The homeowners of this 1936 bungalow in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston are artists and maximalists , and their home home is filled with lots of funky , colorful , and unexpected items. This poor bedroom needed something to help it fit in with the rest of the house . Solution! This shot pretty much depicts the correct colors in this wallpaper pattern . the colors are actually darker and murkier than this. Mysterious looking flowers and foliage , and deep , rich jewel-tone colors . This wallpaper is called Opia and is by House of Hackney . Hackney makes lovely non-woven / paste-the-wall goods, along with innovative patterns , many of which are sort of murals . I like this brand a lot , for fun patterns and also for excellent quality , durability , ease of installation , ease of removal , and affordable price . Each of their ” rolls ” contains four panels , which are meant to be hung in sequence , left to right . Put together, the four panels measure about 6′ wide by 10.5′ high . If you have 8′ ceilings , yes, you will be throwing away 2.5′ of length for each strip . Likewise, for the space over a door , which is usually about 1′ – 2′ high, you will use a full 10.5′ strip, throwing away up to 9′ of it . It’s important to know this when calculating how much to purchase , because if you figure by square footage, you’re gonna come up way short. You’ve got to count how many panels you will need. Or, better yet – let the installer calculate how much to buy .
Oh, my! – I hung lots of these chintz florals, ” satin ” look (the design of the dark green at the bottom of the wall), and dark colors back in the ’90’s . Sure enough – this home was built and wallpapered in 1994. IIt’s still a good look, IMO, and the homeowner still likes it. But she’s just gotten tired of it. So – time for an update ! She also decided to eliminate the chair rail , so the new wallpaper will go ceiling to floor . Here you see some damage to the drywall where the chair rail molding was removed . What a change! Now the room’s look is quiet and fresh . The buffet , topped with a decorative mirror , will go on this wall . That’s why I centered the pattern in between the windows , so it will fall evenly on either side of the furnishings . I also plotted so that a full “Moroccan lantern” (that’s what this style of trellis pattern is called), would balance out between the crown molding and the window molding. There were several of these 12.5″ high areas all around the room, so this placement of whole “lantern” motifs gave the room a pleasing look. It also worked out that the lanterns were evenly placed and kept whole between the crown molding and the baseboard. See the second following photo to see what I’m talking about As a note – just this one window wall took me about five hours to measure , calculate , and hang . Getting the pattern to go over, around, and under the two windows , and still line up and match correctly , took some time and futzing. The material was thick and stiff , and a bit tricky to fit into corners and trim around the decorative window molding . In the foreground you see my work table area . The homeowner has let me put protective padding on her dining room table and then set my work table on that. This saves space and allows plenty of room for my ladder and other tools as I work around all four walls. So that I could center the pattern on this wall , I had to start hanging my first strip in the middle of the wall. I was lucky this time, that the pattern was centered exactly on the edge of the wallpaper roll . Sometimes (as in the one I did yesterday – see previous post ) the center of the design motif is a to the right or left of the edge of the wallpaper . This, naturally, means you’ve got to do more measuring and plotting and double-checking , to be sure the center of the design falls down the center of the wall . Back to the photo above … that dark block on the right side of my work table is my laser level. It’s shooting a perfectly plumb red line onto the wall. Here I’m lining up my first strip of paper butted against this red line . Switch topics … Back in 1994, the original installer did a very nice job of hanging the wallpaper. But … he didn’t prime the new drywall first. That lack of primer / protective layer means that the wallpaper will actually bond to the drywall. I tried, but was unable to get the existing wallpaper off . Eventually, you need to factor in time , damage to the wall , paste residue left on the wall, and take a different tac if called for. So I skim-floated over the seams , so they wouldn’t show under the new paper , and also floated over the damaged drywall where the chair rail had been removed . Sanded smooth , and then primed the patched areas as well as the original wallpaper, with Roman Ultra Prime Pro 977 . This stuff will adhere to the light acrylic (slick) surface of the original wallpaper, as well as protect it from moisture from my paste on the new wallpaper. ( Moisture could cause the underlying original wallpaper to expand , creating bubbles that will look bad, or loose areas that will pull away from the wall, creating a bubble or pocket.) My primer is also lightly pigmented, so it helps block out the dark color and busy pattern of the original wallpaper . This particular new wallpaper is quite opaque , but not all of them are, so a pigmented primer is important , IMO . Left corner of the buffet wall. Here you can see how the lantern motifs are placed between ceiling and floor. The background has a lightly mottled effect, that mimics grasscloth a bit, and also adds more depth and warmth than just a plain solid color . Been havin’ more than a fair share of defects lately, especially this week. This paper had on both front and back sides, incidences of these black flecks . They seemed to be maybe charcoal , so I wasn’t too worried about their black bleeding through to the surface , like ink or any oil-based substance will do. Most