This powder room is in a home with two little kids , so you can expect splashing as people wash their hands , reach for the faucet handle, or grab a hand towel . Although Mom swears that the little ones are banned from this newly- decorated room ! But even adults can get water onto the walls. If drops of water get onto the backsplash, they can accumulate along the edge where the wallpaper meets the marble . It’s possible that water can wick up under the cut edge of the wallpaper . This can cause the paper to expand and then push away from the wall , resulting in a curled edge. To prevent this, I like to take clear caulk and run it along the back of the backsplash , where it meets the wallpaper . This is the white line you see. As the caulk dries , it will turn clear , and be invisible . The dried caulk is water-resistant and will seal that edge quite nicely. I like water-based caulks, because they’re easy to use and easy to clean up. But it’s important to get one that’s non-yellowing . A whole lot of them look good when applied, but in a year or two have yellowed and look kinda disappointing, for lack of a stronger word. Sorry – I didn’t get a photo of the brand I’m currently using. After application , I do usually take a wet finger and run it along the caulk to smooth it into place. Painters who are better with caulk than I are bold enough to use white or other colors of caulk. I like the forgiveness of the clear . This wallpaper pattern is called Brooklyn Toile and is by Flavor Paper . I like their EZ Papes pre-pasted option – not so much their vinyl or peel & stick .
I’m getting ready to skim-float this accent wall in a master bedroom , to smooth the textured wall . The texture on the wall looks a little odd to me. Also, it is more concentrated in the center of the wall , and less so as you get close to corners and window moldings . This is leading me to think that this texture didn’t come with the house . When homes are built and texture is wanted, the painters or drywall guys come in with spray equipment and shoot the joint compound onto the wall. This gives a pretty uniform coverage , and also coats every surface, up into corners and molding. Not sure, but I think this one I’m working with might be the after-market kind that you can buy in a spray can from Home Depot . It does seem pretty uniform, too. You can do a search here to read more about the skim-floating / skim-coating process , and smoothing textured walls , to provide a smooth and attractive surface for the new wallpaper .
That request/point is made in both my initial Info Pack, and then in my Pre-Install Check List. Yet sometimes Install Day rolls around and we hear, “The painters will be working in another room – but they won’t be in your way.” Oh, no? Then, AFTER I told them I was getting set up and asked them to collect any materials they needed out of the room, then WHY did they need to come through my workspace AGAIN?! And I’ll guess a bigger question is WHY CAN’T THEY KEEP THEIR FILTY SHOES OFF MY TOOLS AND SWEATSHIRT??! I mean, just walk around it. Or, better yet, wait 8 seconds and I’ll move things out of their way.BTW, that’s not a dirty floor. That’s my padded moving blanket spread out to protect my client’s hardwood floor. Along with my sweatshirt and blue dropcloths in what I thought was a safe, out-of-the-way place. So, homeowners, when the Wallpaper Lady is there to install your paper, please make sure that ALL work is FINISHED and that ALL workmen are OUT OF THERE. Yes, we WILL be in each other’s way. End of rant. 🙂
This bathroom is part of an addition to a 1940 home on the near east side of Houston. The drywall is new. As I requested, the painters did not apply any coatings . Here you see I’m priming the walls with my primer made specifically for wallpaper – Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime . Done. The vanity will be pushed against this wall , and lighted mirrors will be hung over it. Keep fingers crossed that the electrician doesn’t mess up the wallpaper while installing the mirrors . I think this pattern looks like a tapestry .This paper went up beautifully . The seams are practically invisible from a foot away. I love the slight raised ink texture of this surface print wallpaper . Artichoke is made by Serena & Lily . I really like just about all of their papers .
There can be reasons for unstable walls, mostly cheap or poor quality paint, dust, someone applied paint over dust, improper prep, incompatible layers inside the wall built up over years (oil based paint, latex paint, dust, gloss paint, joint compound, etc.).
These can cause problems with wallpaper, mostly with the layers delaminating (coming apart), which causes the wallpaper seams to come away from the wall. Sometimes sheets of wallpaper simply fall off the wall.
This isn’t so much a problem with paint, because it just sits on the surface. But wallpaper shrinks when the paste dries, or expands and contracts with humidity, and can put tension on the seams
Before wallpaper goes up, one way to test for such unstable surfaces is the tape test . Use a razor blade to cut an “X” into the wall, scoring through the paint and maybe into a few layers beneath. Place a strip of blue painters tape over the cut. Pull the tape off the wall.
If paint comes away from the wall along with the tape, or if layers inside the wall come apart, you know you have to do a lot of specialized prep to stabilize the wall before hanging / installing the wallpaper.
This example is an interesting twist. The homeowner used a piece of tape to hold up a wallpaper sample. Then used an ink pen to write notes on it. When removed, the tape took the paint off – in the shape of the writing!
