Wallpaper that looks like plastic canvas

[E17DIYer]

I bought some mural type wallpaper online which had a european looking website (the pop-ups were in french) and lo and behold it has arrived from China.

The material looks like it is made of plastic that has the texture of canvas that you might get on a printed picture.

Has anyone ever hung this type of material before? Any suggestions on what adhesive i should attempt, or should i just bin it and buy something else?

 

[opps]

What is the backing like?

Although a decorator, I have only ever hung a mural wallpaper once before. It was printed on demand. The whole wall was printed on one roll. It was a paste the wall product. The customer gave the company the wall dimensions. At the time I thought it odd that it said start in the left corner and work to the right. You never start in a corner. You start the first drop just after the corner. I allowed a 25mm overhang on the first drop (to be trimmed back). I am so glad that I didn't allow more. The last drop on the right hand side was printed at about 15cm width. I had about 30mm over hang to play with.

 

[E17DIYer]

The backing honestly feels like a mix between plastic and canvas. It's definitely not made of paper. I can't see it absorbing anything, but the surface area is a bit rough so i imagine it will stick a bit.

I've had a mural print from Dunelm before, worked fab, just like normal wallpaper.

This one, not so much. It was print to demand which should have been the first warning sign.

 

[opps]

The backing honestly feels like a mix between plastic and canvas. It's definitely not made of paper. I can't see it absorbing anything, but the surface area is a bit rough so i imagine it will stick a bit.

I've had a mural print from Dunelm before, worked fab, just like normal wallpaper.

This one, not so much. It was print to demand which should have been the first warning sign.

Print on demand kinda makes sense. It is a mural and will be custom printed according to the wall dimensions.

"Paste the wall" papers have a woven backing. A massive advantage is that the paper doesn't need to be pasted on a table and you don't have to judge the soak time (because you are pasting the paper). If you get the latter wrong with traditional paper, it may stretch.

Assuming that you are hanging the paper over existing emulsion, it might be prudent to apply a dilute coat of paste to the wall first (commonly referred to as a "size"). It reduces the risk of of the emulsion soaking in the water from the paste too quickly.

Each time that I have used "paste the wall", the recommended paste was the starch, powder based stuff, rather than the PVA stuff.

When hanging PTW (paste the wall), I apply paste to the top and bottom of each drop of paper. The papers can be rather rigid. The addition paste makes the paper more pliable and lets me bend the paper into the areas where I want to push my wide filling knife in before running my (cutting) knife along it.

On the balance of probability, I think (read: hope) that you will be ok with the product. Use a roller to apply the paste to the wall and maintain a wet edge. By that, I mean don't paste the whole wall in one go, do sections at a time.

 

[E17DIYer]

Print on demand kinda makes sense. It is a mural and will be custom printed according to the wall dimensions.

"Paste the wall" papers have a woven backing. A massive advantage is that the paper doesn't need to be pasted on a table and you don't have to judge the soak time (because you are pasting the paper). If you get the latter wrong with traditional paper, it may stretch.

Assuming that you are hanging the paper over existing emulsion, it might be prudent to apply a dilute coat of paste to the wall first (commonly referred to as a "size"). It reduces the risk of of the emulsion soaking in the water from the paste too quickly.

Each time that I have used "paste the wall", the recommended paste was the starch, powder based stuff, rather than the PVA stuff.

When hanging PTW (paste the wall), I apply paste to the top and bottom of each drop of paper. The papers can be rather rigid. The addition paste makes the paper more pliable and lets me bend the paper into the areas where I want to push my wide filling knife in before running my (cutting) knife along it.

On the balance of probability, I think (read: hope) that you will be ok with the product. Use a roller to apply the paste to the wall and maintain a wet edge. By that, I mean don't paste the whole wall in one go, do sections at a time.

Thanks. I got the job done. Looks fine. Thanks for the tip on using a roller to paste the wall. Worked well.

The only mistake i made was, having stripped the old paper, i had a spare bit of lining paper so lined two panels of the wall which were a bit bumpy.

I needed have bothered, the mural is sufficiently complex in its picture that any imperfections can't be see, but what you can see is a faint outline of where the lining paper stops and bare plaster carries on. It's not the end of the world though.

 

[opps]

Well played.