of them were embedded in the material itself, so could not be wiped off , nor dug out with a razor blade . Some I had to cut around and discard the affected paper. Others were so small as to not be noticeable once the paper was up on the wall and all the furniture and artwork was back in the room. There was also one 3′ section of wallpaper that had an odd streak or arc running across it. It wasn’t ink . It was more like some kind of compromise to the substrate . I noticed it was I was pasting the back of the paper . I turned it over and, sure enough, you could see it a little on the surface. (see photo in previous post) It’s the kind of thing that was subtle, but would catch your eye when looking at the wall from a distance . It was minor , but I discarded that strip . Good thing I have the homeowners purchase a little extra wallpaper . The manufacturer is Designer Wallcoverings , which is a good quality brand (aside from the printing defects I described earlier ). It was a non-woven / paste the wall material , which is pretty user-friendly . It will strip off the wall easily and in one piece when you redecorate . Stain-resistant , and ” breathable ” in humid conditions . The home is in the West University neighborhood of Houston . Dining room installer
I’m fixin’n to hang faux grasscloth on this accent / headboard wall in a master bedroom in the Spring Branch area of Houston. The textured wall has been skim-floated , sanded smooth , primed , and is ready for wallpaper . The material is 20.75″ (20 and 3/4″) wide . So here I’m measuring off how many strips of wallpaper I’ll need. I’ve counted out seven strips across the wall, and have come to my last (8th) strip. Look at my pencil mark – it’s at 21.” Remember that the paper is 20 3/4″ wide. This means that, to cover that last, scant 1/4″ width , I’ll have to use a ninth strip. Which will be a whole 9′ high strip that’s 20.75″ wide. Useing a 1/4″ wide strip off a 9′ long length leaves us with a whole lot of waste – paper / square footage just going into the trash. This is, again, why you should not purchase wallpaper based on square footage. It’s more a matter of determining how many strips you will need – factoring in the pattern repeat, etc. Even better , have the wallpaper installer make a site – visit and calculate for you. Going a step further … Since this is a (faux) grasscloth and has not pattern match , the seams will all be visible . So we try to balance the panels on the wall. Meaning, the wall will look better with panels of equal-widths, instead of, for instance, eight panels at 21″ wide and one at 1/2″. For the record, it also looks better to not have a seam fall at dead-center on the wall. Better to have that center panel straddle the mid-point. With this particular install, that’s what I chose to do. I took the first (let’s just call it 21″ wide for ease) … I took the first 21″ wide panel and used my laser level to line it up so 10 1/2″ fell on either side of the center line on the wall. So, this first panel was straddling the center line. From there, I used full-width (21″) panels one either side. Until I got to the last panel on the left, and the last one on the right. These two ended up each being about 15″ wide. So I had seven panels that were 21″ wide, and then two flanking on either side that were 15″ wide. This gave the wall a nice, balanced, uniform look. Yes, I could have hand-trimmed each strip to 19″ wide or whatever the math would have worked out to. But my option was simpler, faster, maintained uniformity between the majority of the panels, as well as uniform width on the two outer panels, eliminated the worry of gaps at the seams due to unevenly trimmed rigid vinyl goods, and the 6″ width difference wasn’t very noticeable. And, also, since this was a faux grasscloth and color variations were minimized, you could hardly see the seams, nor the width of the panels, anyway. From 5′ away, this wall looked perfectly homogeneous .
Half bath sink room primed and read for wallpaper . I have plotted where the seams will fall and striped with dark paint , to prevent the light colored primer from showing in case the seams gap a bit. Artemis is available as a floor-to-ceiling pattern. So this partial coverage option is an innovative and fun variation on a theme . This is the same pattern Artemis Climbing Walls as yesterday, but reversed , so the flowers go from bottom upward . The ceilings are pretty high. The empty 5 gallon bucket is there on the counter (with non-slip cushioning beneath it) as an un-OSHA approved footrest , so I can safely reach the top corners . Artemis is a very popular wallpaper pattern , especially in this dark / black colorway . Manufacturer is House of Hackney . This install was on four walls in a powder room , instead of a single accent wall. Since this comes as a 4-panel mural instead of traditional rolled goods, the layout was a little more tricky . I cut out the little mock-ups from the instruction insert, and marked them as to roughly where each panel was separated . This is a non-woven material, and can be hung by the paste the wall method, as I did yesterday in the dining room. But today, in the small and chopped up powder room , I opted to paste the paper instead. You will note that this pattern continues uninterrupted from one mural to the next. If you have a wide space to cover and will need more than one mural , this continuation of the design is imperative. Not all do, so check and be extra sure, before you order. Speaking of ordering material … remember that for murals, you MUST add 2″ to EACH side – in other words, a total of FOUR INCHES to BOTH WIDTH and HEIGHT . This will accommodate trimming at floor and ceiling , and also will allow for wonky or off-plumb / level surfaces . Better yet, have your wallpaper installer calculate for you. Houston
My pencil is pointing at a chunk of paper that was stuck to the label and got torn off when the package of wallpaper was opened.
