Don’t Assume the Width

Here’s a finished map / mural on an accent wall in a child’s room in the Tanglewood neighborhood of Houston.

It’s made by Rebel Walls ( rebelwalls.com ), one of my favorite mural companies, and was custom-sized to fit this wall.
The mural came in a set of nine panels. The instructions above explain how the mural should be hung.
Careful measurements are important, both before ordering (note: Always let the wallpaper installer calculate rollage and mural dimensions before your order ) and then before you start hanging the mural.

This one large roll was cut apart into nine panels. You see them rolled up at the top of the photo.
Each of those panels was 19.75″ wide. So based on that, you might start measuring and calculating and plotting where to position your panels on the wall.
STOP!
Just because the manufacturer’s stock comes 19.75″ wide doesn’t mean that the printed part of each panel fills that full width.
The mural was custom-sized to fit the wall, right? The width of the wall is not an exact multiple of 19.75″. That means that the printed portion of the last panel will be narrower than the others. As you can see in the last photo, that narrow portion turned out to be just 2.5″ wide.
So it’s important that you unroll every strip / panel and take careful measurements of both the wall and the wallpaper , before cutting anything and definitely before pasting anything to the wall.
One more thing, while we’re on the topic of murals. Please don’t order until the paperhanger has measured and figured . It’s very important that the mural NOT be printed to the exact dimensions of the wall. FOUR INCHES of ” bleed ” are necessary to be added to EACH DIMENSION (meaning, four inches added to both width and height ). This will allow for trimming at floor and ceiling , and will accommodate walls / ceilings / floors that are not perfectly level or plumb.

Ahoy Matey! Fun Mural in Home Office

You’d think this mural went on the wall of a child’s room. But, no – it’s a focal wall in a home office. All the more fun because, due to COVID, the homeowners are working from home and spending a lot of time in here.

The product is by Murals Wallpaper. In the second photo, you see their instruction sheet. In the third photo, I have cut apart and rolled out all the panels on the floor, to check the pattern match to be sure of their proper placement, and to get accurate measurements.

It’s important that murals are ordered 4″ wider and taller than the wall’s exact dimensions, to accommodate for wonky walls and ceilings, and for trimming at the ceiling and baseboard and at the sides.

The next photo shows I have rolled the strips backwards and lined them up in the order they will be hung. This is a non-woven material, and I am installing via the paste-the-wall method. Rolling the strips backward ensures that the surface of the panel will not hit against the pasted wall.

This went up very nicely, and Murals Wallpaper is a good company to purchase murals. The murals can be custom-sized to your wall. (Remember to add those 4″!)

The other three walls are painted a complimentary medium-hued blue. This wall lightens the room – and adds some whimsey, too!

The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.

nautical, ship, ocean, sea, monster, pirate, serpent,