Decorating with Wallpaper

Anyone under 30 would most likely be thinking of a picture on a computer screen or telephone rather than something you stick on the walls of your home.
I remember as a child, everyone I knew had highly patterned paper on most of the walls of in their home. As the years went by, people used to paint over it so you lost the garish pattern but still kept the texture.

Over the years it has had a bit of a fall from grace and is now less frequently used in modern homes.

As a bit of research for this page I have been having a look at some of the ‘how to’ sites on the internet and the massive list of things you will need to have to hand and vast number of steps you need to follow to paper a room probably explains why it is not as popular as it used to be and is a bit of a dying art.

That said, there are a number of specialist companies like Osborne and Little creating beautiful designs that would create a stunning impact in a room if used sparingly and personally I would never use patterned paper for more than one wall or the alcoves on either side of a fireplace.

I have done a little bit of decorating with wallpaper myself and my top tips would be:

Use a thick paper (possibly a vinyl) rather than a cheap, thin paper as it is a little more ‘forgiving’ and much easier to handle when wet.

Sometimes there is a slight color variation between two rolls so double check the batch number if you are buying more than one roll.

If you are doing any painting in the room as well – round a window frame for example – do that first.

As with any DIY job, the important thing is to have the right tools for the job. This video clip goes into greater details about the tools and equipment you will need to achieve a professional finish.