Tucking Wallpaper Behind Pedestal Sink

Pedestal sinks (and toilets ) are tricky to hang wallpaper around and behind .  Over-working or manipulating the paper to fit and then trim around curves like this can cause tears , creases , or burnishing , among other issues .  Also, if there’s a cut edge along the top of the sink / vanity , if water splashes , it can be wicked up by that cut edge , sucked up into the wallpaper, which can cause curling at the seams and / or delaminating of the paper .  So , instead of being trimmed / cut along the top, best if the wallpaper can go behind the sink / backsplash.

Here’s the 1/4″ or so gap that I’m going to work the wallpaper into.

 Rather than trying to wrestle a 9′ strip of 27″ wide wallpaper down the wall and around this sink , it made sense to cut the strip horizontally at a point just below the top of the sink . I’ll piece the bottom section in shortly.

Sometimes, pedestal sinks are adhered to the wall with caulk , and cannot be moved.  But today I got lucky.  I was able to go under the sink and loosen the bolts , one on either side, ( see photo ) holding it to the wall .  This is not easy – you’ve got to have small hands , good eyes , good light ,  a plumber’s wrench , a box wrench , or a pliers – whatever works!  And not undo too much, because you don’t want to dislodge the  system ( toggle bolt ) that’s holding the bolt in place.
After all that, loosening this bolt gave me about a whole ¼”  area of play .   Still, I was able to carefully and slowly work the wallpaper behind and around the sink , without significant creasing or damage .  See second photo .

The pattern is called Cornflower and is by Rifle Paper , a brand by York , one of my favorite manufacturers. Rifle Paper is usually a user-friendly non-woven material , also called paste-the-wall …. although can sometimes surprise you with traditional paper wallpaper instead of N-W .

Farrow & Ball Difficult Paper – Taming the Beast

Farrow & Ball is not among my favorite wallpaper manufacturers. For starters, they coat their wallpaper with their paint, instead of ink like every other manufacturer in the world uses.

Paint is not a good substitute for ink. It flakes, it doesn’t apply evenly so if you are standing at the right angle, you can see unevenness in the ground (background color). Plus, it burnishes with even the lightest brush stroke across it. Do a Search here to read my previous posts about this.

Look at the first photo, and you will see what we call gaps and overlaps. This happens when the trimmer blades at the factory are wobbly and / or dull, resulting in edges that are not cut straight. Thus, when two strips are butted together, you end up with some areas gapping and some areas overlapping.

Also, the seams like to give argument to staying down tight against the wall. Again, so a Search for previous posts about this.

This “Lotus” install was a little less problematic than my experiences with other patterns. The gaps and overlaps due to poor factory cutting were still present.

But the burnishing was less of an issue, because this pattern has so much printed area that there was not a lot of ground exposed to my smoothing brush.

I also found a way to get the seams to lie down better. For starters, I used a bit more paste (their special brand of powdered cellulose paste), than usual, and that wetted the paper out better, which made it want to hug the wall better.

Next, I found that if, before hanging each strip, I rolled a thin layer of paste onto the wall under where the seams would fall, the edges of each strip would grab the wall and lie down more tightly and uniformly.

In the second photo, you can see my laser level marking the vertical line where I will run my roller of paste.

Most British manufacturers are printing on the newish non-woven substrates, which offer many positive features. Farrow & Ball, however, continues to use the traditional British pulp. When coated with their paint (instead of ink), this stuff tends to be pretty thick and stiff. The thickness adds a bit to the visible seams as seen in the top photo.

Also, once the paper becomes wet with the company’s cellulose paste, it becomes quite flexible and delicate. Meaning that it can be difficult to cut, as it often drags along even a brand new razor blade, leaving jagged edges. It tears easily. And, while unbooking, it sure felt like some of the strips were so weak that they wanted to break in two.

All in all, this install went well. But I sure would prefer if F&B would get with the rest of the wallpaper world and print on a better substrate, as well as ditch the paint in favor of good, reliable ink. And outfit their factory with some straight and sharp trimming blades.

Some Papers are Prone to Wrinkles and Gaps

In the first photo, why is the pasted paper puckering? And the edges are curling. This is because the white ink and the blue ink absorb moisture from the paste and expand at different rates. The blue ink is stretching, expanding, and curling.

This continues even after the paper has been booked and relaxed and then hung on the wall. In the second photo, you see how the white areas are clinging tightly to the wall, but the blue ink is causing the paper to curl away from the wall.

Sometimes, I have to fight with the paper to get it to stay down tight to the wall, and this can cause a little burnishing at the seams. Usually, though, patience wins out, and, if you wait until the paper dries, the seams will loose their moisture and pull tightly against the wall, as this one did.

This cute wallpaper pattern is by Hygge & West, comes in several colors, and can be bought on-line.