Wallpapering a feature wall *Advice*

[Donkii]

Hi guys bit of advice, tips needed.

Having recently moved into my house I have been progressing through it painting and tidying up.

I am currently on the main bedroom and have completed the paintwork. There is an alcove where the kingsize bed sits that I would like to paper, I have the paper already purchased which is "paste the wall" paper. I was debating whether to get a pro in but because it's a relatively small area about 2m x 2m I think I would like to tackle it myself as I have been really pleased with my painting work so far.

What exactly do I need? Pasting brush? Smoothing brush? Cutter? Etc. The wallpaper itself has vertical fine stripes but the missus wants the lines to go horizontally as that's the way it is shown on the picture for the paper, is this more difficult than hanging the paper vertically? Also should I apply lining paper first? The wall itself is smooth and I have applied a few coats of White basecoat paint.

All advice is greatly appreciated.

Ian.[/url]

 

[TheDec]

As far as tools are concerned a pasting brush, a good shears, a smoothing brush, and perhaps a stanley knife. You will then need something to paste your paper on.

If you intend to hang horizontally you will need to fold your paper as you would for a ceiling.

Dec

 

[TheDec]

Forgot the lining paper, it always wise to line first, it' and absolute must for some papers. Whichever way you decide to hang your paper hang the lining paper in a different direction.

Cross line for vertical and vertical for horizontal.

Dec

 

[misterhelpful]

If you don't need to line, as you have 'paste the wall' paper, you may prefer to use a plastic bladed wallpaper smoother providing the paper is flat. I prefer a paper hanging brush but these smoothers can help if you put the paste on the wall a little unevenly - be warned that they can damage the paper though.

 

[TheDec]

Always safer I think to use the brush, even more so for a diy'er.

Dec

 

[Donkii]

Thanks for the reply guys, I got paste brush, paste, paper brush, long shears and a small seam roller. I am tackling this on Sat so think I am set.

I have measured up and the height of the alcove is about 2 and 3/4 widths of paper. One last bit of advice do I cut the lengths a few cms wider than the alcove, paste in and then stanely knife down the corners of the alcove or am I best to measure up as acurately as possible?

I am going to start at the top of the alcove hanging my paper across in line with the top horizontal edge. As its to full widths and then about 3/4 of a width do I simply paste a full width on at the bottom brush in well to the top of the skirting board and then stanely knife across the top edge of skirting?

Hope I am clear in what I am saying here if not let me know, probably silly questions but want it done right.

Cheers again.

 

[misterhelpful]

Allow a little excess for trimming and if you don't feel confident enough to trim with a blade, run the back edge of your scissors along the paper in the corner. This will give you a mark on the paper which you can peel back a little and trim perfectly with the scissors.
Trim the ¾ width sheet so you have about 2" left to trim on application otherwise it can get unnecessarily messy.

 

[Donkii]

Thanks again sounds pretty straight forward , Hope they arent my famous last words. Know exactly what I am at now. Will cut my lentghs 2cm wider than the alcove and the last length I will reduce the width. It really isnt a big job but I am gonna be chuffed if I can do a good job, I am serisouly fussy so hope its right. Will post back when I am done .

 

[StephenW]

Stating the obvious I hope, but when you do the second and third lengths make sure you do any pattern matching first before cutting the paper to length. (Yes, I've made that mistake - but just once!)

 

[Donkii]

Stating the obvious I hope, but when you do the second and third lengths make sure you do any pattern matching first before cutting the paper to length. (Yes, I've made that mistake - but just once!)

Stephen,

The paper if hung vertially has a vertical mixture stripes (different colours and widths) stripe on it. The missus wants the paper hung horizontally so matching the pattern isn't an issue as far as I can see.

I can definitely see how you could forget the pattern matching though as there are alot of other things you are looking to be correct, I bet it was one of those stand back moments and think..... "how did I manage to forget that" lol

 

[TheDec]

You should allow 2" at all angles for trimming, 2cm overall is not enough, you say that you are going to start from the top so your first job is to establish your starting point. measure down from the ceiling allowing 2" for trimming and mark the wall with a pencil repeat this on the other side and join the two marks together, you can achieve this with a chalk line if you have one, and check with a spirit level This will be your starting point. If you attempt to hang your paper without creating this you are going to run into problems.

Dec