For All You Dreamers Who Think That Liner Will Smooth Texture Walls … NOT!

Some people have spent too much time on YouTube or DIY websites. There is a misconception that liner paper will smooth out textured walls.
Nope, sorry, it ain’t happenin.’
The special type of paper called liner is used under some wallpaper s, and serves certain functions. Smoothing walls is not one of them.
If you’re planning to hang wallpaper over textured walls, liner paper cannot be used as a replacement for skim-floating , sanding , priming , and properly prepping the walls .
As you can see in the photo, liner paper shrinks as the paste dries, and pulls tight against the wall. This means that little imperfections will show through.
In the photo above, a towel bar had been removed, and the support bracket had been stuck / recessed into the wall paint , so the indentation and ridges from the bracket were still evident on the wall.
Covering them with a wallpaper liner helped mitigate them a bit … but, as you can see, the raised outline of the mounting bracket is still visible.
The issue is that this raised area, covered with liner or not, will still ” telegraph ” through the new wallpaper, creating a noticeable and unpleasing look.
To properly smooth a textured wall before hanging wallpaper, the surface must be skim-floated with joint compound (also referred to as mud ), sanded smooth, wiped free of dust, and then primed. Now the wall should be smooth enough to provide a good surface for the new wallpaper.

Wallpaper and Toilet Paper Holder

I usually do my own prep, but this time the homeowner had her contractor strip the existing wallpaper. This photo is to show you the toilet paper holder close up. You’ll have to imagine it without the wallpaper, as it was when I arrived to start this project.

Fixtures like this, including towel bars and rings and many light fixtures , can be removed by loosening the recessed set screws , which are usually on the bottom of the fixture. They will take either a very small flat-head screwdriver , or a small allen wrench . These sit very close to the wall, so you have to be careful not to let your tools scratch or mar the wall as you work.

Here’s a close-up of the underside of the fixture, showing the recessed set screw. In this case, an allen wrench was needed. Most fixtures take the same size wrench. Here I’m using my American set. But you occasionally will need a metric set.

Once I got the holder off, I discovered that the contractor had not bothered to remove the toilet paper holder, but had cut around it. In doing this, he also left some of the original wallpaper. Also, by cutting around the fixture, he scored into the wall, which is not good because it breaks the surface and creates a potentially unstable surface that can come apart over time. In addition, it took them a whole lot of time to work around this fixture to remove the old wallpaper and then repair and smooth the wall.
The whole business makes little sense, because it’s ultimately easier and faster to simply remove the thing. No damage to the wall, and then wallpaper can go behind the fixture leaving no cut edges around it.

Here I’ve hung the wallpaper and marked the holes for the screws.

Mounting bracket back in place.

Toilet paper holder reattached.

Odd Things I Did 30 Years Ago

I hung this wallpaper back in 1996, and was back this week to update it with new ‘ grown-up ‘ wallpaper. You are looking at the mounting bracket for the towel bar. For some reason, I didn’t remove the bracket like I usually do today, nor did I cut around it. Instead, I cut the paper so that the towel bar would be able to grip onto the bracket, but left some of the paper intact.

The cover plate is off the light switch. Here I cut the paper very tightly to the electrical switch. I didn’t cut out for the screw holes, but, when the cover plate was replaced, I let the screw drive itself right through the wallpaper.

Yet More Paint Splatters Mar Client’s Home

A dropcloth on the floor, and covering the shoe mold and baseboards, would have prevented these splatters on the homeowner’s hardwood floor.

Much worse as a close-up. Such a shame.

They didn’t bother to remove light fixtures, towel bars, or even switch plate covers. Here you can see how paint got slopped onto the beautiful metal sconces.

Paint falls on door handles and towel bars, too.

While priming, I throw a damp washcloth over door handles and towel bars, to prevent speckles. I use other material to cover light fixtures.

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Unhappy Mix-Up

You are looking down into a paper grocery bag. At the bottom are an assortment of screws, mounting hardware, switch plates, towel bars, escutcheons, and more (some have been pulled out of the bag already).

When I get ready to hang wallpaper, I “undress the room” … meaning, I remove light fixtures, towel bars and toilet paper holders, light switch plates, window treatments, mirrors, etc. I set all the hardware and screws that go with these items near the spot where they will be reinstalled, with all these elements in a certain order, and collated to their respective holes and fasteners and brackets, so it will be simple for me to put everything back in its place, once the paper is up.

But on this job, the wallpaper had to be sent back due to a defect, so it was a couple of weeks before the new paper arrived and I was able to return to finish the job.

In the meantime, the homeowner, understandably, wanted a tidy room, so she picked up these things. And threw them all together into one bag.

Arrrgh!

But not insurmountable. It took a little digging and fitting and futzing, but I was able to sort out what went with what, and I got all the fixtures back in place.

A Small Adjustment to the Screws is Called for

Digital Image

What you are looking at is the bracket that holds a towel bar in place in this bathroom. I have removed the bar and the outer decorative hardware, and just the support bracket is left. When I first touched this towel bar (not shown), everything was solid and fit together well.

However, after I finished wallpapering the room and went to put the towel bar back up, the bar would not stay in the brackets! The bar was too short, and kept falling out.

This did not make sense, since I had put the bracket back into exactly the same holes in the wall that I had removed it from. I took everything apart again, to try to figure out why the space was suddenly too wide to hold the bar.

Easy solution. See the screw on the top of the bracket, and the gap between the screw and the metal of the bracket? This gap allows you to slide the bracket to the right or to the left. When I replaced the brackets, I had not paid attention to where the screw sat within this 1/2″ space. As it turns out, that 1/2″ was quite important.

Once I slid the bracket so it was closer to the twin bracket on the opposite side of the towel bar, it closed the gap enough that the towel bar fit perfectly into the supports.

Why I Carry a Lot of Tools

Digital Image

Digital Image

I like to remove switch plates, towel bars, and light fixtures before papering, so the new wallpaper can go behind them, for a neat, uniform look and no edges to peel up. Many bathroom accessories come off with aid of an allen wrench. In the top photo, my usual allen wrench set is in the back. But it would not turn the nut inside the towel bar – it did not fit.

Good thing I also carry around a set of metric allen wrenches. That is the larger one in the picture, and it did the trick. In the second photo, you see the mounting hardware that is still on the wall. I will use my screwdriver to remove that, so that the new wallpaper will cover the entire wall surface. Then just a few holes for the screws to hold the bracket in place, and there will be very little damage to the appearance of the paper. This will be helpful in case the homeowners decide to change or move accessories later.