How To Install Wallpaper
Installing wallpaper for the first time is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult, time consuming and frustrating so you are better off leaving it for professionals.
My issue is that I don’t have the budget to leave it for professionals so I tried to do it myself, but I soon realized this project was way above my skills set so I brought my handy husband to the rescue like a damsel in distress.
There were two reasons why this project was more difficult for us than it should be for you:
- The wallpaper I chose had a pattern that had to match exactly. No room for error.
- My house was built in 1941 and has not been updated so the walls are crooked and uneven.
So, how did we do it and what did we learn? Let’s go step by step.
Materials
– Wallpaper – we used Underwater World from Hygge & West
– Wallpaper paste- we used a basic one that was very thick, so we had to add water to thin it
– Drop cloth
– Measuring tape
– Scissors
– Sponge
– Utility knife
– Bucket for water
– Tray to mix the paste
– Pencil
– Level
– Paint roller
– Smoothing tool
Instructions
1) Prepare your walls
Most instructions on how to install wallpaper wants you do add wallpaper primer. Well, we didn’t. The wallpaper primer helps you stick the wallpaper to difficult surfaces like glossy paint…our walls are not glossy so my husband thought it was not necessary. We installed the paper 6 weeks ago and so far so good.
What did we do to prep the walls? We washed them and covered the holes. Also, please, sandpaper small imperfections! We didn’t do a good job at sanding small bumps and we almost ripped the paper when trying to smooth it out!!!
2) Cut the wallpaper
Measure the height of your wall and cut your first piece of wallpaper 4 inches longer than your wall’s height. If you care about which part of the wallpaper motif is on top of your wall and which one is in the bottom, you need to consider that when making these cuts. We didn’t care about this, so our starting point was the beginning of the roll.
Arrange your wallpaper on the floor and line up patterns correctly. Cut the rest of your wallpaper so the pattern matches exactly.
3) Mark your wall
Our wallpaper was 27 inches wide, so we marked our wall 26 inches from the edge (1″ less than the width of the wallpaper), to give us room for error (in case your walls are crooked).
George did a line from the top to the bottom of the wall that was perfectly vertical, with the widest part being 26 inches. Again, our walls are uneven, so the line was not 26 inches from the side of the wall on all places. Use your level to create a vertical line.
4) Apply wallpaper paste
We soon realize our paste was too thick, see for yourself:
So we added water to thin it and then applied it to the back of the wallpaper. Place your drop cloth under the wallpaper to keep the paste from sticking to the floor.
5) Hang the wallpaper
Line up your first strip to the vertical line you created in step 3. You should have extra wallpaper on top, bottom, and side.
You have around 10 minutes to adjust your wallpaper after you hang it. It is important to keep that time frame in mind when you are trying to align the different strips.
6) Smooth your wallpaper
After you hang the wallpaper, you will see it has wrinkles and bubbles. You need to smooth those out with a smoothing tool – we used one that was 6″ wide. Do this gently! from the center to the outside.
7) Trim the edges
Use your utility knife to trim the edges and make sure the blade is VERY sharp, or you will tear the paper when trimming it.
8) Remove excess paste
Use your sponge and bucket with water to remove excess paste. If you don’t remove the extra paste, your wallpaper might get stained.
9) Hang next strip
When hanging the rest of the strips, you will see that it is difficult to have the patterns match exactly. Make sure that the pattern matches at eye level first; this helps align lower and higher levels later. Butt the edges together, don’t overlap them! And remember the wallpaper will dry out in around 10 minutes, so you have that time to align patterns. Clean the seam with a wet sponge to remove excess paste.
10) Repeat and don’t stress out
Because installing wallpaper is hard and stressful, take your time to do this project and try to relax. A project like this will take you all day to complete if it is your first time so don’t hurry.
How to trim around windows
When you reach a window hang the next length of paper so that it overlaps the recess. Make horizontal cuts in the paper to release it and, using your utility knife, trim the paper so it fits around the window sill. Trim the edges.
