Basic Wallpapering Techniques

When you’re ready to start hanging paper, measure out from a corner or a jamb casing, if that’s where you’ll begin, and draw a plumb line that will become the leading edge of the first strip. If the casing is out of plumb, allow the trailing edge of the strip to overlap the casing enough to be trimmed with a razor knife without creating a space along the casing. If the casing is plumb, simply butt the trailing edge to the casing. As you proceed around the room, continually check for plumb.

Cutting strips to length

Measure the height of the wall and cut several strips to length, leaving an extra inch or two at each end to allow for vertically matching patterns and trimming to edges. Cut the first two strips extra long. Slide the first strip up or down the wall until most (or all) of its pattern shows near the ceiling line. Don’t show less than half the pattern. The pattern along the baseboard will be less visible and less important.

On your cutting table, place the second strip next to the first, and align the patterns along their edges with two strips side by side. You’ll have a sense of how much waste to allow for pattern matching. (A pattern-repeat interval is often printed on the label packaged with the wallpaper.) Depending on the size of the patterns, each succeeding strip can usually be rough-cut with an inch or two extra at each end and then trimmed after being pasted.

Do the rough-cutting at the table using shears. Do the trimming on the wall using a razor knife. Patterns that run horizontally across the face of a covering are called straight match. Patterns that run diagonally are called drop match and waste somewhat more material during alignment.

Unless you are working with a delicate covering, cut several strips at a time. But be careful not to crease them. Flop the entire pile of strips facedown on the table so the piece cut first will be the first pasted and hung. The table must be perfectly clean; otherwise, the face of the bottom strip could become soiled.

Pasting

Unless you’re experienced, buy premixed adhesive. But if mix you must, try to achieve a mixture that’s slightly tacky to the touch. Add paste powder or water slowly: Even small increments can change the consistency radically. Finally, mix thoroughly to remove lumps.

As you work, keep the pasting table clean, quickly sponging up stray paste so it won’t get on strip faces. Some coverings, such as vinyl, are not marred by stray paste on the face, but many -others could be. Although the batch of paste you mix should last a working day, keep an eye on the consistency. Paste should glide on, never drag. Rinse the paste brush or roller when you break for lunch and when you quit for the day.

Until you become familiar with papering, apply paste to only one strip at a time. In other words, hang each strip before pasting another one. Using a roller, apply paste in the middle of the strip, toward the top. Spread the paste to the far edge and then to the near edge. For good measure, run the roller over strip edges twice because it’s often hard to see if the paste along the edges is evenly spread.

“Booking” strips

For convenient handling, create loose folds of pasted covering that you can carry to the wall, unfold without mess, hang, and smooth. The most practical folding method is known as booking, perhaps because the folds resemble the folds of a book dust jacket. When folding strips, do so loosely; avoid creasing them.

Booking a strip (typically, for five minutes) also allows it to absorb the moisture in the paste, expand, and contract slightly to its final width. If you do not allow the wallcovering time to expand and contract before hanging it, it will do so on the wall, either buckling or gapping at the seams. Booking times vary: Pros who know their pastes and papers will sometimes cut, paste, and book several strips at once, placing them into a plastic trash bag so the paste doesn’t dry out.

However, if you paste several strips at once, keep track of the order in which you pasted them. And hang them in the same order.

Hanging pasted strips

To hang a strip of wallcovering, unfold the booked upper fold (leaving the lower one folded) and align the edge of the strip to your plumb line. Position the upper end of the strip an inch or so above the ceiling line. Smooth the upper end of the strip first by running a smoothing brush down the middle of the strip and out toward the edges. Working from the center outward, brush air bubbles, wrinkles, and excess paste from the middle to the edges. Align subsequent pieces to the leading edge of each preceding strip, checking periodically to make sure the strips are plumb.

If the upper half of the strip is adhering well, simply unfold the lower fold and smooth the paper down, again brushing down the center and out toward the edges with small strokes.

If a butt seam doesn’t meet exactly, you have three choices:

•  Move a strip slightly by raising one of its edges and—palm on paper—using your other hand to slide the strip toward or away from the seam. Raising one edge of the strip reduces the grip between paper and wall.

•  Pull the strip off the wall, realign its patterns along the seam, and brush it down. But you’ve got to move quickly: Don’t wait much more than a minute to pull the strip off.

•  Pull off the strip, quickly sponge-clean the wall, and hang a new strip. Don’t try pulling just one edge of the strip, however. At best, it will stretch, draw back when it dries, and open the seam. At worst, you’ll pucker or rip the strip.

Sponging

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of gently wiping paste off wallcovering faces and adjacent surfaces. If paste dries on a painted ceiling, it can pull the paint off. (If you see a brown crust along a ceiling–wall intersection, that’s dried paste.) Paste will even pull the finish off wood trim. Vinyl-on-vinyl and clay adhesives are especially tenacious, so sponge off the excess immediately.

Equally important: Change your sponge water often so diluted paste doesn’t accumulate. Warm water is best. And wring the sponge almost dry before wiping. When you’ve wiped the surfaces clean, come back with a soft, dry rag. But apply only light pressure so you don’t move the wallcovering, disturbing the seams.

Don’t rub delicate wallpapers. Instead, blot them clean with a just-damp sponge. Before you commit to any wallcovering, ask your supplier if it can be wiped (or blotted clean) with a sponge. If not, consider other materials.

Trimming and rolling

Where a strip of wallcovering meets a border, such as woodwork, a ceiling line, or a baseboard, use a 6-in. taping knife to press the edges of the covering snug. Cut off the excess by running a razor knife along the blade of the taping knife. To ensure that strips fit tightly against a door or window casing, rough-cut them a little long. Then, using your taping knife, tuck the wallcovering snugly against the casing and trim it more precisely. For clean cuts, razor blades must be sharp.

Conventional wisdom suggests rolling seams 10 to 15 minutes after the strips are in place—that is, after the paste has set somewhat. But the master craftsman shown hanging wallpaper in the photos here prefers to roll the seams before he brushes out the paper. If you position the strips correctly, roll the seams, and then smooth the covering, he asserts, you’ll be less likely to stretch the wallpaper. Also, if seams don’t align correctly, you want to know that sooner rather than later so you can adjust or remove the strip before the paste sets up.

In any case, rolling may cause paste to ooze from the seams. So be sure to sponge wallcovering clean as you work, unless you’re installing delicate or embossed wallcovering, which shouldn’t be rolled or wiped at all. Finally, use a moderate pressure when rolling. After all, you’re trying to embed the wallcovering in the paste, not crush it.