To get past this unusable paper, I had to roll off and discard a full pattern repeat – in this case, 24″ – that’s two linear feet. And, multiplied by the width of the wallpaper, that’s more that four and a half square feet of paper lost!
This is a good reminder to not calculate wallpaper rollage by square feet. And to always buy extra – just in case.
Even better – do not order your paper until the paperhanger has measured the space. It’s has to do with more than just square feet.
See that 3 1/2″ wide stripe of bare wall to the left of the strip of wallpaper? In order to cover this with wallpaper, I will need to take a full 9′ high strip of 27″ wide paper – that’s more than 20 square feet – and cut off just 4″ from the one side. The rest of that 9′ long strip of wallpaper will most likely go into the trash bin.
This is a good example of why you can’t calculate how many rolls you need to paper a room by figuring up square footage. You simply are not able to use every square foot of paper on that bolt!
On-line calculators don’t take into account the waste factor from matching the pattern, and the pattern repeat, nor trimming at floor and ceiling, or around objects (windows, doors, cabinets). Or situations like in the photo above, where most of the strip will go to waste.
Again – always best to have the wallpaper hanger measure first and calculate how much paper you need before you buy.
For all the prospective clients who think they can pull out their calculator and slide rule and then meticulously calculate that they can cover their walls with 186.7 sq ft of wallpaper – WRONG!
Here is a good example of waste, and why you can’t purchase wallpaper based on square feet alone.
Here we are working with a non-woven material that is packaged in 21″ wide x 33′ long.
In the photo, that narrow 1″ wide strip of wall on the left needs to be covered with wallpaper.
That’s 1″ wide x 5′ tall. That comes out to .41 square feet of wallpaper.
Sounds negligible, doesn’t it? But in real life, a whole lot more wallpaper will be called into play – and tossed into the trash – in order to cover this miniscule space.
Although I stockpile all scraps, there is nothing in my remnant pile that is long enough, nor the correct pattern match, to cover this space.
So I must cut a new length from a bolt of wallpaper.
The pattern has a 25″ repeat, so I had to cut off almost this much in order to come up with the correct pattern match. That’s 25″ long x 21″ wide … so already, we are nearly 4 square feet cut off and thrown onto the trash pile.
Now that I have the pattern matched correctly, I need 5 running feet of it to cover the length of wall in the photo. That’s 60″ long x the 21″ wide width of the wallpaper. That calculates to 8.75 square feet of paper.
Of those 8.75 square feet, remember that I need only a 1″ wide strip. As previously mentioned, that comes to .41 square feet.
So, 8.75 sq ft – .41 sq ft = 8.33 sq ft of paper that can’t be used anywhere else, and will be tossed onto the discard pile.
That’s 8.33 sq ft of waste. Considering that the average single roll of wallpaper contains 28 square feet (but in reality, only 22 square feet of useable paper), this leaves you with only 19.75 square feet of useable paper.
In double roll speak, this means a bolt with 56 square feet, which is better calculated at 44 useable square feet, after hanging this one puny 1″ wide strip, you are left with 47.7 sq ft of useable paper – nearly 10 sq ft lost for just one 1″ wide strip!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even gotten into pattern repeats, trimming at ceiling and floor, going around windows, vaulted ceilings, stairs, multiple drops, expansion when wet with paste, and all sorts of other factors.
Bottom Line: We paperhangers know the ins and outs of this stuff.
And homeowners don’t. Nor do contractors, painters, handymen, nor even engineers. Most of all, NOT engineers. (I love ’em all,,,, but they tend to get bogged down in details, and overlook the grand scale.)
Bottom, Bottom Line: Let the paperhanger measure the space and calculate how much wallpaper to order.
To come up with how much to buy, lot of people carefully measure and calculate the square footage of their room, and then divide that by the square footage on a bolt of wallpaper. WRONG!
This does not allow for the “waste factor.”
Wallpaper is not like paint. You can’t grind it up and put it in a bucket and spread every square inch onto your walls. You will lose some – often a lot – to waste.
In the photo above, I have only papered 1/4 of the room. Yet look at my discard pile – all this paper was cut off in order to match the pattern, or to go around a window or door, etc.
By the end of the day, this pile was a whole lot larger.
If you are trying to calculate how much wallpaper to purchase, please click the link to the page on the right “How To Measure For Wallpaper” for more details.
The Wallpaper Lady's Blog 