On applying too much paste
For beginners like us, it was hard to figure out how much paste to apply on the wallpaper. Now we know that you don’t need a lot. Lightly damp is enough paste. If you apply too much this will happen to you:
Lots of paste can ruin your wallpaper because it can stain it and because it requires using your smoothing tool a LOT to get rid of the bubbles formed by the extra paste – if you have uneven walls this process could rip your paper, so be careful.
Final result
As hard as it was to do this project, it was totally worth saving the money by doing it ourselves. The wallpaper looks great and the job looks professionally done. Can you spot the seams in final photos below?
I hope these instructions are helpful! and good luck installing your own wallpaper! It will be hard but rewarding, just like creating this post.
Also, a post about how to paint your walls, cool wallpapers for a nursery, and, light fixtures for your living room.
One Room Challenge – Week 5 –
As you can see, we built bookshelves this weekend (and by we, I mean George). I was planning to buy a bookcase, but after looking at the space, and listening to 
The painting is not the obvious choice for this space. It is very colorful and noisy, but it fits just right for my taste. It brings a nice edginess to the bookshelves and it opens them up. It draws your eye and unclutters the shelves with that open space.
About the dresser:
I decided to style it like a campaign dresser. First, I bought 
I didn’t want gold hardware, so I sprayed them with 
I am going to have to repaint some of the details with a small brush because paint came off when installing them.
These are the
And, here is how it looks right now:
(In this photo you can see how the dresser is coming out – I have a lot more drilling to do but I like how it looks)
This week, for the 
Here is the Emerald Isle color.
You definitely need two coats when painting IKEA pine furniture, and remember not to paint inside holes because you will need to assemble this furniture later and will need those holes to be their original size!
This is how it looks now: after painting and assembling…I really like the green, even though this photo doesn’t make it justice… Also, the unit is great for storing toys because they give easy access to children.
The kids love the bunk bed. Well, maybe love is an understatement, because they have decided to play and eat up there every single second of the day, which means an adult has to be near at all times because Max is only two and not able to make wise decisions regarding child safety.
I got 
And, organize this mess:
In preparation for our Easter brunch, I tried doing a lavender wreath to use as decoration.
Instructions:
I started with longer branches, as you can see in the picture below. That was a big mistake. They were hard to cover and my wreath had a weird shape by the end. I had to re-do the beginning of it. There is a photo of it later on this post. 
3) Wrap floral wire around the branches to attach the lavender to the wire wreath. 2-3 times is enough. 
4) Keep on adding branches on top as you go. TIP: You don’t want the wire wreath to show. The best technique to avoid this is to spread each bunch of lavender from the inside to the outside of the wreath so they cover all the space you need to cover, as you see in the pictures below. A dry lavender wreath is NOT forgiving, and it is difficult to fix this kind of mistakes once they are done. Unlike the 
5) The end of the lavender wreath is the most difficult part. Cut your branches short and stick them in there somehow. It is possible!
OK. First I will show you my FAILED version. I added Víctor to the mix so the photo doesn’t look totally horrible. Ready? Here it is:
You see how the first branches I did are much longer than the others and they look out of place. Something similar happened to me when I did the Holiday wreath, so I had to go back, took out the floral wire, and did that section over again.
I tried three different ways of doing Easter eggs decorations this last weekend: confetti(ed), painted, and spattered. Here are my research findings.
I bought these big plastic eggs at Target to help keep the kids entertained while I did the fancy decor. It worked for about 3 minutes. I am a genius!
This egg with glitter spots looks so cute, doesn’t?:
Max was not cooperating, but he was cute:
I sprayed a cracked egg to see if I could save it somehow. I DID!!! Don’t dismiss cracked eggs.
I used gold spray and mirror effect spray. As you can see, the mirror effect spray gave the egg a marble effect:
