.

Advice! Be sure to pay attention to the percentage of gluten in the flour. The higher it is, the better the quality of the glue. Perfect option– 25-28% gluten.

For the paste you will need flour with high content gluten free

Manufacturing instructions

So, we tell you in detail how to cook paste from flour:

For a couple of rolls of wallpaper you will need about a liter of water (add 5-6 tablespoons of flour to this amount of water); in consistency it should resemble a fairly thick jelly:

First, dilute the flour in a small amount of water;

Gradually add boiling water to the resulting mixture in a thin stream, stirring (it’s easier to do this with a whisk);

Place it in a water bath and cook for 5-7 minutes until it thickens;

Cool, strain to remove lumps if necessary;

To improve the adhesive properties, you can add PVA to the cooled glue;

The glue is ready to go.

Despite the fact that it is not difficult to cook such glue, there are some subtleties in its manufacture:

It can be made not only from flour, but also from starch;

To prevent lumps from forming in it, it is better to sift the flour through a sieve;

It is poured in gradually, otherwise it will immediately seize into a large lump;

If the glue turns out liquid, it doesn’t matter; put it back in the water bath and boil it a little again;

Paste cooked at home does not last long, so it is not prepared for future use; It is better to store the remains of unused glue in the refrigerator for no more than 1-2 days.

You can’t do without binding components either in children’s creativity or in construction, and their role is usually played by glue, but it is not suitable for all actions. For example, when wallpapering a room or working with papier-mâché, it is much wiser to use paste. At home, it can be prepared in a few minutes; even a child can master the technology, and it doesn’t matter which recipe to study.

The simplest paste recipe is made from flour. This is what children are taught to cook in labor education classes, and it is considered a safe and easy-to-use means for holding light materials together: for paper, for leaves, for seeds - flour paste is suitable for absolutely everything. It is used not only when creating any crafts, but also when sealing cracks in old wooden windows.

To cook flour paste at home, you only need a sufficient amount of water and the flour itself. In most cases, they use wheat as the most affordable and available in every home, but professionals advise using coarsely ground rye to enhance the binding effect. True, a paste based on rye flour will have a dark tint and may be noticeable when working with light materials.

To cook the paste, you need an enamel bowl, pan or even a bucket (depending on the volume you need). Cold water is poured into the container, and as soon as it boils, flour is introduced into it in a thin stream. As soon as the grains of flour touch the water, you need to start stirring the liquid, otherwise the flour will simply accumulate on the surface and then settle into a dense lump. Despite the fact that paste is a “fighter of the invisible front”, and his appearance does not catch the eye, the consistency should be made as homogeneous as possible. Therefore, pour in the flour very carefully and stir the mixture continuously.

The amount of flour is rarely calculated in advance: it is added by eye until the mass begins to resemble batter. When it cools, it will thicken, so it’s better not to add flour rather than to overdo it: then you’ll have to heat the paste again, add warm (!) water, and lightly boil it again. The approximate ratio of flour and water for paste is 1:3 or 1:4. It also varies depending on the orientation of the product: if you want to treat wallpaper with paste in order to place it on the wall, a ratio of 1:2.5 is possible (for vinyl wallpaper), and 1:3 (for thin ones).

It is worth noting that if you are preparing a paste for paper wallpaper, before it begins to cool, it is recommended to add a little ordinary wood glue (for dark wallpaper) or PVA glue (for light wallpaper) into the finished mass. It is advisable to carry out the cooking itself after boiling the paste in a water bath to reduce the likelihood of bubbles appearing on the surface of the composition.

Homemade starch paste

A paste cooked not with flour, but with starch, has both undeniable advantages and some disadvantages. The latter are unpleasant smell from the finished product, which appears after 5-6 hours, so the starch paste is cooked in a very small portion and for immediate use. But its advantages depend on the chosen starch: corn starch is recognized as the best, since the mass turns out to be the most pleasant in consistency, the paste quickly saturates the material, dries no less quickly, and fixes perfectly. Rice and potato starch performed slightly worse. And any starch allows you to make the fact of using the paste unnoticed, since the liquid will not leave stains.

