10 Wallpapering Tips for a Job Well Done
When it comes to Home Decor, you might want to do something other than paint the walls. Maybe the kids have grown up and moved out and you’re ready to feather the nest in a way that doesn’t include cars on the walls or Barbie decals on your daughter’s bedroom.
Or if you’ve decided that wallpapering the rooms is a task that you’d like to take on, then getting the right advice from the experts is the best choice.
For example, did you know that an oscillating tool could strip paint from the walls quickly? Instead of spending hours in each room with a scraper getting rid of old paint, you can use the right tools to strip the walls down ready for you to wallpaper.
Knowing how to remove the wallpaper gives you that blank canvas that you need for a remodel of the room with your own tastes that are bold and beautiful in mind. Let’s take a look at 10 wallpapering tips that will help you to get that professional finish for a job well done.
1. Try out the wallpaper before you buy it. Did you know you could do this? You don’t have to rely on digital imagery when it comes to choosing the pattern and colour choice for your wallpaper. In different lighting, colours can look different, so you need to be able to source some wallpaper samples before you invest.
You can use Blu Tack or Easy Sellotape to stick them to the walls that you’re planning to wallpaper. You can then look at them over a few days to make sure that you’re not going to get sick of the pattern and see what it looks like in natural light and light from the ceiling.
2. Be practical. It’s very tempting to strip the paint of every single room in the house, but it might be a good idea to go one room at a time and paper carefully. You might choose Wallpapers based on their pattern or color, but you also need to factor in whether it’s practical.
Where are you hanging your wallpaper? It might not be a good idea to put wallpaper in the bathroom or in the kitchen, for example, because it needs to be able to withstand humidity and moisture. Wipeable wallpaper is actually an option, so if you do still have small children around and you don’t want to wait for them to move out to redecorate then you can always get that too.
3. Always check the batch number. There can be very tiny variations of colour between wallpaper batches, so when you’ve made your final choice on which wallpaper you’d like, check every single roll to ensure that all the batch numbers match. This way you don’t have to panic that you’re going to have a very slightly off colour from one strip to the next.
4. Always get more than you need. Even when you’ve accurately measured the walls in each room, you should always have a little more than necessary. It’s better to return on opened rolls than to have not enough and then the type of wallpaper that you want has sold out.
5. Always double check your measurements before you cut anything. People often forget that when cutting around light switches or baseboards, it can be cut too short. You can always double check your measurements and don’t get too carried away before you make any cuts to any paper. There’s nothing wrong with taking the time to do that extra measurement, but there is everything wrong with getting it the wrong way round and having to start again.
6. Fix and sort the walls before you paper. You have to prepare the walls before you add paper to them, especially if you’d like to have a smooth finish. It’s tempting to cover up problem areas, but it’s only going to result in issues further down the line.
Instead of worrying about costly repairs, you can check for any cracks and screw holes, seams and imperfections and get the filler out where needed. All you have to do is fill each crack, wait for it to dry, sandpaper it over and have that smooth surface to get started with.
7. Always use lining paper if you want those true smooth results. Follow what the experts say and use lining paper on the wall first. This will give you the best possible finish. So use horizontally cross lined with a good quality medium to heavyweight lining paper. Then wait at least 12 hours for it to dry properly so that you can then put your wallpaper up vertically.
8. Start with your woodwork. Painting your baseboards, door frames, and windowsills is more important than getting started on your wallpapering. If you’re changing up the look of the room and you know that you want your baseboards to be painted black, for example, do that first. Otherwise you’re going to ruin your brand new wallpaper.
9. Don’t paste the paper. It’s so much easier to paste the wall rather than paste the paper, and this uses a special backing paper which doesn’t need to be soaked, meaning that the paste can be applied directly to the wall. There are so many options for wallpapering and this is one that you’ll want to keep up with. Peel and stick wallpaper is also much easier than pasting the paper, so find ways to save yourself some time before you get going.
10. Use bold paper in the smaller spaces. If you’re enhancing your study or your home office, look at ways that you can make a statement. Choose a design with a large repeat pattern and either use it on one wall or use it on all of them. But whatever you do, make sure that you go as bold as you can.
This is your home, and it’s going to reflect your personality.With the right wallpaper, you can make it look fantastic and have it reflect who you are in no time.
