Laundry Room 3: Wallpaper Tips

I am by no means an expert at wallpapering. Ha! I am by no means an expert at anything!!! But I do have some tips for you if you try to take on wallpapering for the first time, like I did in my laundry room. Today I was merely completing a job I had started almost a year earlier. Yeah, no joke. My laundry room renovation started out just fine (read post), but when I ran out of wallpaper, I ran out of steam. Even though I ordered more paper right away, the momentum was gone and the project stalled. But not anymore! I finally finished!! Yay!! Laundry room makeover -- in need of wallpaper Laundry room after wallpaper

My wallpapering tips:

1) If you will be hanging anything heavy on the walls (like shelves or cabinets) find the studs and mark them on the ceiling. I used a stud finder, but double checked by hammering a nail into the wall and then removing it. Wallpaper tips 2) Plan ahead! I realized I would HATE looking at the washing machine plug above the counter top, so I had hubby (because I don’t touch electrical) add an additional outlet below the counter. It was much easier for him to add the outlet before I wallpapered. Wallpaper tips - take care of outlet placement before you wallpaper 3) I know it stinks to have to prep the walls, only to cover them with wallpaper, but it’s still important to fill any holes and sand down all the bumps. Make sure the walls are clean before you start to wallpaper. Wallpaper tips - prep the walls 4) Paint door/window trim before you wallpaper. Who cares if you get paint on the wall underneath? I painted not only the trim, but the doors themselves. And hubby replaced all the hinges and doorknobs while I had the doors off. Thank goodness! Replace knobs hinges and paint doors 5) Choose a forgiving pattern of wallpaper. Something that doesn’t have a lot of overlap at the seams is easier. Most of the starfish in my print are whole/complete starfish. There is only one starfish that is cut off, and that one made it easy for me to match up the next piece. I bought my paper at Steve’s Blinds & Wallpaper.

6) Order plenty of wallpaper! Otherwise you might end up like me, with a project that went unfinished for over a year! Yes it sat like that for way too long, I know. Halfway through laundry room makeover

7) Use pre-pasted wallpaper, it only needs water to activate the glue. If you buy a double role of wall paper (like I did) you’ll find it does not fit into even the biggest wallpaper tray sold at Lowe’s. My solution?? Soak the extra wide paper in the bottom of your (clean!) shower. It worked like a charm! Update: I tore this shower out a few years later, read that post HERE Soaking extra wide wallpaper roll in show pan -- worked like a charm

Soaking extra wide wallpaper roll in show pan -- worked like a charm

8) Here are some websites that explain all the basics of wallpapering:

This Old House gives you more info then you’ll need. Don’t let it overwhelm you!
The info on the For Dummies site breaks the info down so you can read the sections that apply to you.
Brewster Home Fashions has a nice tutorial and videos.

Happy wallpapering!!!!