PVA glue is sometimes added to the starch paste, all with the same purpose of enhancing the fixation of parts, as well as changing the shade of the finished product - the paste will become almost completely transparent. This happens as follows:

1 part of flour is poured into a small container, after which 1 part of hot water (boiling water) is carefully poured into it. You should immediately start whisking the mixture while you pour in the water.
At the same time, water in the amount of 3 parts is brought to a boil on the stove. As soon as the water boils and all the starch lumps have dispersed in a small bowl, the contents of the latter are poured into boiling water and the mixture is carefully whisked.
Immediately after this, the container is removed from the stove, the paste continues to be mixed, giving it homogeneity. Once it cools down to room temperature, PVA glue is introduced into it. The amount of glue per 1 liter of paste is approximately 100 ml.

In some cases, starch is calcined on a baking sheet in the oven before cooking it so that its lumps darken until Brown. Then it is ground and passed through a sieve, and after that it is mixed with water. Occasionally 1-2 tbsp is added to the starch. sugar to enhance adhesiveness.

Professionals advise cooking the paste in a small volume, since it is unlikely to stay in the refrigerator for more than a day. Suitable for storage only glass containers or plastic, which must have a lid. And the greatest efficiency from using the paste can be obtained if you use it when the mass has a temperature of 40 degrees.

To wallpaper walls, you definitely need glue. IN construction stores There is a wide variety of them, but the cost of quality ones is quite high. It is quite possible to save on glue, because many people cook the composition with their own hands at home. It is best to find out how to make a paste - it is what perfectly attaches wallpaper and connects some other products.

Application, advantages and disadvantages of paste

Paste is understood as an adhesive composition that should be cooked on the basis of starch, flour with the addition of water. All components are available, cheap, and natural. They are not harmful to children and adults, and do not pose a danger to allergy sufferers - even after tasting the glue, the baby will not be poisoned. The paste is suitable not only for wallpaper, it is also widely used for crafts:

papier mache;
piñatas (a type of papier-mâché);
cotton toy;
children's applications;
other work with paper, cotton wool, natural materials;
scrapbooking;
decoupage;
products made of threads, fabrics;
artificial flowers.

Librarians use paste to glue book bindings together. In gardening, strips of paper are smeared with it, sprinkled with seeds, and then placed in the ground. IN repair work The product is used for sealing windows and sealing cracks in wood. If you dilute the thick glue with water, it makes an excellent primer. As for wallpaper, the solution will perfectly hold even the heaviest coating.

What are the other advantages of gelatinization? Here are the benefits of using homemade glue:

suitability for different surfaces in the house, even painted, impregnated with drying oil;
no marks on the wallpaper when correct technique application;
easy removal of glue stains if used carelessly;
quick setting and quick drying of canvases on walls;
long service life - no less than that of store-bought adhesives;
Easy removal of wallpaper if you need to replace it - you just need to spray the wall with water.

The product has few disadvantages. We can only call it unstable to water, although the addition of some components corrects this problem. Also, thanks to the edible composition, insect pests can settle in the glue, but proper storage eliminates the trouble.

Types of pastes and recipes

The glue should be made on the day of use - this way the quality of the mixture will be perfect. Nevertheless, it is permissible to store the product, but not for long, otherwise its properties are lost. The density of the material can be adjusted independently; the recipe is based on loose proportions. If you add flour or starch powder, the paste will become thicker; adding water will make the product more liquid. Use only a completely cooled solution; the film is first removed from its surface. Below are the basic paste recipes.

From flour

The easiest way to make such glue is from flour, because everyone has it at home. There are many options for how to prepare a paste, but in any case the base will be flour and water. Here is the basic recipe for wallpaper without cooking:

take a sieve and sift the flour thoroughly to eliminate the presence of lumps;
measure 250 g (glass) of flour, liter of water;
add hot water, previously brought to a boil, to the wheat flour in small portions;
the consistency of the finished product resembles liquid sour cream;
If the solution is too thick, you can add more hot water; dilute it carefully so as not to make it watery.

