Run Numbers Running Wild – Not Acceptable

For this job, the vendor sent FOUR different run numbers, plus two bolts that had no run numbers at all. It all had to be sent back and exchanged for new paper – all in the same run, please!

Run numbers are very important. When wallpaper is printed, each batch is marked with a run number. The next time the manufacturer makes a batch of wallpaper, a new vat of ink will be mixed up, and it will be an ever-so-slightly different shade from that which was used before. So that new batch of wallpaper will be given a new run number.

These color differences are minor – but if they are placed next to each other on a wall, you will have a very noticeable color change from one strip to the next. In the second photo, you can probably see the difference in color between the red flowers, and maybe even the green and brown foliage.

In the third photo, a smaller rectangle of the wallpaper pattern has been placed on top of a larger rectangle. All around the perimeter, you can see a slight color difference between the reds, greens, nad browns.

But it’s important to realize that the background will also be of a slightly different shade.

When two strips of two different runs are placed next to one another on a wall, the shade difference will be obvious in the form of a floor-to-ceiling slight-but-noticeable color difference. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/two-runs-are-not-fun/

It’s possible to work with this, by “breaking” the runs in a corner. But this uses up a lot more paper, and it’s too complicated to explain here.

This wallpaper was bought from an on-line mass-marketer. I like the quality of their products. But they seem to have no clue of how wallpaper works, and the customer service person had no grasp of what a run number was or why it mattered. From a vendor like this, you can pretty much expect that they have a bunch of stock shoved into shelves in the warehouse, and when someone buys some, a worker just goes out and pulls any old rolls from the stack, willy-nilly, with no regard to run number, damaged goods, and may not even check to ensure they are all the same product number – A coupla months ago, I got the same pattern but in two different colorways.

The bottom line is, buy your paper from a reputable source that specializes in wallpaper, check the run numbers when the paper arrives, and, if necessary, keep separate runs on separate walls.

Tags: color difference, quality, run number, shade, wallpaper