How to fit wallpaper

Wallpaper is among the current trends in interior décor. It not only has the sophistication and perfection you want for your walls but also comes in different patterns, colours and designs. Whether settling for a faux brick wallpaper, 3D, landscape, floral, plain or the deep embossed types, here is how you can put up your own wallpaper.

Joseph Muyigwa, a house finishing constructor, shares that when applying wallpaper, the most important consideration is that the walls are well prepared and made ready for the wall paper because if they are not, the wall paper won’t adhere to the wall, making it pill off soon.

Preparing the walls
“To smooth walls, use filler to fill and smooth out any holes or dents that may be in the wall using a trowel and allow filler to thoroughly dry up. Be sure to make your filler patchwork as neat and as smooth as possible, especially on the edges where it joins the wall,” Muyigwa explains.

After this, use a high dusting broom or a blow drier to sweep away any dust that may be on the wall. Getting rid of this makes the wall and the adhesive to seamlessly bond.

To make smoother but to also protect the wall from the wallpaper, paint the wall with a primer/ undercoat.
However, if you observe the wall to be smooth enough, you may not need to add primer.

“If the plastered wall has never been painted, make sure to apply undercoat so as to protect your plaster but also, you don’t want plaster to pierce through the wallpaper and to make it feel rough,” he adds.

After priming, let the wall dry before proceeding to apply the wall paper.
“When buying a wallpaper of your choice, make sure you understand the type of wall paper you are buying because some need stronger adhesives than others, so ask at your favorite hardware store the kind of adhesive or wallpaper paste to use. Additionally, there are pre-pasted wallpapers. These only need a little water, and then can be applied to the wall,” Muyigwa cautions.

Applying wallpaper
Measure the part of wall you want to wallpaper and measure the wall paper as well for purposes of accuracy.
“It is wise to throw in extra measurements in the wall paper so that you have enough to work with and just cut off the remainder when you are done wallpapering,” Muyigwa says.

Apply wallpaper adhesive at the back of the wallpaper and let it sit for a while. Finally, use a standing stool and hung the wallpaper onto the wall while using a clean rug/ towel or sponge to smooth it out onto the wall.

“Ensure to have the wall paper properly aligned onto the wall, especially if it has patterns. To do a proper job, you might need someone to help you while you overlay the wall paper so that you don’t have it bent or misaligned,” he cautions.

Finally, cut off any remainders at the edges of the wallpaper, smooth out, and the job will be done.