Here’s the wall after I stripped, sealed, skim-floated, sanded, and primed it. Finished. The birds in the pattern balanced nicely with between the ceiling line and the wainscoting. I had more success with this install than the previous guy, due to proper prep, and also the material used this time was the user-friendly non-woven , rather than the old fashioned pulp type wallpaper the other guy had to wrestle with. Strawberry Thief is a very popular pattern right now, and comes in many colorways. Do a Search here to see my other installations of this design.There were some issues at the top of the wainscoting where the painters had used tape to mask off areas, long with caulk, an it left a rather large (1/8″) unpainted area between the wood molding and the wall. I filled this in with joint compound and primed it, and wallpaper would have adhered just fine. But that would have left a white gap between the wallpaper and the green molding. I rummaged in my truck for the best matching paint I could come up with, and painted over the white edge. This would have left a bit of a thin brown line between the wallpaper and the green molding. It would have looked OK, but I had an idea to get rid of the gap altogether.If I had used my regular thin straightedge (the red one), it would have let me trim the bottom edge of the wallpaper nice and close to the wall. But that would have left the aforementioned brown line showing. So I used the metal plate you see at the upper right of the photo as a trim guide. It’s thicker than my red straightedge, and so gives a fat cut that leaves more wallpaper and less of that brown line. In fact, the left edge, as you can see, is rolled, and that creates an even thicker edge to trim against, leaving even more wallpaper at the bottom of the cut. See the photo just above, to see how the wallpaper now completely covers the brown line. These metal plates have a lot of other uses. They are made and sold by a fellow member of the Wallcovering Installers Association . She makes a lot of other cool tools, too. If you are interested, send me an email. wallpaperlady@att.net The wallpaper design is by William Morris , a famed artist of the Arts & Crafts / Art Nouveau periods . The brand is Morris & Co. This label is EXACTLY the same as the pulp material the original installer worked with – save for that one word non-woven . Be sure you get the non-woven version, which is also called paste the wall . The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .
A quarter inch of new pink paint from the sidewalls underlapping onto the wall where I will be hanging a mural will ensure that none of the original tan wall paint will peek out of the corner. All it takes is 1/4″ , which is what I asked the painters to provide. As you can see, someone has a little problem with his measurements and math. This swath is more like 2″-4″. Not a biggie. It’s a matt finish paint, and won’t be difficult for either my smoothing compound or wallpaper paste to adhere to. My first task in this room is to skim-float the wall to smooth over the orange peel texture. That task took a lot longer than hanging the wallpaper!
It’s a pain to wipe wallpaper paste off some surfaces. Plus, it’s not always guaranteed that you’ll get 100% of it. Here’s a trick to eliminate the whole issue.
A strip of thin, flexible plastic along the top of the strip of wallpaper will keep paste from transferring onto the wall surface.
Some folks cut strips from painters plastic – but I find that stuff too flimsy, plus it’s clear and difficult to see.
So lots of us use yellow “Caution” tape, or red “Danger” tape.
Place it at the top of the strip of wallpaper you are about to hang. Position your strip, and trim at the ceiling as usual.
Then remove your trimmed-off piece, and take the tape along with it. Be sure you get the piece below your cut, as well.
Smooth your strip of wallpaper back into place. No need to wipe paste off any surface, and no smears, either.
This trick can also be used at baseboards or other bottom surfaces, as well as in corners.
The original paint in both these photos was a gloss or semi-gloss. When it came time to update, someone applied a coat of new paint right on top. Then the floor guys came and stained the floor. To protect the new paint, they applied painter’s tape. Unfortunately, when the tape was removed, it took some of the new paint along with it.
Believe it or not, even something as relatively gentle as wiping wallpaper paste off the woodwork is enough to cause poorly-adhered paint to delaminate.
This happens because the new coat of paint was not given a sound surface to grab ahold of and adhere to.
To have properly prepared the original gloss paint to accept the new coat of white paint, the painter should have done one or more of the below:
1.) Sanded the paint to knock off the gloss. This leaves dust residue, so that dust will need to be wiped off with a damp rag or sponge (rinsed clean frequently) or a Tack Cloth.
2.) Wiped down with liquid chemical deglosser, such as Liquid Sandpaper.
3.) Primed with a bonding primer, formulated to stick to glossy surfaces, and also formulated to serve as an appropriate base for the new paint.
A primer is also not a bad idea to follow up in the case of 1.) and 2.) above.
Yes, all of this is a whole lot of work, and it creates dust and/or odors, takes more time, and adds cost.
But it’s a step well worth the investment, because properly prepped and painted surfaces will hold up and look professional for decades to come.
This room is supposedly ‘ready for wallpaper.’ Yet the baseboards have not been painted.
If the painters come to paint the baseboards, I already anticipate what will happen.
I have skim-floated the walls, and will sand them when I come to finish the job later. So some of my smoothing compound has slopped onto the baseboard. No big deal. When I put up the paper and trim at the bottom I will need to wipe paste off the woodwork – and at that time, I will wipe off any residual smoothing compound.
But if the painters come and slap paint on now, I know they will not inspect the baseboards before they paint, and will put their paint right on top of the globs of smoothing compound. Thereverafter, there will be small but unsightly blobs and bumps embedded in the paint.
They will also let their brush run beyond the molding, and onto my smoothing compound. This will make it impossible for me to sand the compound. It will also create a glossy surface that the wallpaper paste will not stick to.
If they use painter’s tape to ‘protect’ the wallpaper, when they remove the tape, they will either take the inked layer along with it, or they will pull the paper itself completely away from the wall.
Again I rant: Have ALL the other work done before the wallpaper goes up.
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