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Beginner Guide: How to Hang Wallpaper

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!

How to Hang Removable Wallpaper

Tips for Hanging Removable Wallpaper–It’s so easy!

Thank you Rocky Mountain Decals for providing your beautiful wallpaper for this tutorial!

DIY How to Hang Removable Wallpaper | DIY wallpaper ideas | removable wall panels | tips on removable wallpaper installation | how to install temporary wallpaper | renters ideas for home decor | wall decor ideas | budget friendly home decor | DIY guide | #darlingdarleen #removablewallpaper #darleenmeier || Darling Darleen

Somehow my oldest daughter always seems to get first dibs on bedroom renovations. Do you remember her tween coral and pink bedroom? Well, it was the first room to be done in our Georgia house. And lucky girl, this bedroom will probably be the first done in our Connecticut house! We knew we wanted to switch out the originial coral and turquoise paint colors in this room for more of a serene, boho-chic teenager bedroom. So we decided to paint the whole bedroom white and do a wall of wallpaper. We just loved the wallpaper in her old bedroom, but wanted this wallpaper to be more sophisticated, but with a bohemian style. We are so happy that we settled for Rocky Mountain Decals Snowy White removable wallpaper. I learned so much during this installation that I wanted to share tips on how to hang removable wallpaper.

Why removable wallpaper? Well, I love the fact that you can just peel and stick, and it requires no professional installation. When you move into a new house, there is so much expense going out to get settled into the home. To tackle a project on my own was very attractive.

There are also so many beautiful wall prints that come in removable wallpaper. I had looked through numerous wallpaper samples and couldn’t find a permanent wallpaper that was in our budget and had that boho style we were looking for. They were either way too expensive or too juvenile.

For this DIY, I decided to make a video! My first! So please give the video thumbs up and comment. Video is linked at the end of the post. My goal this year is to make a video for my DIYs, but also post a step-by-step written tutorial. Since this was my first video, I completely forgot to take pictures of the process! I’m learning. So many things I learned also while taking this video like look more presentable and wear makeup and clean yourself up! Anyway, this DIY for “How to Hang Removable Wallpaper” will just be a video. But I have helpful tips that I didn’t really include in the video below.

Tips for How to Hang Removable Wallpaper

One of the things I wish we did before we hung the removable wallpaper was paint the wall white. I didn’t think we needed to because it’s just peel and stick, and you usually don’t need to prime with removable wallpaper. But the wallpaper, as you can see, has a white background, so up close you can see a tint of coral from the wall being painted that color. You can see the “before of the room” in the video.
Removable wallpaper comes in panels of different lengths. I suggest ordering always longer and then trimming the excess wallpaper. Walls sometimes aren’t even especially with trims. And you don’t realize until you are hanging wallpaper. It’s best to go with more than less.
Use a ruler or leveler to keep your wallpaper straight. When hanging removable wallpaper, the wallpaper tends to get off course and you find toward the bottom of the wall that the wallpaper has shifted. The good thing is with removable wallpaper, is you can just unpeel and re-stick. But keep in mind, the number of times you unpeel and re-stick the paper, it lessens the stickiness of the glue. I made sure to go slow and tug and pull to keep the wallpaper edge to edge and the seam seamless
Use a smoothing tool to get out air bubbles. I had found that when I went slow peeling the backing and smoothing, there was hardly any air bubbles. But when I went fast and not smoothing as often, air bubbles would pop up.
Have a helper on hand! Just peeling the backing down is best when you have a helper. Also, they can help keep the wallpaper panel straight as you are taking it down the wall.

Okay let me know what you think about the “How to Hang Removable Wallpaper” video! Stay tune to see the complete bedroom!!

Shop other FLORAL Removable Wallpaper:

Shop Geometric Removable Wallpaper:

10 Favorite Wallpaper Resources

10 Favorite Wallpaper Resources

When we wallpapered Stella’s bedroom in our Georgia house, I was concerned she would get sick of it after a few years. Nope. We still love the coral and pink fish scale pattern and were so sad to say goodby to it. Now we are in our new Connecticut house and we are excited to wallpaper some of the rooms to bring it to life and make it our own. So wallpaper has been on my mind, and I have been grabbing as many samples from some of my favorite wallpaper resources websites – like Simple Shapes where I found some great geometric wallpaper – so I can get the ball rolling in this house. I even visited places like Soundproof Panda checking out their soundproof wallpaper. Wallpaper can easily transform a plain white room to something whimsical, geometric or traditional. There are so many great options with wallpaper! I have had many people ask me where to find wallpaper. Many of the best can be found right on the internet from sites like Primetime Paint & Paper. So here are 10 favorite wallpaper resources that are easy on the budget and found right on the internet. I would say that before you place a huge wallpaper order, definitely pick up samples and get a sense of how it would look in your room. It is worth taking that extra step.

