Line an area with wallpaper and you’ve got instant decoration. From blah to daring in a matter of hours, newspaper could push boundaries beyond what paint can do. It enlivens walls with stripes or patterns or both–your pick. And as a bonus, it masks minor imperfections in plaster and drywall, also.
But as frequently as homeowners attempt to hang paper themselves, they rarely get it right, cursing their peeling seams and mismatched patterns–it’s enough to drive you up a wall. Input John Gregoras, a pro paper hanger out of Somers, New York, with almost two decades’ experience. And, boy, did we learn a lot – everything from the way he intends the layout to how he traces up the last seam. With this type of insider know-how, papering only got a whole lot easier.
Best Wallpaper Techniques Overview
Layout is your secret when you are learning how to hang wallpaper. Paying attention to the order where the newspaper goes up guarantees your pattern will stay well-matched and seem straight. John Gregoras recommends functioning in one direction around the room to keep the pattern consistent.
But no matter how good your technique, the pattern between the first and last strip will seldom match up. Because of this, Gregoras always starts his job behind a doorway, papering out from the corner until he reaches the distance above the door– the least conspicuous spot in the room.
Very often, the last strip of paper onto a wall is not a complete sheet. Another wallpapering suggestion Gregoras uses would be to constantly paper the corners with split sheets.
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Apply Wallpaper Paste
Paint the whole room with a wall primer/sizer.
Unroll the background. As you do, check for defects and drag the paper from the edge of your worktable to take away the curl.
Cut the paper into sheets 4 inches longer than the height of your walls. Cut in precisely the same place on the repeat so roomgood.ru patterns on adjacent sheets will lineup.
Lay a cut sheet onto the desk, face down. Using a paint roller, apply a thin film of clear premixed background glue on the back of the paper.
Tip: Do not allow paste to have on the table or it will mar another sheet (wash it off with a barely damp sponge if it does). Slide the paper all the way to the edge of the table to use paste to the ends and edges.
Novel the Paper
Fold the glued back of this paper on itself, bottom and top ends assembly in the middle. Guarantee that the side borders line up perfectly. Smooth the paper on itself as far as you can without creasing the springs.
Place the paper aside to permit the paste to soak in and also the paper to relax. Be sure to adhere to the precise booking time advocated on the background’s label, which differs depending on its content (more for vinyl-coated wallcoverings, less for uncoated papers).
Start at a corner near a doorway. In case the door is nowhere near the corner, draw a reference line parallel to the doorway near the corner.
Overlap about 2 inches at the ceiling and 1/8 inch at the corner. Lightly press it in place.
Examine the measurement between the newspaper and the door casing or benchmark line. Fix the paper to keep it parallel to the doorway but still overlapping at least ⅛ inch in the corner.
Tuck and Reduce the Paper
Then, working from the top down, sweep the smoother over the whole sheet. (Don’t press so hard that you push glue.)
Trim the excess paper in the ceiling: Push a 6-inch taping knife to the joint between the ceiling and wall. Using a razor, cut over the knife to cut the excess. Work gradually. Alternate between cutting and moving the knife. Don’t slide the razor and knife together. Continue papering to some point over the door.
Continue Papering
On the adjacent wall, then draw a plumb line (if there’s no door or window).
Hang a strip at the corner. Overlap the present bit on the adjoining wall by 1/8 inch. Quantify to the plumb line and adjust the paper to maintain the space equivalent. Smooth the newspaper. Trim at the ceiling and cut on the corner.
Hang another strip of newspaper. Unfold the surface of the novel and place it on the wall. Match the pattern as tightly as possible, leaving just a hair’s breadth between sheets.
Suggestion: Push out air bubbles by sweeping the paper simpler from the center out to the edges. Wipe off paste on the surface using a sponge.
Close to the Seams
Lightly press the surface of the paper into the wall. Then lightly roll the seam with a seam roller to flatten down the borders.
Unfold the bottom of the sheet and complete matching and shutting the seam. Then tightly roll down the whole seam, working a full 3 inches in from the edge.
Smooth the whole sheet. Continue papering the space, overlapping and trimming corners as shown in Step 5.
Tip: If the booked end of this strip begins to dry out until you hang it, wipe the wall with a moist sponge. This will remoisten the paste when you hang on the paper.
Cut in About Moldings
At windows and doors, let the paper overlap the molding by at least an inch.
Together with the razor, make a relief cut from the newspaper. Carefully run the razor out of the molding corner out to the edge of the paper. Use the molding as a guide.
Smooth down the entire sheet.
Tip: Mistakes are unavoidable once you’re learning how to hang wallpaper. Hide little cutting mistakes on darker papers by bleach the wall or the white border of the paper with a mark that matches the paper. Some pros even colour all of the paper’s edges so seams aren’t as evident should the newspaper shrink as it dries.
Cover Alter
Paper the cover plates of electric fixtures to make them vanish. Cut a sheet of wallpaper larger than the plate. Cut out of the component of the pattern which matches the paper on the wall round the switch.
Hold them both on the wall and then adjust the paper to match the pattern onto the wall.
Hold the paper and then turn the plate face down. Cut off the corners 1/8 inch off from the plate. Wrap the paper over the plate and then tape it on.
Cut out the switch or receptacle holes with a razor. Make Xs in the screw holes. Screw the plates back to the wall.