Wallpapering Tips From a Professional Contractor
It’s all in the planning.
Wallpapering a room is a simple and dramatic way to change the whole feel of your interior – and it is also a process that requires care and attention in the execution. While none of the steps involved in wallpapering are difficult, if they are done without precision you will be dismayed to see how small errors become amplified into a serious flaws. That is why Blue Door Painters puts such an emphasis on the planning and set-up of every wallpapering job we do – and why, if you do it yourself, you should too.
Here is wallpaper in a nutshell. It comes on a roll, which must be cut to strips of the appropriate length and then attached to the wall with an adhesive, (which either comes pre-applied to the back of the paper, or must be purchased separately and applied to each strip by hand). So the process of wallpapering boils down to how perfectly you measure, cut, and apply the strips to the wall. The only reason precision is paramount is that the pattern on the wallpaper will cause any seams that don’t hang straight or match up to show vividly. Taking the process one careful step at a time is the best way to go.
So get a pencil, a measuring tape, a level, a square, and your roll of wallpaper. Check the width of your wallpaper roll, and remember that number – that is how you will space your seams along the wall. Next, pick the spot in your room where the mismatched seam will go. This should be a spot where the seam will be relatively inconspicuous (but avoid corners, because ideally you shouldn’t have any seams placed in corners). Wallpaper is designed to be applied in vertical strips, so measure and draw a straight line going from the ceiling to the floor, aligned at a right angle to both. Take extra care with this first line, because in the installation it will serve as a guide for orienting the whole project.
Working from the first straight line, measure out even intervals the width of your wallpaper roll all around the room. Make a straight, 90 degree line at each interval – this will be the placement of your wallpaper seam. Now you are ready to start making cuts and installing the paper.
In a clean, clear working surface in the middle of the room, spread out your roll of wallpaper. Measure the height of your room, and then check the pattern of your wallpaper to see how much the pattern will displace your paper at each seam (line two strips of paper next to each other, and then see how far you have to push one of them down in order to match the pattern up). Add that amount to the height of the room, and then add six inches of margin for both the ceiling and the floor. This is the height that you want to cut your first strip of paper.
Provided that your wall has already been thoroughly cleaned and primed, as it needs to be prior to any re-coating procedure, you are now ready install your first strip of wallpaper.
Apply or activate the adhesive on the back of the strip of wallpaper, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Then climb onto a sturdy ladder placed so that you can easily reach the ceiling right at your first seam line. Working from the top down and the inside out, line the edge of the paper up to the seam line that you drew, and press the paper gently into the wall. Make sure to leave about six inches margin at the ceiling crease. You can use your hands, or a professional wallpaper smoothing trowel, to get a smooth finish; just make sure that you take extra care that the entire backing of the wallpaper strip adheres thoroughly to the wall.
You can adjust the paper while the adhesive is still wet, so now is the time to check that the paper is perfectly flush along the seam line you drew, all the way from top to bottom. Once you are happy with the placement of that strip, you can trim and flatten the seams at ceiling and floor using a straight knife, and turn your attention to the next strip. Make sure to line it up perfectly flush along the seam, matching the pattern with the previous strip to determine how much it needs to be displaced. Strip by strip, watch your room transform!
Quick note to the complexity you might encounter: If we all lived in smooth cylinders with no doors, windows, light fixtures, electrical boxes, dormers, etc., the steps listed above would truly be all there is to wallpapering. A wallpaper job in that scenario could probably be finished in under an hour, and with no need for a professional. Real rooms in real houses, however, contain all sorts of architectural intricacies – which look beautiful when finished, but also up the challenge for the wallpaper installer.
When your wallpaper installation has to accommodate a corner, protrusion, or obstruction, use the same logic you would when wrapping a present. Measure the placement of any cuts carefully, and leave a margin that you can fold up against the obstruction to make a precision cut with the straight knife right at the corner. Smooth the wallpaper thoroughly against the obstruction before making the final cuts, so that the seam is flawless. Stay tuned for future blog entries about accommodating specific wallpaper challenges.
As long as you take enough time and care to ensure the quality of each cut and each strip placement, by following these steps you will eventually make it all the way around your room and back to the seam where you started. Cut the last sheet of wallpaper slightly wider than it needs to be, and tuck the vertical margin underneath that first seam. Voila! You now have a finished wallpaper job that makes a beautiful, professional interior design statement.