Kristina Wolf's House of Design

Interior Design, Accessorizing, and DIY Tips

ceiling wallpaper

Wallpapering Tips for Beginners

No one starts off applying wallpaper perfectly. It involves a more complicated technique than painting with brushes and rollers, and any mistakes become permanent. If you paint a wall wrong, you can always paint over the problem. It’s harder to hide air bubbles in wallpaper.

While wallpapering is tricky at first, you can do it yourself. Following these wallpaper tips, you can get that professional look without hiring a professional.

Prepping the Room

Before you start applying the wallpaper, decide where each of your wallpaper strips will go. Using a measuring tape, work your way around the room and draw a line to mark where each strip ends.

Measuring and marking the wall will also help you determine how much wallpaper you need to buy. Multiplying how many strips you need by the height of your room will give you an approximate amount. It’s better have some left over than to not have enough, so buy around 15 to 20 percent more than your calculations say.

Finally, remove all fixtures like light switch covers and heating vents and fill any gaps you have with non-shrinking joint compound. You want the wall to have as few imperfections as possible when you start wallpapering.

Prime the Walls

Prime your walls using a wall sizing product. This product will make the walls smooth and slippery. This might sound like the opposite of what you need when sticking on wallpaper, but it helps you move the wallpaper around. You’ll rarely apply it straight the first time, so having the freedom to adjust means a lower chance of imperfection in the finished product.

This movability is particularly important when applying wallpaper to drywall. Without proper priming, you can’t get the wallpaper off if you decide to redecorate later.

Applying the Paste

Always apply the paste to the paper, not to the wall. Don’t be tempted to paint the walls with paste and stick on the wallpaper. It might seem more efficient at first, but you’ll create more work for yourself when it dries and ruins your priming.

Find a flat surface—preferably a worktable—and apply the paste using a paint roller. This technique gives you a more even spread than a paintbrush and speeds up the process. Check your wallpaper to find out which type of paste to buy.

You then want to book the paper. After you’ve applied the paste, fold the paper back on itself to soften it.

Where to Start

If you have chosen a wallpaper with a repeating pattern, it is likely that wherever it ends, the patterns won’t match. There is no perfect way to resolve this, so your best option is to start and end in the least conspicuous spot.

If you know that you plan to put a cupboard or another large piece of furniture in a particular spot, start there. Still, consider that you may want to rearrange your furniture at some point. To keep your options open, you may want to start around or above a door.

If wallpapering your home makes you nervous, don’t worry. With these wallpaper tips, you can avoid beginners’ mistakes and make anyone think you knew what you were doing from the start.

Make Your Ceiling Pop!

Ready to wow your guests (and yourself!) with a bold interior design move? Throw some wallpaper on the ceiling and you’ll be mighty impressed by the results. There are all kinds of ways you can use wallpaper to jazz up your ceiling and provide an unexpected visual treat in a space that is traditionally left alone.make-your-ceiling-pop

Wallpapering the ceiling can be used in multiple ways. For example:

  • To add a bold color or pattern that would have overwhelmed the space on the walls.
  • Highlight an architectural feature or lighting fixture.
  • Provide visual interest on an expanse of highly visible ceiling (like the lower ceilings in a sloped upper-story bedroom or along the stairwell).
  • To add texture and pattern that replicates traditional wood moulding motifs.
  • Make a tall ceiling feel a little closer in order to create a more intimate ambiance.

If you’re feeling adventurous and love DIY projects, then more power to you. Check out these instructions on How to Wallpaper a Ceiling and have at it. Otherwise, we recommend using a professional so the job is done cleanly and efficiently – without the risk of mismatched lines, wrinkles, loose edges and other calamities that can occur during (and after) the wallpapering process.

Here are examples of the many ways wallpapering your ceiling can enhance an interior design. You’ll wonder why you’ve never used it in the past.

Move Over Michelangelo: 5 Great Reasons to Use Wallpaper on Your Ceilings

  1. Be bold – in moderation. There are some super fun and colorful wallpaper prints but they can easily overwhelm a living space. Instead, put them on the ceiling, where they are off the eyes’ beaten path. Then use accents and accessories to tie in the bright colors inherent in the pattern. It would be a special room that could accommodate the large, bright print that became the ceiling of this South Hamptom dining room, but it looks fantastic in its current application.
  2. Highlight existing features. Here’s another dining room that optimized the idea of ceiling paper. The use of white trim detail with a recessed border around the light fixture, combined with a matching shade of wallpaper, sets the stage for any guests who enter to take a seat at the table.
  3. Create a textured look. Texture is an important element of design. Without it, a living space appears flat. While high-quality textured wallpaper is pricey, it’s still more affordable than serious wood work. Therefore, seek out wallpapers with textured patterns that replicate ornate ceiling or panel work, and you’ll get the benefit of a luxurious look and texture for a fraction of the price of the real thing.
  4. Make visible ceiling space more interesting. Every once in a while, there’s an expanse of ceiling space that angles into our visual plane. A little visual detail is always a nice touch and wallpaper can provide just that. I think of upper-story rooms that have sloped ceilings or a low ceiling space that is angled to accommodate a staircase.
  5. Shrink a tall ceiling. More often than not, we talk about light and bright colors on ceilings to open up a space. However, every once in a while, you want to do the opposite. Higher-than average ceilings, typical of older homes, can make a room feel more cavernous than you like. Using darker colors is beneficial in these cases because they shrink the room a bit. Darker and/or patterned wallpaper on the ceiling will make it seem a little closer.