Here I’m preparing to hang wallpaper on new drywall in a new addition to a 1930’s home in east Houston . First I’ve used a damp sponge to remove all construction and sanding dust. Next I’m going to apply my primer. It’s important to note that, even though this is wall is a new sheet of drywall, it’s not all the same surface. We have mostly large expanses of drywall / greenrock (the type of drywall that’s used in wet areas ). But at the joints , and covering where the screws and nails hold the drywall to the studs , we have joint compound . That’s the strips of white areas. And next to the crown and door molding and the baseboards is overspray from the paint that was applied to the wood trim. Here I’ve applied my light blue-tinted wallpaper primer over the top 1/3 of the wall. It’s important to be sure that the primer you use is suited for use under wallpaper . But also that it will properly adhere to and seal all the surfaces on the wall . My primer (below) will stick to just about anything. But this photo is interesting. Because my primer has been rolled on evenly across the wall , and cut in with a trim brush along the trim and corners . But you see that the primer is drying at different rates . On the right side of the photo, the primer is applied over the bare drywall, and it’s drying quickly. But toward the left, next to the door trim , the primer is drying more slowly. This is because there is paint overspray next to the door trim . The paint is semi-gloss enamel , and my wallpaper primer reacts with it differently from how it reacts to flat paint or drywall or other surfaces. Not a big deal. Just be aware of the need for different dry times due to different surfaces the primer is applied to. My preferred wallpaper primer is by Roman , called Pro 977 Ultra Prime. It’s not readily available, but you can find it on-line. All Sherwin-Williams stores can get it from the distribution center – but not all store managers know that, or are willing to do so. I get mine from Murphy Brothers Paint on Bissonnet near the Rice Village , who stocks it just for me.
I hate seeing little speckles of paint on people’s floors or moldings . This happens when tiny splatters of paint fly off the roller cover . Sometimes the operator is just moving too fast , but some paints are thinner and prone to splatter than others. You can Search here to find pictures of what I’m talking about. To prevent my wallpaper primer from landing on the floor , baseboards , backsplash , or, as in this case, wainscoting , I first cover the floor or vanity with dropcloths . Next I use these strips of thin , flexible , plastic-backed paper dropcloth material to cover anything that the dropcloths can’t reach. I use push-pins to hold them in place. I cut these strips from larger dropcloths. 8″-9″ wide seems to be about right to protect most baseboard heights and other surfaces , such as this chair rail wainscoting in a Houston Heights dining room . Once I’ve rolled primer on the wall above, I remove the protective strips and use an angled trim brush to cut in the primer along the top edge of the molding . wallpaper installer
In a recent post, I mentioned how when there’s a strong contrast between the color of the woodwork and the primer, you don’t want any primer peeking out between the wallpaper and the molding. So when rolling on the primer, I cut in with an angled trim brush along the molding. But I’ll pull back just a tad, leaving a 1/16″ or 1/8″ gap or so, so the white primer doesn’t actually touch the woodwork. This prevents any of the primer from showing after the wallpaper goes up. Wallpaper paste doesn’t adhere well to glossy paint as is used on moldings, but this teeny bit of of a gap won’t be enough to cause adhesion worries.
See the beautiful white crown molding at the top of the photo? See the tan wallpaper at the bottom of the photo? Now see the ridiculous mauve line of paint along the bottom edge of the crown molding? That’s not a shadow. It’s paint. Unnecessary and marring paint.
Before the wallpaper went up, the walls were painted a reddish mauve color. Some painter was either too lazy or too unskilled to “cut a neat line” between the wall and the bottom edge of the crown molding. Instead, he let his brush run paint up onto the bottom edge of the crown molding, eliminating the crisp line between the wooden molding and the wall.
I think that beautiful trim work is one of the defining features of a home. One of my pet peeves is when a painter compromises that by blurring the line of definition between molding and wall. I’ve even seen them paint the edges of door and window moldings, because it’s easier than taping and takes less skill than cutting a sharp line with a proper trim brush.
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