Ultimate Guide To Hanging Wallpaper and Murals

ABIGAIL AHERN

The Ultimate Guide To Hanging Wallpaper & Murals

Introduce the ultimate personal touch to your walls

Before You Start

Wallpaper is one of the easiest ways to introduce a personal touch to your home as well as adding depth, texture and intrigue to a wall which you just don’t get with paint. You could go the whole hog and paper the whole room or introduce a feature wall. If you’re looking to transform your walls with our new collection of wallpaper or murals but you’re not sure where to start, read on and get ready to create a jaw-dropping space.

How To Measure For Wallpaper

How much wallpaper do I need?
Measure the width of your room then divide by the width of your chosen wallpaper (our rolls are 52cm or 53cm) This will give you the amount of drops you will need.
Then measure the height of your room (ensuring that you measure your highest point omitting any skirting boards or coving.)
Then times the amount of drops by your height - this will then give you the amount of wallpaper you will need - (most rolls are 10m)

Prepare The Room

Move all of the furniture, rugs and accessories etc out of the room or into the centre of the room and ensure that it is sufficiently protected with dust sheets.

Prepare your walls by ensuring that any old wallpaper has been removed and any cracks and bumps have been removed and filled. Your walls should be clean

NOTE: If your walls have been freshly plastered you will need to liberally apply a solution known as 'size' to the walls being decorated and let it dry. This will soak into the porous plaster and stop the paste from being absorbed when applied.

Essential Equipment

- Sharp craft knife and or,
- Wallpaper scissors (to cut the paper)
- Wallpaper paste
- Plumb line or spirit level
- Tape measure
- Paint brush or Roller and Roller tray - for applying the paste
- Wallpaper brush or smoother - for ensuring paper is stuck down
- Seam roller - to ensure seams are level
- Clean damp cloth - to clean off any paste on wallpaper surface or smooth seams)

BEAUTIFY YOUR WALLS

Ready To Hang Your Wallpaper

Where To Start

The first length or ‘drop’ of wallpaper is vital as all others will align to it so it's essential to ensure it is straight. Start from the left hand corner of the wall you are about to decorate and measure 50cm, mark with a pencil and then draw a straight line down using a plumb line or a spirit level, this will ensure your first drop of wallpaper will be straight.

Our wallpaper and murals are 'paste the wall' so apply the paste liberally to the wall, we recommend a roller as this is a little quicker than a brush. You can paste over the plumb line and make sure you apply paste a couple of centimetres wider than the wallpaper as this will avoid plopping any fresh paste on your first drop when it comes to hang your second one. Use a paintbrush to add paste at the top of the wall, around sockets, or just above the skirting. This will ensure even coverage in difficult areas and avoid the wallpaper “lifting” when dry.

Hanging Your First Drop

With paste-the-wall paper, the wallpaper can be hung dry from the roll. Use ladders to get to the ceiling or coving, and allow a little extra product, e.g. 2-3cm at the top. As you hang from the roll, lightly brush into place as you go down to the skirting board. Here you can gently push the paper to the wall. Leave the roll on the floor.

Ensure that the paper is in the correct position and is vertically correct. Brush down the paper with the smoothing brush from the centre to the edges of the roll. Cut the excess paper at the top and bottom with a knife or wallpaper scissors.

Hanging Your Second Drop

Working to the right of this first "drop", paste the wall again, allowing a few centimetres wider than the width of the wallpaper. You should see you don't need to get close to the first drop of paper when doing this.

For the second drop – look to see where the paper matches (the point at which the design fits together along the edges of the wallpaper).

Starting at the top, match the paper as you hang it dry from the roll – lightly brushing the paper to the wall as you go. The paper will slide into place on the paste.

Repeat until you’re done. Don’t worry about taking breaks or giving up for the night. You can pick up wherever you left off – just make sure to reapply the paste.

How To Hang Your Mural

Once you have ordered your mural (you'll need to supply us with the maximum height and width of your chosen wall), it will arrive in 50cm wide sections that will need to be cut from a roll (much like wallpaper).
Follow the steps for preparing, measuring and pasting your wall the same as the wallpaper guide above.
You can then cut each section of your mural as you go and hang it from left to right, smoothing and trimming as you go.