Easy wallpaper

Who knew that there were so many different types of wallpaper? No? Me neither! For a complete novice like myself, easy to use wallpaper is a must! The paste to wall technique is, by the sounds of it, much easier than the traditional technique of pasting the wallpaper first. Read on to find out why. #wallpaper #decorating #homemakeover

I must admit, I was very nervous about wallpapering. Not only have I never done it before, but I was being paid to film a before and after video for Instagram and Tiktok so the pressure was on to get it right! Not that I would have admitted that to the brand paying me! I wouldn’t want them to think I couldn’t do it, although I wasn’t 100% sure myself! For clarity, this blog post is my own views and content; I have not been paid to write a blog post but decided to do so as DIY and decorating is what I’m about.

"I was very nervous about wallpapering. Not only have I never done it before, but I was being paid to film a before and after video..."

Mix it up

So first up was mixing the paste. I was so surprised to find that there aren’t many YouTube videos or quite frankly, any useful instructions relating to this part. Yes it doesn’t take long to mix, but surely the measurements need to be relatively correct?

First things first, work out what type of wallpaper you have. As I used paste the wall type of wallpaper, the thickness of the paste may need to be different to when pasting the wallpaper directly. I will continue this narrative with the paste the wall method in mind.

"Embossed or heavily embossed, however, will require a thicker paste."

Once you know what type of wallpaper you have, then you need to know what subcategory it is. Flat wallpaper is the lightest and therefore will not need such a thick paste. Embossed or heavily embossed, however, will require a thicker paste.

In all honesty, I found the measurement instructions on the back of my paste packet a little bit confusing purely because it was the first time I’ve ever done a project like this. Now I know what it was getting at, it makes perfect sense.

Find your starting point

No one wants to end up with wonky wallpaper. To avoid this you need to begin wallpapering away from the side wall to ensure that your first drop of wallpaper is straight. If you have ever decorated a room before, whether that’s wallpaper, panelling or even buying furniture for a particular space, then you won’t be surprised to know that walls aren’t always straight.

To find your starting place, measure the width of your roll of wallpaper and deduct 3cm. This measurement is how far you need to be from the wall at the side. The reason being that this will be your starting point and the final drop will be in this gap. You know that the final drop will fit as it is smaller than the width of paper and all you will need to do is trim the edges.

"The reason being that this will be your starting point and the final drop will be in this gap"

It’s coming up plums

A bad subtitle I know, but I couldn’t think of anything to make a plum line sound exciting! Let me know if you have any better ideas!

I must say that this was something that flummoxed me when I was looking at instructions for wallpapering. I had never heard of a plum line before doing this project. Essentially it is a weight tied to the end of a string so that you can draw a straight line down the wall for lining up your wallpaper. Alternatively, you can use a spirit level.

"I had never heard of a plum line before doing this project"

Get stuck in!

The instructions I followed said to use a roller to make applying the paste to the wall easier. In all honesty, I don’t think it made the process any easier or faster, all it did was give me more things to wash up at the end. So I personally would stick to a brush and the bucket that you have mixed the wallpaper paste in. It’s not like painting where you have to get the perfect finish, you just need to make sure that it covers the surface.

Remember, when you put the wallpaper on, you then smooth it out with the smoothing brush, which will inevitably move around some of that paste anyway. It’s more important to make sure that the paste brush gets into the edges of the wall, to reach the coving and the skirting board. So save yourself some washing up.

"I personally would stick to a brush and the bucket that you have mixed the wallpaper paste in"

Apply enough paste to the wall to allow for not only the width of the wallpaper but also a little bit wider than your wallpaper, just to ensure that your edges stick down and then you don’t have to worry about getting too close with the paste for the next drop of wallpaper.

The fun bit

Every DIY or decorating project has a fun bit, and it is almost always the last bit. In this case it is the part where you actually get to stick up the wallpaper. It was strangely satisfying having all of the wallpaper line up perfectly and it was so reassuring to know that if anything did go wrong it was easy enough to pull the wallpaper away from the wall and start again if necessary.

Best practice is to make sure that you have at least a few centimetres of wallpaper to spare at the top and the bottom. For ease I allowed the roll of wallpaper to sit on the floor whilst I pulled the wallpaper up to the top to stick down.

"have at least a few centimetres of wallpaper to spare at the top and the bottom"

Following the plum line (to make sure that the wallpaper is straight) I gradually made my way down the wallpaper, brushing in a downward motion to ensure that there were no air bubbles underneath. I brushed top down in small sections and from the centre out to the sides of each drop the wallpaper.

Trimming was surprisingly fun given that I had a very handy little tool called an easy trimmer which not only trimmed the wallpaper at the exact angle that I needed it to for the coving and also the skirting board, but it also kept the section of wallpaper flat to the wall as I cut.

And that was it, nothing strenuous or too difficult at all. One feature wall done in an hour and a half.

I daresay that it’s not only easier but far quicker than painting two or potentially three coats of paint. This may very well be my new favourite method of decorating.