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- Bubble Wrap Was Originally Invented as... Wallpaper?!
Bubble Wrap Was Originally Invented as... Wallpaper?!
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Pop.
Pop.
Pop.
It’s the universal sound of fun — and a strangely satisfying way to spend five minutes while opening a package.
But did you know that bubble wrap, the stuff we use to protect mail and drive our pets crazy… was originally designed to be wallpaper?
Yup. That bubbly plastic we can’t stop popping wasn’t made for boxes.
It was meant to decorate walls.
Let’s unwrap the weird truth.
🛋️ The Year: 1957
Two inventors, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, were trying to create textured, futuristic-looking wallpaper.
Their idea?
Seal two shower curtains together with air bubbles in between.
Make it bumpy, modern, and “space age” — like art you could touch.
Sounds... creative, right?
They hoped it would become the next big trend in home design.
Spoiler: it didn’t.
🧽 The Problem: No One Wanted Foamy Walls
It turns out people didn’t want their walls to feel like plastic bubble suits.
It looked strange.
It collected dust.
It was a little too weird, even for the 1950s.
So… the wallpaper idea popped.
But instead of giving up, the inventors looked for a new use.
📦 The Discovery: Packaging Gold
In 1960, Fielding and Chavannes founded a company called Sealed Air.
And that’s when a lightbulb went off:
What if this “bubble wallpaper” could be used to protect fragile items during shipping?
They tested it — and it worked brilliantly.
The air pockets absorbed shocks, kept things from breaking, and made packaging way more fun.
One of their first big customers? IBM, to ship delicate computers.
From there, bubble wrap became a packaging superstar.
🧠 Bonus Weirdness
There’s an actual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day (the last Monday in January)
In 2015, a new kind of bubble wrap was invented… that can’t be popped. (Yes, people were upset.)
Some people find popping bubble wrap so relaxing, it’s used as a stress-relief therapy
🎯 What We Can Learn
Great inventions don’t always start in the right place
Failing at one thing can lead to accidentally inventing something better
There’s no such thing as a useless idea — just an unused one
So next time you pop a bubble or toss aside packing material, remember:
You’re holding a tiny piece of wall art… that found a better job.
And sometimes, failure makes the best packaging.