A Beginner’s Guide to Hanging Wallpaper with Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial

After years of hiring professional wallpaper installers and watching them hang wallpaper, I decided to give it a try. Do you remember the wallpaper I hung in my renovated powder bathroom? I did a lot of observed during the installation. How come no one told me hanging wallpaper is really quite easy?! I’m not sure why I’ve been so intimidated with the wallpaper installation process. But after tackling my boy’s room and then hanging removable wallpaper in my daughter’s room, I’m up for another wallpaper challenge! So, I decided to do a Beginner’s guide: How to Hang Wallpaper for all the newbies out there and to also say to be bold and give this DIY a try!

First off, the wallpaper I bought was not really expensive so that was one of the reasons I decided to install it myself. I felt like if I messed up, I wasn’t deeply invested in the paper. Regardless of the price, I really do love this pre-pasted wallpaper that I found at Target! Also the other thing about the beginner guide how to hang wallpaper is that you really don’t need a ton of supplies, just some essential ones.

Beginner’s Guide: How to Hang Wallpaper

Supplies:

wallpaper (measure your walls to determine how many rolls of paper you will need)

wallpaper paste (if your wallpaper is not pre-pasted)

wallpaper primer and size

carpenter’s level and tape measure

roller and water bucket

wallpaper smoother or wallpaper brush

large sponge

pencil and scissors

working table and ladder

sharp utility knife and metal edger

Before wallpapering, you need to prep the walls. This part is very important and should not be overlooked. Clean and then lightly sand down the walls so they are smooth and have no abrasions. Repair any holes in the wall. Then prime the wall with wallpaper primer and wallpaper size. Size can help the wallpaper grip the wall better and make is easier to peel off later if you decide to remove it.

After you prep the walls, measure the wall lengthwise to determine the center point of the wall. Then take a carpenter’s level and from straight up and down, draw a “plumb” line where the center point is located in the wall. The center is a good point to start off to hang your first wallpaper. Then continue to make additional vertical lines acorss the wall that are the width of your wallpaper. These will act as markers when you hang your panels.

Then measure the wall from ceiling to floor or moulding to moulding and add four inches of overhang. Use this measurement to cut your wallpaper into strips. Use a ruler or L square tool to mark the line on the wallpaper with a pencil. When you apply the wallpaper to the wall, you should have about 2 inches of overhang on the top and bottom of the panel.

If you are using a prepasted wallpaper, you can just roll up your paper with the back facing out and submerge it in a water-filled trough. Or you can use a paint roller and roll water along the back making sure that every part of the wallpaper has been submerged with water. If your wallpaper doesn’t come pre-pasted, lay it back side up on table and use a roller to apply the paste.

To activate the paste, loosely fold both side of the paper to the center. Don’t crease. This is known as “booking”. Let the paper sit for 2-3 minutes while the paste activates. Booking the paper also makes it easy to apply the wallpaper to the wall since the wallpaper is folded in.

Grab a helper and a ladder and unfold your booked wallpaper. Hold it up from the top of the wall where you marked your plumb line. Line up the edge of the paper to your plumb line and smooth into place. Then using a wallpaper brush and plastic smoother, press out any air bubbles and excess paste. Use a wet sponge as needed. This will take a few minutes to completely smooth your wallpaper panel.

Then using a metal edger, press the paper into the wall’s edge at the top and bottom of the wallpaper panel and cut away any excess paper with a sharp utility knife blade.

Repeat the process as before but make sure you are cutting the paper so that the pattern will match up. You will have leftover paper because of this very reason, so it’s best to buy an extra roll so you don’t run out of paper. Hang the next panel right next to the first meeting the edges without overlapping. You might need to slide the paper around to make sure the patterns match up.

Watch the DIY tutorial video of Beginner’s Guide: How to Hang Wallpaper . Make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe!

Let me know what you think about the video! I’m still a newbie on the videos and I hope to perfect it over time!