How to Hang Prepasted Wallpaper (page 3 of 3)

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Wallpapering Corners

Corners
Corners are never perfectly straight. Always end the paper at an inside corner and start the next strip along a new plumb line. A perfectly concealed seam at the corner involves a three-step process:

Wrap the first sheet around the corner and trim it off, leaving 1/4 in.
Set the next strip to a new plumb line so it completely overlaps the 1/4-in. wrap.
Trim off the paper that wrapped over at the corner. (Cut through the top piece only.)

There will always be a pattern mismatch at the corners. Keep it slight by starting out of the corner with the cut-off piece you came into it with. If the strip you cut off is less than 2 in., discard it and start the wall with a new strip.

Trick: Pete noticed that the pattern repeated twice across the width of our paper. To avoid a mismatched corner, he held up a second sheet, found where the pattern aligned and cut a strip lengthwise. If your paper doesn’t allow this, hang a full sheet -- only your eyes will notice the mismatch.

“My brother kids me, saying, ‘You mean after 20 years you still have to read the instructions?’ Always."

If you’re using a vinyl-coated or vinyl paper, use a vinyl-to-vinyl adhesive on the overlap. Regular paste won’t hold. Use this adhesive any time you’re putting a paper over a vinyl-coated or vinyl paper -- on borders, for instance.

If an outside corner is perfectly plumb and straight (check it with your level and a long, straight board), you can wrap the paper around it and keep hanging. If not, fit it like an inside corner. If the corner is prone to a lot of abuse, install corner protectors ($2 to $3) from a home center.

Cutting Around Trim and Other Obstacles Don’t try to cut an opening for a window or door with the wallpaper on your worktable. Instead, align the seam and smooth out as much of the sheet as possible up to the molding. Relief cuts will allow the paper to lie flat on the wall. Make these gradually so you don’t overcut. Trim tight against the molding with the razor. Cut freehand along the contours and guide the razor with a broad knife on straight areas. Slit an “X” over electrical boxes and trim off the excess paper. CAUTION: The power must be off.

Crucial Details for Buying Wallpaper
The back of the wallpaper sample tells about ordering, durability and the essential hanging details you need to know. If the sample doesn’t have this information, ask the salesperson about each of the following categories.

Vertical Repeat
The repeat is the length of the image before it shows itself again. Repeats can range from none, for a covering without a pattern, to more than 36 in. Order extra paper for repeats more than 24 in.; you’ll waste a lot when matching the pattern.

Match
The match is how the patterns align sheet to sheet. Our straight match requires shifting the pattern to have all the birds at the same distance from the ceiling.

With a random match, you don’t have to fuss with lining up patterns from sheet to sheet. This is the easiest pattern to hang.

You align the pattern of a drop match halfway down the repeat. With drop matches, plan the dominant elements so you don’t slice them off at the ceiling.

Single Roll/Double Roll
Look for the square foot coverage to calculate how many rolls you’ll need to cover a room. In double-roll bolts, the paper is twice as long as on a single roll. Compared with a single roll, this provides more usable square footage of paper. Add up the area of the walls (minus doors and windows) and divide by the number of square feet listed on the roll. Round up your calculation to the nearest roll. Order at least one extra roll, two if you’ve got a lot of tricky cuts or angles. The worst thing that can happen when wallpapering is to run out of paper!

Washable
Washability is the degree of cleaning a paper can take before showing wear. If a paper isn’t washable, use it only in areas that aren’t subject to a lot of abuse.

Pretrimmed
Most wallpapers are pretrimmed, which means the edges are perfectly cut and all ready for hanging. Don’t store or drop pretrimmed papers on the ends because you’ll mar the edges. Untrimmed papers require a good straightedge and experience to cut. Stick with a pretrimmed paper for your first hanging experience.