Typically, this glue is used for thin paper wallpaper or light non-woven wallpaper. It is better to glue heavy material with a more reliable means. You need to make it the same way, but after cooling, add 0.5 cups of PVA. It is advisable to mix with a wooden spatula.

For heavy vinyl wallpaper, there are other ways to prepare paste:

Prepare 400 g of wheat flour, a liter of cold water. Place the mixture in a saucepan and cook in a water bath for some time until small bubbles appear. Remove the mixture from the heat and filter to remove any lumps. The finished mass is even, smooth, thicker, and more reliable. It is even suitable for gluing small ceramic tiles. Whitewashing with this product will help remove dirt and give it a beautiful glossy look.
Heat a liter of water, add 200 g of wheat flour (pre-dilute it with a small amount from the total volume). Remove from heat after boiling, cool, add 200 ml of 10% wood glue.
Cook the paste in the same way as the previous method, but take 350 g of flour, 20 ml of wood glue, and add 3 g of copper sulfate as an antiseptic additive.

What is liquid wood glue? The preparation formula is simple: buy dry powder in the store, add 140 g of dry glue per liter of water at a temperature of 50 degrees. Typically, wood glue is used to work with dark wallpaper, PVA - with light wallpaper.

For papier-mâché, you can prepare glue based on rye flour, which is more viscous. Pour a tablespoon of the product into the bottom of the pan, brew a glass of boiling water, mix well with a mixer. Add another glass of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Cooking lasts no more than 20-30 seconds. The composition is cooled and used for crafts within 48 hours.

Another recipe for papier-mâché, it allows you to cook a thicker composition:

pour a glass of sifted flour with the same amount of cold water;
stir until smooth;
add half a teaspoon of salt;
Boil 2 cups of water separately, pour in glue;
cook for 5 minutes, cool.

For fabric crafts, additional components are used - sugar, vanillin. Prepare them in the following proportions: 2 glasses of cold water, 2 tablespoons of flour, a teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of vanillin. Combine the dry substances and a little water, beat, pour boiling water (the rest of the portion), cook for 2 minutes until thick. To make the strongest paste, the recipe is as follows:

Pour 5 g of gelatin into 200 ml of water and leave for 24 hours;
pour 850 ml of water into a saucepan, place in a water bath, add gelatin;
Dilute 150 g of flour with 150 ml of water, remove lumps;
pour into the general solution, let it boil, cook until smooth;
after cooling, add 20 ml of alcohol, 4 ml of glycerin.

This product will make the crafts very durable, they will serve long term.

From starch

Properly making glue from potato starch is not difficult at all. It is used when complete transparency is required, for example, when gluing light, thin wallpaper. The strength of the adhesive layer is lower than that of flour paste; it makes no sense to starch thick, heavy wallpaper.

The recipe for preparing the product is as follows:

dilute in hot water starch 10:1;
stir so that there are no lumps, the composition should become like sour cream;
the thick solution can be diluted with boiling water.

To improve the quality of gluing, add a little PVA to the cooled product. For dark wallpaper, wood glue is suitable; the composition will immediately darken.

Dextrin glue

Dextrin is understood as an ordinary paste based on starch from potatoes and corn. It is ideal for gluing paper and fabric wallpaper. In order for the starch polysaccharide dextrin to fully exhibit its properties, it is calcined on a baking sheet in the oven before adding it to the solution. “Baking” is carried out at maximum temperature until the starch turns brown. Then it is cooled, ground to a powder, diluted with water (100 g of powder per 250 ml of water), and 30 g of sugar is added.

Paste storage

Any solution is stored in the refrigerator under a tight lid. But if mold appears, it's time to throw it away. This glue can be harmful to health. It’s easier to cook fresh in small portions, then you won’t need to store it.

Many still remember the times when their parents made their own paste in their kitchen at home for various household needs.

Pasting walls

In what cases do professionals use paste?

Currently, employees of children's institutions, workers of cultural centers, theaters and libraries, as well as landscape designers and agronomists know how to cook paste from flour.

