You may not have used wallpaper in your home ever before. I get it.
However, you have read blogs and talked to your neighbors and figured that wallpapers can spruce up your home’s interior in an awesome way.
So, now you have purchased a wallpaper to use – but you have no idea how to go about it.
This is where I’m going to step in.
This blog post will discuss useful wallpaper hanging tips for beginners that you can use right away.
If you’re familiar with my work, then you know I’m an award winning designer. I love designing books and video courses. Plus I love home design as well. I had so much fun putting up wallpaper in my home and designing a beautiful space for my family. (You can get a peek at our home here.)
With this in mind, I created this simple guide with wallpaper hanging tips for beginners or people who don’t think they’re good at doing things for their home themselves.
So without further ado, let’s get started!
First things first, you need to know the wall size you’re dealing with.
For this, use a ruler or an inch-tape. The width of the wallpaper might be different from its length.
Make sure to take this into account while measuring. Mark off areas where you need nails, screws, anchors or any other fasteners on the wall with a pencil.
Though many watercolour wallpapers come with an adhesive these days, we’d still recommend using a paste. This will put the wallpaper firmly in place. Moreover, you won’t fret about parts of the wallpaper peeling off due to the weak adhesive.
Coming to the paste, any hardware store will sell it. However, if you are planning on using your own DIY wallpaper paste recipe (because why not?), here’s what you need:
Mix the ingredients in a pan and cook it over medium heat, constantly stirring until you get a thick paste.
Now that you have your wall paste, set it aside for a bit while you work on the wallpaper or if your homemade wall paste recipe is ready.
With a paintbrush, cover the areas where you will apply your wallpaper with a thin paste layer. Do not put too much at once because you will make a mess.
Once the paste on the wall’s surface has cooled a little bit, place your wallpaper around its edges so that you can line it up properly.
Now with a paintbrush (or your hands if you’re bold), gently smooth out any air bubbles and make sure all parts of the wallpaper is in its proper place.
Certain parts of the wall will be hard to reach with just your hands or paintbrush.
For these areas, use a wallpaper roller instead. Just dab some paste onto it and roll out any air bubbles you might have missed before.
Once everything is perfect, let the paste dry for about an hour.
The wallpaper will probably curl up a little bit after you’ve applied the paste on your first try.
This is why you need to apply another layer of paste to keep it in place properly. Use just enough to not drip everywhere, but enough that the wallpaper will stay put.
After you’ve let it dry for about an hour, smooth out any air bubbles or paste drips left on your wallpaper by using a slightly moistened sponge.
Do not make the water too wet because it could ruin your wallpaper! You might want to use a dishcloth or paper towel instead.
Now that the paste is dry take some nails, screws or any other kind of fastener and start hanging your wallpaper up on the wall! Since you have applied so much paste, it should stay put perfectly.
Now that you know these tips for hanging wallpaper, all that is left to do is measure, apply the paste and hang! Let your creativity flow!
Who knows, maybe you will end up hanging your wallpaper in the best possible way! Go, team!
Explore my ready to frame poster artwork – with my Instant Wall Art Collection.
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