OUR SEATTLE CRAFTSMANLauren CaronOctober 31, 2020wallpaper, gucci wallpaper, DIY, Dining Room, one room challenge, ORC, ORCBHG, Our Seattle Craftsman, OurSeattleCraftsman, ourseattlecraftsmanComment

Fall One Room Challenge: Week 4

OUR SEATTLE CRAFTSMANLauren CaronOctober 31, 2020wallpaper, gucci wallpaper, DIY, Dining Room, one room challenge, ORC, ORCBHG, Our Seattle Craftsman, OurSeattleCraftsman, ourseattlecraftsmanComment

If you’re new around here, thanks for stopping by and welcome! I am Lauren Caron, an interior designer and the founder of Studio Laloc, an interior design firm based in Seattle, Washington. On the side my husband and I are remodeling our home that I’ve given its own hashtag #ourseattlecraftsman. We’ve renovated our kitchen, scullery, and in the last One Room Challenge, we renovated our powder room. I’m excited to be participating as a guest again and hope you’ll follow along as we remodel our dining room! If you missed last week’s post please check here to read it.

Week 3 Post

This week was all about keeping on with the wallpaper. I enlisted my husband for a few small tasks like installing the hardware on the french doors, and cutting down the wood strips that I’ll be wallpapering on to for the back of the built-in. But for the most part nothing new and exciting to talk about, except for the wallpaper.

Since so many people have asked me for wallpaper demos or tutorials, I’ve decided I wouldn’t do that, but I will provide some of my favorite tips and tidbits I’ve learned, as well as favorite tools and supplies I use for wallpapering. I still recommend that anyone who wants to attempt wallpapering for the first time they type in “How to Wallpaper” on google or Youtube. There are NUMEROUS amount of more skilled paper hangers than myself out there who are sharing the step-by-step process. I thought adding a few extra tips and pointers that I’ve learned from either doing it myself or speaking with the pros when working on client projects, would be a nice addition to the information you’ll learn from the rest of the internet.

Favorite Tools + Supplies

First let’s discuss my favorite tools. I have found that the places you’d usual think of to purchase supplies from like the paint stores, Lowes, and Home Depots would be the place go. However, they are unfortunately very limited on their availability of tools and wallpaper hanging supplies. I ordered everything I use for wallpaper hanging from Amazon. I know some people out there (I completely understand) are not fans of supporting Bezos, so you may have to do a bit more research in finding local sources or other websites that will sell you the tools you need. However, Amazon has been a one stop shop for me, and I will be providing affiliate links to my sources. *In terms of affiliate links, this is one way that you are able to give back to me, for the information and inspiration I provide to you. It won’t cost you anymore than it would if you didn’t purchase from my links, but if you do, I will appreciate the small pennies I get back for my recommendations.

Wallpaper Smoothing Kit / 2. Wallpaper Paste / 3. Torpedo Level / 4. Wallpaper Sponge / 5. Olfa Knife / 6. Wallpaper Liner Paper

The necessary tools you need for all wallpaper hanging are as follows:

A Burnisher - this tool helps smooth the paper on the wall and gets rid of bubbles (I like to use two sizes)
Scissors
Sharp Exacto Blade - I would recommend using an Olfa Knife with the clip off blades or a small Exacto for detailed and tight cuts. You will NEED extra blades to make the cleanest, sharpest cuts. Sometimes I use one blade per wallpaper strip!
A Torpedo Level (with a straight edge) - you have to make sure you runs are vertical as you go, so a torpedo level is great for smaller length runs (like above wainscoting) and a long level works great for long runs. More technologically advanced people use laser levels. I’ve never needed that fancy tool :)
Paint Brush OR Roller - to apply paste to paper or wall
Sponge - to wipe off excess glue
Old T-shirt or Rag - to wipe away excess water, glue, etc.
Bucket - for rinsing your sponge
Ladder or Tall Step Ladder
Saw Horses - or Folding table stands
A Flat surface - I use an cheap door from Home Depot
Drop Cloth or Plastic sheets
Wallpaper Paste
Lining Paper* - not always necessary

Wallpapering Tips + Tricks

Tips and Tricks I’ve learned from the Pros:

