Cool Trick Going Around Door

I’ve finished putting short strips of wallpaper over this wide entry way . My next strip will be a 9.5′ piece going down the left side of the door molding .

The piece above the door ended 1/4″ from the left edge of the door molding. Normally, I would butt my next strip up against the existing piece. Then, as I move down the wall smoothing the paper into place against the wall, there will be a 1/4″ bit of it that laps over against the full length of the molding. I would need to use a straightedge and blade to trim this off. And then use my damp microfiber rag to wipe paste off the molding.
This non-woven wallpaper is thick and stiff , and hard to press tightly against the molding, so a bit tricky to get a sharp , tight trim cut . And also difficult to ensure that exactly 1/4″ is being trimmed off . So it’s easy for the paper to go off-kilter , and for the pattern to not line up perfectly against the molding . Not a big deal on a busy floral pattern , but with a rigid geometric, it might be noticeable .

So I decided to try this. I wanted to pre-trim the strip to take away that 1/4″ . This would save me from having to do any pressing or trimming. And also ensure that the pattern would fall perfectly straight against the doorway molding.
I measured down 16″ (the height of the ” header ” over the doorway , plus a couple of inches for trimming at ceiling and then at the top of the door molding ) .
Then I used my straightedge , razor blade , and fine ruler (from Texas Art Supply ) to measure over 1/4″ and trim it off .
Don’t think this is a simple task … It’s hard to measure exactly the width of the bit above the molding that should be trimmed off. 1/4″? 3/8″? 5/16″?
Also take into consideration that most wallpapers expand when they get wet with paste . So that 1/4″ I cut off could extend to 5/16″ or even more. That would mean a gap along the door molding.
Next, if the strip above the door is not perfectly plumb , or if the door molding below it is not perfectly straight and plumb , the wallpaper won’t butt up properly against it, and may start to show a gap or an overlap.
Sometimes you can manipulate the strip of wallpaper so that it does butt up against the door frame. But that can result in warps and wrinkles , or a pattern mis-match of the next piece . Also, like I said, this particular non-woven product is thick and stiff, and not happy about being asked to twist into another shape. Pasting the paper – instead of pasting the wall – does help to make it more pliable , so you have a better chance of manipulating the paper as you want.

Here is the strip going into place. So far, it’s butting up nicely against the molding. And no need to trim anything or wipe paste off the woodwork – except for that little bit at the top, which was my ” extra ” allowed for trimming .
FYI, that dark stripe you see along the woodwork is a shadow.

Here is the wallpaper as it falls along the side of the molding. The pattern is lining up nice and straight and precise .
To be honest, at the lower 1/3 of the wall, the paper did start to torque out of shape , and wanted to leave a gap at the molding, which was trying to grow from 1/16″ to maybe 1/4.” Not a lot – but it sure would look bad to have a 1/4″ gap between the wallpaper and the woodwork.
Trying to “mush” it to the right to butt up against the woodwork was causing warps and wrinkles .
I was a little surprised, but the paste had caused the stiff material to become softened and pliable – just enough that I was able to gently work out all those warps and wrinkles , so the wallpaper laid nice and flat against the wall. AND the left edge didn’t become distorted, but fell nice and straight enough that the next strip was easily able to butt up against it nice and tightly.

This trellis / Moroccan lantern / onion dome / geometric pattern is by Designer Wallpapers .

Three More Walls of the Schumacher Versailles

Master bedroom before. White. Boring.

After. Warm, classic, and a touch of French. Much better suited to this 1920 home in the Houston Heights.

Headboard wall.

The pattern fits perfectly in the header space over the doors. The dark area in the upper corner will lighten as the wallpaper dries.

Close-up.

I was very pleased with the seams on this product. They went together nicely, with no gaps or overlaps. And I was doubly happy that the paper did not shrink much as it dried, so no white wall peeping out from gaping seams.

I love the slight texture of this raised ink surface print wallpaper.

I’m not usually a fan of the Schumacher brand, but this product’s install went very well.

Making a Door Header Manageable

A header is a short strip of wallpaper that is placed over a door or window. These can usually be cut from remnants of paper left after the full-length strips have been cut.

In this case, the strip was going to extend about 3″ to the left of the door frame. This meant I would have to use a full 9′ strip, most of which would be hanging over the door and cut out and thrown away. That’s a lot of waste. It’s also very awkward to work with a narrow strip, because they like to twist off plumb and create a wavy edge that the next strip won’t want to butt up against.

My solution was to cut one short strip for over the door, and another full length strip to place to the left of the door. But I cut both strips vertically along a design element (a tree trunk). That kept me from having a big, unwieldy strip of pasty paper hanging against the door, and made the narrow strip going to the left of the door easier to handle.

Then I took the right side of the full-length strip which I had cut apart vertically (which might have been thrown in the trash), and placed it to the left of the previous strip. I trimmed the header over the door to the left in the same way, butted the previous strip against it, and this kept the pattern undisrupted.

I know this sounds complicated, and it did take some engineering and figuring out. But the bottom line is, I had manageable pieces of paper to work with, I kept the pattern intact, while saving paper by using scraps for the two headers, and by splitting one strip in two vertically and using both sides to cover the area between the two doors.