Hanging Wallpaper

I recently decided to paint my kitchen and wallpaper the dining area. I'd been hauling this one double roll of wallpaper around for about 22 years and now that I am retired, decided it was time to give my kitchen/dining area a facelift. The painting part went fine, I still have some to do.

The wallpapering part didn't go so easily. The paper, a vinyl, is a self-pasted variety with no instructions. It takes only a quick soak in water to get the paste activated. It worked best if, after getting it wet, I let it sit, out of the water, for a couple minutes.

It probably would have been a lot better had I realized ahead of time that the walls in the dining area are not exactly STRAIGHT where they join. They aren't perfectly flat either, I found out. Sigh. A measurement as small as an 1/8 of an inch makes a big difference!! I wouldn't have done this project if I had known this ahead of time!!

Another thing that was totally irritating about wallpaper is that you have to waste a lot of paper to "match" the sheet next to it. Wallpaper companies must make a mint since you have to cut off so much to make this or that line up to meet part of the picture on one sheet to the next sheet. Unfortunately, since this paper was so old, the option of running back to the store for another roll was out of the question! So, when there was more wall than whole sheets of wallpaper left, the "piece-meal" papering kicked in.

Anyway, I kept at it and by the time I got 2/3 of the wall finished, I really got the hang of hanging wallpaper. Fortunately, most of the "goof ups" are behind pieces of furniture or can be made less noticeable by strategic placement of decor on the walls.

It helped a lot to hold things up and seal edges to use a small amount, or not so small amount, of tile adhesive to secure the strips of wallpaper. This is not something that was recommended in any of the websites I looked at on the subject, it was however, effective without having to purchase a ton of this and that tools to get the same result.

I can say without hesitation that I will NEVER EVER hang wallpaper again!