Librarians sometimes use this glue in bookbinding.

Gardeners and gardeners use natural glue when planting very small seeds. A strip of paper is moistened with paste, seeds are poured onto it, dried and laid out on a garden bed or flowerbed in the intended order. Having verified the drawing, the paper with the seeds is covered with earth.

Educators and school teachers often use natural and harmless paste for children's creativity in classes aimed at developing fine motor skills, spatial thinking and concentration in children. If a child accidentally licks the paste with his tongue or rubs his eyes with a dirty hand, no harm will happen, because the paste is made from flour and water.

When creating sets for theatrical productions, directors and artists widely use objects made using the papier-mâché technique. The essence of this technique is that craftsmen create light and durable objects from paste and paper. Since it is not difficult to make a paste from flour, and the paper necessary for papier-mâché is an easily accessible material, anyone can learn this art.

Technological process for making paste

Papier-mâché requires the ability to make a paste from flour. The recipe for making it is similar to how regular jelly is cooked:

The sifted flour is poured with cool water and stirred thoroughly. This must be done in metal utensils, since then it will have to be put on fire;

Boil water separately;

Pour boiling water into the flour mixture while constantly stirring and bring to a boil on the stove;

After the mixture boils, remove it from the heat and cool under the lid so that a film does not form on top;

If you cannot avoid the formation of lumps and film, then simply strain the paste through a sieve or gauze.

The paste can be used warm. As soon as you decide on the amount of work ahead, brew and test the resulting flour paste. Check the recipe and write it down in a memo so that you always cook the amount of glue that you will use in one to three days. This way you can avoid unnecessary consumption of flour, and also plan your time correctly.

How to choose the right recipe

If you have planned work for several days, then do not make a large supply of glue for a long time, as it is a perishable product. The proportion of ingredients must be verified for each individual case. Natural paste made from flour does not have a recipe as such. It all depends on the gluten content of the flour. In addition, over time the paste changes thickness. However, it can be diluted with water to the required consistency. To begin with, calculate this: for one liter of water - two tablespoons of flour. In old books on home economics, in the section “how to cook paste from flour”, weight units are not given precisely because of the difference in adhesive and other features different types flour. If the paste is made from potato or corn flour, that is, starch, then it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to seven days. Potato paste is always thicker than corn paste. Positive quality starch paste - it does not leave stains. A product made from wheat or rye flour spoils faster, but it is more sticky than starch flour. Each master makes his own unique flour paste; the recipe is always refined and tailored to each work individually.

Papier-mâché using the technique of sheet layers, or mashing

Using this technique, you can create a variety of utensils, ethnic and carnival masks, boxes, toys, jewelry, sculptures, and so on.

You will need paper - this could be old newspapers, magazines, notebooks, napkins or thin wrapping paper. The thinner the paper, the smoother it is smoothed out, but then you will have to make more layers. Next, a base is taken, which is initially covered with paper soaked in ordinary clean water. The next layer is glued onto this layer, but already soaked in paste. There should be at least five such layers, sometimes up to a hundred are glued. It all depends on the thickness of the paper and how thick and strong you want the thing to be. Only the outer surface of the layout is covered with paper. When all layers are properly dry and hardened, they need to be cut through with a blade or cutter. Since the first layer was glued using clean water, then it will easily come off the workpiece along with the layers of paper coated with paste glued to it. The removed halves need to be folded together and connected at the junction with a strip of paper smeared with paste. Then you can apply a few more layers if you want the craft to become thicker and the connection of the parts to be stronger. When applying sheets, they must be carefully smoothed with a sponge or soft cloth so that the product is as smooth as possible. Make the last layer of white or other beautiful decorative paper. When all the layers are glued and dry, you can start painting, decorating decorations and other elements. The finished item is varnished.

