Line a room with background and you’ve got instant decoration. From blah to daring in a matter of hours, newspaper could push boundaries beyond what paint can do. It enlivens walls with textures or patterns or your choice.

However, as often as homeowners try to hang paper themselves, they seldom get it right, cursing their paring tiles and mismatched patterns–it’s enough to drive you up a wallsocket. Enter John Gregoras, a pro paper hanger out of Somers, New York, with almost two decades’ experience. We asked Gregoras to demonstrate a few of his very best wallpapering tips and tricks for pasting, hanging, aligning, and trimming. And, boydid we learn a great deal – everything from how he plans the layout to how he lines up the previous seam. With this type of insider know-how, papering just got a whole lot easier.

Greatest Wallpaper Techniques Overview

Layout is the key if you are learning how to hang wallpaper. Paying attention to the sequence in which the newspaper goes up guarantees that your pattern will remain well-matched and look straight. John Gregoras recommends functioning in 1 direction around the room to keep the pattern consistent.

But no matter how good your technique, the routine between the first and last strip will seldom match up. Because of this, Gregoras always begins his job behind a doorway, papering from the corner until he reaches the distance above the door– the least conspicuous place in the room.

Frequently, the final strip of paper on a wall isn’t a complete sheet. So another wallpapering suggestion Gregoras uses would be to always paper the corners with split sheets.

Click button on top right to expand illustration.

Apply Wallpaper Paste

Paint the entire room with a wall mounted primer/sizer.

Unroll the wallpaper. As you do, check for flaws and haul the paper against the border of your worktable to remove the curl.

Cut in the exact same place on the replicate so patterns on adjoining sheets will lineup.

Lay a cut sheet onto the desk, face down. Using a paint roller, apply a thin film of clear premixed background glue on the back of the newspaper.

Tip: Do not allow paste to have on the desk or it will mar the next sheet (wash it off with a barely damp sponge if it does). Slide the paper all the way to the border of this table to apply paste to the ends and edges.

Novel the Paper

Fold the glued back of the paper onto it, bottom and top ends assembly in the middle. Guarantee the side edges line up perfectly. Smooth the paper onto itself as far as possible without creasing the folds.

Place the paper aside to allow the glue to soak in and also the paper to relax. Make sure you adhere to the precise booking time recommended on the background’s tag, which differs depending on its content (more for vinyl-coated wallcoverings, less for uncoated papers).

Start in a corner near your doorway. If the doorway is nowhere near the corner, draw a reference line parallel to the door near the corner.

Unfold the top of the booked paper and hang it on the wall. Overlap roughly 2 inches in the ceiling and also 1/8 inch at the corner. Lightly press it in position.

Check the dimension between the newspaper and the door casing or benchmark line. Adjust the paper to help keep it parallel to the door but nevertheless overlapping at ⅛ inch in the corner.

Tuck and Trim the Paper

Then, working from the top down, sweep the smoother over the whole sheet. (Don’t press so roomgood.ru hard for you to push out glue.)

Trim the excess paper in the ceilingPush a 6-inch taping knife to the joint between the wall and ceiling. Using a razor, cut above the knife to cut the surplus. Work gradually. Alternate between cutting and moving the knife. Do not slide the knife and razor together. Keep on papering to some point over the door.

Continue Papering

On the adjacent wall, draw a plumb line (if there is no door or window).

Hang a strip in the corner. Overlap the existing piece on the adjoining wall by 1/8 inch. Measure to the plumb line and correct the paper to maintain the distance equal. Smooth the newspaper. Trim at the ceiling and then cut on the corner.

Hang another strip of paper. Unfold the top of the book and place it at the wall. Match the pattern as tightly as possible, leaving only a hair’s width between the sheets.

Suggestion: Push air bubbles out by sweeping the paper simpler from the middle out to the edges. Wipe off glue on the surface with a sponge.

Close the Seams

Lightly press on the surface of the paper to the wall. Then lightly roll the seam using a seam roller to flatten down the edges. Now use the ends of your fingers to push the seam closed.

Unfold the bottom of the sheet and then finish matching and shutting the seam. Then tightly roll the entire seam, working a full 3 inches in from the border.

Smooth the whole sheet. Continue papering the room, trimming and overlapping corners as shown in Step 5.

Tip: If the booked end of this strip begins to dry out until you hang it, wipe the wall with a moist sponge. This may remoisten the glue when you hang the paper.

Cut in Around Moldings

At doors and windows, let the paper overlap the molding by an inch.

Using the razor, make a relief cut in the newspaper. Gently run the razor out of the molding corner out to the edge of the paper. Utilize the molding for a guide.

Press the cut edge tight in the joint between the molding and the wallsocket.

Trim the excess paper flap with a taping knife and razor. Smooth down the whole sheet.

Tip: Mistakes are unavoidable once you’re learning how to hang wallpaper. Hide small cutting errors on darker papers by coloring the wall or the white edge of the paper using a mark that matches the newspaper. Some pros even color all the paper’s borders so seams are not as evident should the paper shrink as it dries.

Cover Switch

Paper the cover plates of electrical fixtures to make them disappear. Cut a piece of wallpaper larger than the plate. Cut from the part of the pattern which matches the paper onto the wall round the switch.

Hold them on the wall and adjust the paper to match the pattern on the wall.

Hold the paper and turn the plate . Cut off the corners 1/8 inch away from the plate. Wrap the paper above the plate and tape it on.

Cut out the switch or receptacle holes with a razor. Make Xs at the screw holes. Screw the plates back to the wall.