Saturday 6 January 2018

Step by step wallpapering



Happy New Year - I made it back on time - just about.  I confess to having papered the room after lunch on Saturday which is my blog post day, but here I am.  Hopefully I will be able to keep some progress going on my project and stop by and share with you each week.  'What japes, Pip!'

I have done a ton of stuff about wallpapering through my many blogs and even YouTube but I thought I might offer a step by step instruction here for any newbies.  Apologies to the 'got it sorted' folk; hopefully I might have something a bit more interesting next week.

1.  Measure the height of the room




2.Trim one long edge of your paper if it needs it for any reason.  This is is on a sort of photo quality paper and has a white frame all round.




3.  Work out the width of the strip you need to cut.  Here my room height is 7.75 inches and the total width of my skirting board and small coving that is going in is about an inch.  I want the trims to slightly overlap the paper (this gives the neatest edge) but leave some wood bare for the trims to adhere to; this is better fix than just sticking the trims on top of the wallpaper.  So I will cut my strips 7 inches wide.




4.  Start with the paper for the back wall.  Score gently on the back of the paper a bit under a quarter of an inch in from the edge and fold it sharply over.  This will allow the paper to go into the corner neatly and give a slight wrap over onto the side walls.  No walls of a dolls house fit snugly together as they do in a real life plastered wall and so there is always something of a slight gap.   If you do this little overlap, it doesn't show in terms of wallpapering and it covers that gap nicely.




5. Snug the paper tightly into its corner using the folded edge.  Hold it firmly and then make a firm crease (fingernail will do) where the other corner will be.






6. Fold it over well and make a very sharp crease




7.  Trim a small edge like you did for the other side.




8.  Cut the paper for the two side walls without a folded edge




9.  The glue I use is a ready made border adhesive.  I am fairly sure it is probably just a basic PVA glue (like Aleene's etc) but it does feel silkier and goes on more easily - maybe it has water or something else added?  I have experimented with watering down PVA and using wallpaper paste etc but this is decidedly the easiest, cleanest and cheapest glue for papering for sure.




10.  Get a surface you don't mind cleaning up like this silicone baking liner (!) because you will make a mess.  Go over the back of the paper generously with a wiggle of glue and then spread it smoothly and evenly over every teeny bit of the paper taking care to take it to the very edge.  Easiest way to do this is with your hands and smear it until it feels evenly coated and sweep over all the edges to make sure they are covered.  I said it would be messy.




11.  Line up one of your folded edges carefully into the corner of the room.  Press down along that edge, taking care to make sure the little overlap on the side wall is well glued down.  Then work you way gently across the paper, dabbing and smoothing with a soft cloth (and your hand) to the other creased corner.  Handle the paper carefully to avoid getting glue on the surface.  If you do smear it, just try to clean it off with a slightly dampened cloth, try not to rub.  All papers and prints will behave differently.  At the worst you will have paper that sucks up liquid and tears and breaks when it is only slightly damp and sometimes you find printing with colours that run or smudge.  As with everything in life it is generally best to buy the best quality you can afford from a reputable merchant.  I have only ever had one absolutely useless paper and I very soon realised it was unusable so gave up on it and bought something else.  So, if you find dreadful things are happening when you are wallpapering it may well be the paper not you -  don't give up, just try another choice.




12. Clean and dry your pasting surface between pasting each piece of paper to make sure the good side stays clean.  Paste and stick up the other two walls and..... voila....one wallpapered room.






16 comments:

  1. Excellent tut. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always happy to share and always hope it is useful to someone. Marilyn

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Very welcome, Sheila, happy to do it. Marilyn

      Delete
  3. I'm just about to start wallpapering the first walls in the dollhouse I'm building. Never tried it before. Thanks for the fold over tip on the back wall, that makes so much sense!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent timing then. Very happy to help in any way I can. Hope you are enjoying your new found hobby, beware addiction! Marilyn

      Delete
  4. Happy New Year, Buon Anno! Sempre utili i tuoi tutorial. Non basta mai replicarli. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Felice anno nuovo, Blanche. Grazie per non aver pensato a una ripetizione. Marilyn

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Although technically I'm not a "newbie", your fold over tip is Priceless and makes perfect sense.
    Just goes to show that you CAN 'teach an old dog a new trick', so please keep'em coming!
    Happy New Year Marilyn :D

    elizabeth
    and p.s. Your choice of wallpaper pattern and color looks lovely in the attic apartment

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. High Elizabeth, So great to hear I have added a tiny bit more to your repertoire. Well done for wading through when you must have lost count of papered walls. Marilyn

      Delete
    2. Elevated you may be, but no idea how High crept into my note.... teach me to use slang! ..... Hello Elizabeth

      Delete
  7. Belated Happy New Year Marilyn. Thanks for some more great tips. So far I have bought Susan Bembridge and Les Chinoiserie wallpapers and have always used real wallpaper paste but the paper usually stretches so it ends up bigger than the required size and I have to trim the front edge when it is dry. Maybe I am putting on too much paste. I will try using your reccomendation. Thanks Wilma

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hapy New Year to you, Wilma. I have owned one Susan B sheet and thought it OK. I have used Les Chinoiseries and again they have been fine. I do think wallpaper paste tends to over-wet the paper and, therefore stretch and even sometimes bubble a little because of that, though it dries out just fine. You also have to be meticulous about mixing the powder and not having even the tiniest of lumps.
      Something about this border adhesive makes it not so wet???? go figure. I really do prefer it to anything else I have used.

      Delete
  8. Hello Marilyn,
    Great tips and instructions on wallpapering. Your work is always so well done and I very much appreciate you taking the time to write out your methods and explain which products you use. It is always useful.
    All the best for 2018 and thank you for your lovely comment on my blog.
    Big hug

    Giac

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Giac. It is the last wallpapered space in this project so I thought it might as well go out with a bang. Getting fretty now because the end is in sight and I am wondering what next..... Hope 2018 is life-changing for you in the nicest way. Marilyn

      Delete

To prevent spam your comments come to me first. I will be as fast as I can to post them and reply. Please do leave a message.