How to Wallpaper
Basic Instructions and Technique

Get basic instructions for hanging wallpaper, and tips and techniques to make a neat and professional job of it. Say good-bye to that old decorating with wallpaper nightmare...!

If you are ready to start decorating with wallpaper, you might be feeling a little daunted. But don’t worry, once you know what you are doing with hanging wallpaper, you will find it all fairly straightforward…

A little time spent researching how to wallpaper before you start, will really pay off, and you will feel far more confident in doing a good job.

1. Firstly, make sure that your room is well prepared. Walls should be:
   • clean
   • dry
   • smooth
   • free from major imperfections
2. Removing wallpaper may be necessary: Find out how to remove wallpaper and prepare and smooth your walls, here…
3. Also check that you have enough wallpaper to finish the job. Click here to find out more about wallpaper sizing and calculations.
4. Before you start, make sure that the ceiling has been completed, and any woodwork has been painted.
5. Do you want to line your walls? Lining paper is not normally necessary, but you may like to use it, if your walls are particularly bumpy or rough, or if you are using a luxury wallpaper.

   You should hang any lining paper to go under a top layer of wallpaper horizontally, so that the joins go the opposite way to the top covering.

How to Wallpaper

Watch the video clip below for a very useful guide on how to wallpaper...

Just click on the image below to start the player...

1. Depending on your preferences, you can start your wallpapering:
   • in a corner
   • on the longest, uninterrupted wall (to get used to the technique)
   • if you have a fireplace, or other wall, where it is important for any pattern to fall centrally, you should choose to start here.
2. It is very important that your first, (and subsequent) drop of wallpaper is properly vertical. If you aren’t sure that the walls and corners of your room are totally ‘square’ (and they rarely are!) it is a good idea to use a plumb line as a vertical guideline.
3. Trim the length of wallpaper, so that you have a good few inches top and bottom for further trimming.



4. Apply wallpaper paste with a paste brush, or roller, to the reverse of the length of paper.
   • You will probably find that a specialist wallpapering table makes your job easier.
   
   
   

   

   
   
   
5. You may need to fold over on end of the wallpaper length, to be able to paste the whole length.
   • Fold very lightly and don’t press on the fold.
   • Always fold pasted edges together (again, don’t press down)
   • Concertina further folds (if necessary) to keep the patterned side nice and clean.
6. Lightweight papers and vinyl papers can be hung straight away. Heavier and embossed papers need to be left to ‘soak’ for up to 15 minutes.
7. If you buy ready-pasted wallpapers, just soak the wallpaper in a trough of cold water (you may need a little paste to stick edges down.)
8. For paste-the-wall papers, simply paste the wall, and place the dry wallpaper on this.
9. Once the paper is well-pasted and/or soaked as required, you should carefully lift it up to the wall, and position it by sliding it on the wall slightly (remember to use your vertical plumb line).




10. Use a paper hanger’s brush and gently smooth out any airbubbles, working from the centre outwards.
11. With the point of your scissors, lightly crease the wallpaper at the ceiling and skirting. Then trim neatly along this line, and gently push the paper back down onto the wall, with the brush.
12. Hang the next length of wallpaper in the same way. Butt it up to the first length of wallpaper, and match the pattern as well as you can.
13. Use a seam roller down the joints, to stick down the edges nice and firmly.
14. Don’t worry about small air bubbles. They usually flatten themselves out, as the paper dries. If an air bubble is still there once the paper has dried, cut a small cross ‘X’ with a knife. Peel the edges back slightly, and apply a little paste. Then press the flaps back into place.
15. Wipe any excess paste off the face of the paper with a damp cloth, before the paste dried.

As you can see, once you break it all down, hanging wallpaper isn’t so complicated after all!

Hopefully you will have a good long length of interrupted wall, to enable you to get used to the technique, before you meet any complications.

But when you do, here are the essential how to wallpaper tips, to get you jumping easily over these hurdles:

• corners
• doors and windows
• behind radiators
• around switches and sockets
• stairwells

Find out about special techniques for hanging wallpapers of different kinds.



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