Hang your own wallpaper, it can be most rewarding

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33987, 30 October 1975, Page 10

Hang your own wallpaper, it can be most rewarding

There can be few jobs that will make as much improvement to a home with relatively little outlay and effort as wallpapering.

Because wall surfaces make up the biggest single part of a room, their condition can make a big difference to the appearance of the room. Even if it contains a lot of furniture, has large bookcases, several pictures and an eye-catching i carpet, the walls will still have a considerable effect. Have a look around the walls of your sitting room or bedroom and try to remember what it looked like ' when new. The wallpaper will inevitably be faded. If I it is a home that has, or has had, small children, i there will probably be i pieces tom off. or there I will be crayon drawings at ' child-height.

Also fashions and likes change. What was an “in" pattern or colour 10 years ago is not necessarily right for today. So why not change it? Many people think that wallpapering is for the professional, but like a lot of other jobs around the home most people with some manual dexterity and plenty of patience can do it. It is a job where being a female is no disadvantage: in fact women are often better at it than men.

Although written instructions may be followed down to the last detail, it is a good idea to ask a friend who has done it to give you a hand for perhaps one wall. Failing that, choose a wall or part of a wall that is not too obvious for your first attempt. CLEAR THE DECKS If about to repaper a room, it pays to remove as much furniture as possible as it will be quicker in the long rqn. It is awkward and time-wasting to have to manoeuvre around tables and chairs while holding a strip of wet wallpaper. Remove drapes too. Trimming the paper around the window frames is one of the trickiest parts of the job and flapping curtains won’t help you to get a good finish.

As the average “do-it-yourself” person will be looking for the easiest way of doing it, this article will only deal with wallpaper using ready-pasted wallpaper. Today such papers are quite safe to use and they stav on.

The first problem that will be encountered is what to choose. The selection is bewildering, especially if you are given a large book of patterns, or several of them. But often you tell the assistant that you will have a particular pattern only to be told that it is not in stock, so some suppliers now have wall displays only of what they can supply, thus reducing frustrations for the customer.

Price will be a factor to take into account for most people. Papers range in price from $3 a roll to $6.50 for the ordinary varieties, and up to $l4 a roll for vinyl papers. Even a small room would need seven rolls so one roll of expensive paper has to be multiplied several times.

To estimate the number of rolls needed, measure the height of the wall and the distance around the rooms, including the doors and windows, then refer to a chart readily available at wallpaper stockists or ask the stockist to work it out for you.

Make sure you have a waterbox, a pair of sharp scissors, a bucket for holding the offeuts, a brush and a stepladder You will also need a sponge or a clean cloth, a ruler and perhaps a sharp knife. The paint on the woodwork may look shabby, so do any repainting after stripping off old wallpaper and before putting up the new. This way you will not damage the new paint or mark the new wallpaper.

Make sure the walls are clean and dry and that there is no dampness present. Be particularly careful to remove grease spots as no paste will hold paper over grease.

Some paperhangers prefer to strip all paper before putting up a new layer on the grounds that in time it can become several layers thick if not removed each time, but others will not be worrying that far ahead. If the old paper is flat and appears, to be well stuck to the' wall there is no need to remove it. Bur if it is loose or embossed it will have to come off. Embossed paper will show its pattern through paper put over the top. If it is standard paper mix Polypeel with water as per the instruction supplied. Start front the bottom and work upwards, protecting the floor with towels, old sheets or newspaper. For washable or painted paper scratch the surface with very coarse sandpaper or a wire brush, or even the teeth of a piece of saw blade. This will allow the stripper to penetrate, but even then it may take some elbowgrease with a scraper to get the paper off. When the stripping is don'e fill any cracks or nail holes with plaster filler such as Polyfilla then sand smooth. Also sand smooth edges of old paper where it may have been torn. All surfaces have to be sized, which doesn't mean measured but coated with size to seal the surface so the paste does not get absorbed by the wall material. Old wallpaper that is being covered by new must also be sized. HANGING Measure the height of the wall between the skirting and the ceiling, allowing 2in extra top and bottom, or hold up a piece of wallpaper and mark off the length, allowing the 2in top and bottom again. The second method is probably; better where the ceiling isl sloping.

To ensure that the first; strip will be vertical use; either a spirit level or a plumb bob and start in a corner near the light scource.

Place the waterbox (with water in it) at the foot of the wall where you are going to start and read the instructions enclosed with the wallpaper. After measuring and cutting a strip loosely roll it up from the bottom with the pattern on the inside. Submerge it in the water and pass the top edge under the metal bar. Pull the strip up and set the left edge against your vertical line, smoothing into and around the corner with your brush or sponge. Hang subsequent strips: the same way but don’t;

overlap them — butt them, together with the palms of your hands. Remember though that wet wallpaper can be fairly delicate, so don’t use too much force.

Trim the top and bottom by pressing the paper into the edges to form a crease, pull a flap back and cut along the crease with the scissors. This can be tricky so take it carefully. Another way is to hold a straightedge into the skirting or ceiling and cut it with a sharp knife, but again wet paper is not always easy to cut this way.