Hanging Wallpaper Border- Tips and Tricks

Wallpaper borders are a quick way to add interest and pizzazz to a room. Whether themed for a kid's room, a classy dining room chair rail border or a pretty scalloped border in your laundry room, there are a myriad of choices. You can put a border at any height, but most typical is around the ceiling or at chair rail height (32 from the floor to the center of the border.)

Borders come in 15' rolls, long enough to cover most walls without having a seam break mid-wall. Borders also come with basic instructions which are good but, well, basic! So I am going to give you some professional secrets the wallpaper companies don't put on those little instruction slips.

Check for blemishes, like paint drips along the top of the wall, or cracks along the corners. Use clear or matching colored caulking for cracks, and a scraper for paint drips. Fill holes and shallow gouges and spot-prime them before applying the border. Most borders are fairly thin and underlying imperfections will really stand out. Best to fix them now, rather than see them once you are done! As with painting, half the battle with any successful wallpaper project is in the preparation.

First, do not rely on prepasted borders to be terribly effective, particularly in humid climates, or for bathroom use. Prepasted borders also don't adhere well to very glossy surfaces. Buy a small tub of premixed wallpaper paste and thin it a little to a sort of thick paint texture. Or like mayonnaise. Paint this on the wall before you apply your wetted border, then wipe each section down with a clean damp cloth.

If you need to move your ladder mid-wall, use a pin to hold the border in place. The pin hole will be imperceptible once you are all done.

With darker colors, sometimes no matter how much you try, the white seam edges will show. And if they don't show up right away, they may later as the border dries and shrinks. Using any sort of similar-colored water soluble paint or colored pencils. Those from a child's art set work fine. Gently work some of the color along the seams with a moistened artists brush or small rag. Once you wipe over the area, the edges will have absorbed the color. This is also handy for accidental rips, or visible pinholes left from sticking the border to the wall.

If you are installing your border over freshly painted walls, it is best to wait 30 days for the paint to cure first. Otherwise your border may start unpeeling as the paint cures.

Always start in the darkest or most inconspicuous corner, so the almost inevitable pattern mismatch as you finish up won't be so obvious.

And finally, the old carpenter's saying applies here!

Measure twice, cut once.

And as always, have fun.

-Carina MacDonald

Carina MacDonald has been a painting contractor since
1979 and has tackled everything from large commercial buildings and Victorian homes to faux painting a child s room and wallpapering a bathroom. If it stands still long enough, she can figure out a way to paint it correctly!