Always order one (at least) more roll than you’ve calculated that you need - for large rooms, I’d recommend 2 rolls or 10% more than you’ve calculated. I know wallpaper is expensive, but nothing is worse than running out of paper or having a random place that’s been damaged a year down the line after you’ve spent all this money or time wallpapering the room. Such as an instance where someone has a birthday party and tapes something up on your wall, only to tear the paper when removing the decorations - this actually happened to one of my clients. Buying paper months (sometimes years) after you’ve purchased your first batch may result in the worst case scenario - a pattern that is out of stock. OR second worst case scenario - dye lots that don’t match. Did you know that wallpaper, like fabric can change from dye lot to dye lot? If you ever have to reorder, make sure you’ve kept record of your previous dye lot and can request they send you paper from that lot - if there is any left, in your current order.
It’s important to decide which walls are the most important and least important visually within a room. Then once you know what rooms will be the ones you need to put focus on, you will want to pre-measure the entire space to determine if your repeat will perfectly wrap around the room. 99% of the time, it won’t. So once you figure out how off your room is from the full repeat, you can also figure out which wall you’re going to have to fudge where to two horizontal repeats don’t line up. I suggest having a plan from the start because you can plan to finish papering on the wall or in the place that you have dubbed to be the least important wall visually. In my dining room, I have decided that wall is the corner to the right of the windows, nearest the dining room. This is because I hope the curtains will take up some visual wall space and distract us from the wallpaper, and also, you can’t see that one spot from the living room. Every other wall has a strong point of focus.
It’s so important to have a fresh sharp blade. The blades dull very quickly when paper hanging. Even more quickly when you’re cutting wet or glue applied paper. I recommend stocking up on a lot of extra blades, sometimes one per strip of the paper you’re hanging. I also like to use scissors at times for certain cuts, because a non-sharp blade can pull and tear the paper. Or even if it is sharp and the paper is wet, sometimes the blade can’t really grab the edge and cut through the paper. That can be both frustrating and disappointing, resulting in bad cuts and edges.
Floral and organic paper patterns are easier to hide mistakes than graphic and clean paper designs. Also, textured paper is a bit easier than smooth and shiny paper. If you’re starting out with paper hanging, I would recommend you start with the organic, busy and texture papers over the opposing styles. Also, papering one solid wall without any doors, windows or cutouts are SO MUCH EASIER than walls with doors, windows and cutouts. So if it’s your first time, find a focal or accent wall you want to paper, or start on that wall until you get your groove with the other walls within a room.
Lining paper is a must for walls that haven’t been skim coated or aren’t smooth. It’s a life saver in old homes and homes that have orange peel texture. Also, if you choose a thicker, textured paper, you’ll get better results with your paper installation than a smooth shiny paper. I’ve worked with some paper hangers who will only work on jobs if there is a liner paper applied (or they’re applying it first). And while it adds to the cost of the install, it is worth the trouble in the end. Also, lining paper is great if you’re planning to take the paper with you, it’s extremely expensive (like De Gournay papers), or if you’re concerned about the chance of having a flood or water damage in the room you’re papering. If there does ever happen to be one of those instances, you can actually remove the paper with the liner and re-apply it again. This happened to one of my friends who installed a custom De Gournay mural in her dining room and had a leak from the roofline. She was able to save the paper because they had lined it!
Applying paste to the wall versus applying paste to the paper seems to be dependent on who’s papering. I do both, and change it up depending on the paper. Typically you want to apply paste to the paper so that it cures and makes the paper more flexible and pliable. For the Gucci paper however, it warns against applying paste to it, and recommends applying it to the wall, which I find interesting. So I would first recommend that you read the directions. I learned the hard way with the Tiger paper after getting a little paste on the front and wiping both the INK and the paste away.
For dark patterns that are printed on light seams it’s a good idea to prime the walls with a dark primer or to stain the seams with a color that matches the pattern. For example, if you have a dark blue pattern that has been printed on a white paper, the white seams will show up as white lines. If you use something like a pastel or watercolor pencil to match the dark blue, you can better disguise the seams. Sometimes skilled paper hangers will paint the seams. But I would recommend the easiest medium is a pastel crayon.
I recently learned that when you’re planning out your room and the amount of paper you need per run, that you want to figure out the amount of the repeat and the length of your wall. Once you know these numbers you can pre-cut your strips. For example: in our dining room, our wall space is 40” long and the wallpaper’s vertical repeat is 16 5/8” long. That means I will a 49 7/8” strip per run of wallpaper. If I can cut let’s say 4 runs at 49 7/8” L, I will know that I will have 4 strips for my wall that will have the exact amount for the repeat I need. In the sections where there are doors and the length of the wall is only about 13”long, I knew I needed to cut about 16” of paper to ensure that I would have a full repeat that will match up with each new strip. If this is confusing, I’m not really sure of a better way to explain it, but it was a light bulb moment for me when I saw my paper hanger pre-cutting all the strips for the entire room at once. In the past I would cut each strip based on the length of wall I had, leave extra paper on either side then I would match the repeat and cut from the top and the bottom. Probably not realizing I could have pre-cut strips and saved myself a little bit of time.
Last but not least, take your time, plan and prep everything before you start and do not RUSH the paper hanging process. I often work on rooms I’m papering over several days to make sure I have enough will power and patience to tackle the project properly. Wallpaper hanging is technically not that difficult. It just takes someone who is detailed and total present in the process in order to be successful and to not make too many mistakes.

I hope these tips and tricks will help you in your future wallpaper hanging endeavours. Have any tips or supplies to add to this list? Drop it in the comments so that other people may learn of them too! Now, let’s look at the To Do List