Working with Wallpaper
My experience working with Pre-pasted wallpaper
This was my first time working with wallpaper. It has been a trend as of late and I always wanted to try so I designed this wallpaper specifically for my home. I live in Hawaii and I am surrounded by tropical beauty so I wanted something fun, bright and green for my home. I was beyond happy with the way the design came out. It is exactly what I envisioned. The application of the wallpaper was not as intimidating as I thought. I originally started with the downstairs powder room. Then I used the extra wallpaper for the nook in my front foyer. Here is my process and some tips of what I learned.
When ordering your wallpaper from Spoonflower, you should first measure the wall or space you are planning to wallpaper. The roll sizes are available as follows:
24 inches wide (2 feet) and available in lengths of 1 foot, 3, 9 or 12 feet. You can order a test swatch before you place your official order. Test Swatch dimension is 2’ x 1’. You also have 3 types of wallpaper to choose from:
Pre-Pasted Removeable Smooth
Peel & Stick Removeable Woven
Non-Pasted Traditional Pebble
https://www.spoonflower.com/en/wallpaper
I decided to try the Pre-pasted Removable Smooth because It seemed to be the best fit for my bathroom installation.
When my package arrived, everything was nicely wrapped and the installation instructions were included. I reviewed the instructions carefully and watched the Spoonflower installation video on Youtube. Here is the link to the video if you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlMskXhh0TM
Before I started my work, I wiped down the wall in my bathroom and vacuumed my living room floor as I wanted to use that space to lay out the wallpaper as I did not have a table large enough to lay everything out on. I ended up using my dinner table seats to hold down the wallpaper.
- The items you will need for this project are:
- Paint roller
- Water
- Exacto knife
- Paint tape (to hold up the wallpaper)
- Ruler (for cutting the excess)
- Scissors
- Sponge or wet dish towel
- Paper weights – Some house hold items can work for this like a book or big candles
- Wallpaper. To order the wallpaper I used, click here.
The next step is to lay out your wallpaper face down and use some paper weights to hold down the ends. Then I prepped the roller with water and thoroughly wet the back of the first roll to activate the adhesive. I followed the instructions included with my order. Once it was wet, I gently folded both the pasted side ends in on itself to meet in the middle and set my timer on my phone for 5 minutes. (The first roll I did, I only timed for 3 minutes. It was too short of time so I need to grab my spray water bottle and touch up the corners and ends, so I highly recommend 5 minutes).
Once you line up your roll with your wall the best you can, start using your wet sponge (or in my case, I used a wet dish towel) to smooth down the wallpaper in a downward motion from left to right. The instructions recommend you start in the top left corner of the wall. This is the time to remove any unwanted air bubbles. Once I was done with the first roll, I started the adhesive activation process for the 2nd roll.
Adding the 2nd roll to the first was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The new roll overlaps the 1st roll by ¾ inch (1,9 cm). I carefully matched up the design before I pressed down with my wet dish towel. With the 2nd roll, I had to use my exacto knife to cut around the toilet paper holder. Start off your initial incision right in the middle of the area you need to work around and then start cutting outward. I liked this method best as it will limit your chances of cutting too much.
This project took me about 45 min to gather all my items and install. Then I waited about 2 hours (the instructions recommend 3 hours for the wallpaper to dry before you start using an exacto knife and ruler to start trimming away the excess. I just couldn’t wait because I was too excited so I went ahead with this next step. Luckily the wallpaper was dried and ready to be trimmed.
Overall, this project was so much faster and easier than I thought. This project sat around for 3 months before I got the courage to do it. So take it from me, if you have been wanting to spice up a room or looking for a new project to do, go for it! What’s nice about the pre-pasted wallpaper is that you can always remove it if you do not like it. Lucky for me, I absolutely love that I am able to showcase one of my designs in my house. I love the pop of color it adds into my home! I encourage you to try this in your home. It’s amazing what a little wallpaper can do.
Tips:
Your walls may not be as straight as you think. Flashback to the time I bought my home. I was told by the builder that homes are handmade, so measurements may be off up to 1 inch. This is true because my wallpaper did not evenly line up from the ceiling to the floor about a quarter of an inch. I readjusted my wallpaper as best I could.
Try to lay out your wall papers side by side and use a pencil to mark the quarter ¾ inch overlap. This will help you when adding the next roll. You can go back and use an eraser to remove the pencil mark.
Use the extra wallpaper (if you have any) to do another space in your home. I used the extra wallpaper to also do the nook in my foyer. See the before and after photos below. I love it! It’s so welcoming and fresh.
I hope my experience helps you. Feel free to me email me if you have any questions. Good Luck and have fun!
With Love and Aloha,
Kris Wong
