Working Around a Thermostat

Wallpaper looks better and will have fewer wrinkles and relief cuts , plus there will be fewer cut edges to come loose, when it goes behind objects like switch plates and this thermostat.
Here it was a matter of gently pulling off the glass front of the Nest thermostat, then removing two screws on the mounting bracket. I left it connected to the wires in the wall, but pulled the wires out further from the wall so there was more play to work around.
I was able to place the wallpaper over this area, cut an “X” where the thermostat was, and then pull both the thermostat and the back plate through the wallpaper. Note: I wrapped the thermostat in plastic before starting, to protect it from wallpaper paste / adhesive .
Then put the backplate in place, reattach the thermostat, and then replace the glass front. Smooth the wallpaper into place. All looks perfect!

Getting Behind the Issue

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Wallpaper looks better and adheres to the wall better when it goes BEHIND elements like light fixtures, towel bars, and this thermostat.

Sorry I didn’t get pictures of the “during” phase. But what I did was to detach the thermostat from its mounting base. Then I unscrewed the mounting base and removed it from the wall. Everything was still attached via the electrical wires which ran into the wall, and the air conditioner still functioned.

I was able to wallpaper up to the 1/2″ round hole where the wires came out of the wall. When I replaced the mounting base and thermostat, the hole was completely hidden, and there were no cut edges showing around the fixture.

This also means that if the homeowners ever get a new thermostat, it will easily cover that small hole. If I had left the thermostat in place and cut around it, there would be a large hole in the wallpaper, and the new thermostat might not hide it, so the homeowners would be faced with replacing the entire wall of wallpaper.

The way I did it took more time, but it looks neater, is more secure, and disguises more.

Keeping Non-Removable Elements Clean

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In the first photo, look at the paste residue another installer left on his client’s thermostat. This is easily avoidable, because the covers are usually simple to remove, and then you can detach the whole thing from the wall, put the wallpaper behind it (which looks much better than cutting around it, and prevents curling, too), and then replace the thermostat, perfectly clean.

On my job today, I encountered this 2-component alarm system. My original thought was to remove the outside boxes, much like a thermostat. But the thingie on the left wasn’t gonna budge from the wall, and the big box on the right had so many wires and intimidating stuff inside it that I quickly closed the lid and opted to work around it.

It’s possible to put the paper up, smear paste on the boxes, and then go back and wipe it off. We wipe paste off all sorts of things all the time, like baseboards and moldings, mirrors and window glass, etc.

But these boxes were complicated, and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time cleaning them afterward. So I taped plastic over them, then worked the wet wallpaper around them. The wet paste got on the plastic, but not on the boxes. Once I finished manipulating the paper into place, all I had to do was remove the plastic and the tape, wipe a very few minor areas, and it was all nice and clean and ready to go.