Paper papier-mâché as a mass for sculptural works

For those who have figured out how to make paste from flour, you can try to master another version of the papier-mâché technique. The paste is mixed with cellulose and turns into a thick mass reminiscent of clay, plasticine or dough. For this, it is very good to use soft paper, such as toilet paper or napkins. The paper is crushed and mixed with paste. In some cases, it is required that the glue be more elastic, then glycerin is added to it. After the paper swells, you can sculpt figures from it. Products made from papier-mâché take quite a long time to dry, since to avoid deformation they should be dried in a warm place away from heating equipment. Long drying time is the only disadvantage of this craft. The resulting irregularities can be easily sanded sandpaper. Dried and polished crafts are painted, decorated, and then varnished.

Papier-mâché made from cotton wool

Very interesting crafts can be made from cotton balls and disks soaked in paste. It can be voluminous jewelry for photo frames, albums, boxes, flower pots and many many others. Decoration made from cellulose and paste is characterized by lightness and strength of articulation. This is its advantageous difference from clay or other inflexible and heavy weight ones.

Good afternoon dear friends!

Today I have an unusual topic, I want to tell you how to make wallpaper glue. I recently completed renovations at home. When the turn came to the kitchen, the store-bought glue ran out, and there was no point in buying a new pack, since the area covered with wallpaper in the kitchen was very small and little glue was needed.

So I decided to make wallpaper glue from flour and starch myself.

Making wallpaper glue at home is very simple. People have been doing it since ancient times.

I learned how to make glue from my mother, and from her I passed on my love for wallpapering. I enjoy this activity just like knitting. Moreover, I always glue wallpaper alone.

In the old days, we always made our own glue. And one day I decided to use glue bought in a store. I remember that there was a fashion then for marble wallpaper, which was not pasted in a whole strip, but in pieces the size of a printed sheet of paper.

I covered an entire wall in the kitchen, and at night... I heard a terrible crash: all my wallpaper had fallen off entirely! It was such a pity for the labor invested.

Since then, I stopped trusting store-bought glue. And that time I made the wallpaper glue myself and my marble wallpaper lasted safely until the next repair.

Now, of course, we have learned how to make good industrial glue. And there is a considerable assortment of them on sale. But in some cases, like mine, you can make wallpaper glue yourself at home.

To do this, you only need water, flour and starch, we have all this at home.

Advantages of glue made from flour and starch

Glue made from flour and starch is environmentally friendly; it is made only from natural products. By the way, antifungal components, various antibacterial additives and other chemicals are often added to modern factory glue. And after the renovation, we breathe all this. It’s worth thinking about which glue is best to use.
Glue made from flour is economical, since its components are not expensive, and you don’t have to buy them specially, and the consumption is very small.
The glue is suitable for all types of paper wallpaper.
It adheres well to any surface, even painted or coated with drying oil.
Does not cause thin paper to become wet or damage wallpaper.
Does not have an unpleasant odor.
Does not leave behind stains.

The glue doesn’t last long, but we don’t need it. You can keep it in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, then it may turn sour.

How to make wallpaper glue

I looked at what they write on the Internet about this, and I want to note that I don’t agree with much of it. Some sources claim that glue can only be used when warm. It is not true. They often write some completely unrealistic proportions of flour and water.

I'll tell you my recipe, proven over the years.

Wallpaper glue can, in principle, be made only from flour or only from starch. But I use both of these ingredients. Although flour has good adhesive properties, starch complements them and makes the glue better and more reliable.

There is no need to cook the glue for a long time! You just need to brew it, as when preparing jelly.

For a three-liter pan of water you need to take one full (but without a large heap) glass of flour and two tablespoons of starch (also full with a small heap). Any flour will do, the type doesn’t matter.

The proportion is not for three liters of water, but for a 3-liter pan, since it needs to be filled with water not to the top, but to leave room for the mixture of flour and starch.

Place a pan of water on the fire.

Pour flour and starch into a bowl.

When the water starts to boil, pour a little into the bowl with flour and starch cold water(not from the refrigerator, but simply from the tap) and stir thoroughly to obtain a homogeneous liquid mass without lumps.

Pour the resulting mixture in a thin stream into boiling water, stirring continuously, and literally after a minute turn off the heat.

Once the wallpaper paste has cooled, I strain it through a colander, getting rid of any lumps that form during the cooking process.