10 Favorite Wallpaper Resource

1.Bellacor–known primarily for selling furniture, Bellacor has a great selection of brand wallpaper names for a fraction of the price if you bought from a showroom or designer. They also have it broken down by different types of wallpaper like pre-pasted, removable, non-pasted. And they are always having different buy more save more sales.

2. Serena and Lily–monotone colors yet modern traditional wallpaper. We used their Lamu wallpaper in Stella’s bedroom and another wallpaper style that has since been discontinued. We love the painted texture on the Lamu wallpaper. Their wallpaper prices are very reasonable and the quality is great. They are always having additional discounts and that’s the best time to order wallpaper.

3. Anthropologie–if you are looking for wallpaper that has more pattern, a little more whimsical or a little more spunky, I love to check out Anthropologie’s selection. I will say their wallpaper pricing is a little more on the higher end, but sometimes the price is for a double roll instead of single roll. If you have an Anthropologie home store nearby, I would recommend to check out their wallpaper books. They are great to see in person and some of their top-rated wallpaper are up on their walls for display.

4. Wayfair–similar to Bellacor, Wayfair has an awesome selection of wallpaper. You may need to do some digging but it is well worth it to save on price. They do have some great filters so you can really get down to the style and color theme you are look for. Also, their prices are some of the best!

5. Etsy–yup, Etsy sells wallpaper too! You will mostly see removable wallpaper available on Etsy, which is a great alternative if you are looking for temporary wallpaper. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is cheaper. Removable wallpaper usually runs the same but it much easier to put up and a professional is usually not needed, so that is where money is saved. I’ve never down removable wallpaper so I don’t know how well it lasts over time, but am curious! We are definitely looking of doing removable wallpaper in this house.

6. Calico Corners–fabric store turned wallpaper store. Calico has a nice selection of wallpaper and carries familiar brands like Magnolia Home and DwellStudio. They are always running a sale or if you sign up on their mailing list, you receive coupons in the mail.

7. Rifle Paper Co.–known mostly for their stationary and art prints, Rifle Paper Co. also has wallpaper that are just as darling. What I love is that all their paper has the hand-painted technique, which bring the wallpaper to life and adds beautiful texture.

8. Caitlin Wilson–love Caitlin’s cohesive pattern and aesthetic designs. She is one of my favorite and has such beautiful wallpaper that are so striking. The pattern colors always go together. Her prices are on the higher end but her wallpaper will add so much beauty to a space.

9. Katie Kime–Katie Kime is new on the playing field, but her bright, bold wallpaper patterns stand out from the rest. Many of her patterns are available in peel and stick wallpaper, which again makes it easier for a novice to apply. Also her patterns are available in fabric.

10. Spoonflower–I always find wallpaper I love from their collection designed by the community. And I am been wanting to upload my own design and have it printed in large scale. So cool! Their prices are reasonable and designs are always change.

Guest Bathroom

Guest Bathroom: Before + After. We bought our southern house about two years ago from a builder. It was a spec home, which means it was a new build but not custom (we couldn’t pick any of the finishes out) and everything inside was builder grade. We have been slowly making changing throughout the house, especially with the light fixtures. The house was all brown when we bought it–outside, inside and all the details. As my Dad would say…’cum on builders! Get with the program! And I would finish that off with…that’s SO 1998. Well, first thing we did was paint the entire house a soft gray, switching out the brown paint color. It did take quite a long time, that it would probably have been done a lot faster if we got help from professional painters in Portland, Oregon (for example) to help us out. But we got through it eventually. We added wallpaper to many rooms. One was the guest bathroom. And we just finally switched out the light fixture and mirror in the guest bathroom.

Here are the before “progressing” pictures. I didn’t get a picture of the bathroom right after we moved in without the wallpaper, but you get the idea. We never painted this room but instead just added wallpaper.

Here is the “after”. Just a few minor changes can make a big impact. I wanted to keep the southern feel of the house, so I didn’t want to go too modern. But the light fixture has a traditional contemporary look. The light fixture is suppose to face down but because of the mirror size, I had to flip it facing up. It works because of the height of the ceiling and still adds a ton of light. I will say that to update the house I’ve been going with a chrome finish on fixtures regardless that the faucets and door handles are brown antique bronze. I think it is OKAY to mix metals in a room. All the links and resources are below.