How To Hang Pre-Pasted Wallpaper
DIY Pre-Pasted Anthropologie Wallpaper
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Bye bye millennial grey. When we moved into our new home in 2018, we did a lot of grey tones. From that first day, I regretted it. My style is anything but grey, so little by little, I’ve been redesigning each room in our home.
Hanging pre-pasted wallpaper can be a fun and relatively easy DIY project. I have done this six times in my house with success. You could always hire someone from the outside to do this for you, but be prepared to pay >$500 for the install. Here are the general steps to follow is you want to DIY wallpaper install:
Materials you'll need:
Pre-pasted wallpaper
Water
Sponge or paint roller
Measuring tape
Wallpaper smoothing tool (can use a plastic scraper, credit card, or wallpaper brush)
Razor knife or scissors
Level
Pencil
Step ladder or stool
Below: Rosina Pre-pasted Wallpaper from Anthropologie. Click here to purchase.
Instructions:
Measure the wall to determine how many rolls of wallpaper you'll need.
a) If you choose a print with a repeating pattern, you’ll need 10-15% more than the square footage of your wall - there will be loss
Prepare the wallpaper by unrolling it and cutting it to the desired length, leaving a few extra inches at the top and bottom to allow for trimming.
Fill a clean bucket or tray with lukewarm water.
Dip the wallpaper into the water, ensuring that both sides are thoroughly wet. Fold the paper loosely with the pasted sides together (also called "booking"), making sure the edges are aligned. You could also choose to use a water spray bottle to completely saturate the backside of the wallpaper.
While waiting, prepare the wall by cleaning it of any dirt or debris, and removing any old wallpaper or loose paint.
After waiting several minutes for the wallpaper paste to hydrate and activate, grab your panel and carefully get into position to start at the top of the wall.
Start at the top of the wall, lining up the edge of the wallpaper with a plumb line or level. Leave a bit of extra wallpaper at the ceiling to allow for trimming.
Smooth out the wallpaper from the top down using a wallpaper smoothing tool. This could be your hand, a straight flexible edge, or a wet sponge.
Repeat the process with the next strip, making sure to match the pattern and to butt the edges tightly together.
Trim any excess wallpaper at the ceiling and baseboard using a razor knife or scissors.
Wipe away any excess paste with a damp sponge or cloth.
Continue until the entire wall is covered.
Allow the wallpaper to dry completely before trimming any remaining excess paper along the edges.
By following these steps, you should be able to hang pre-pasted wallpaper. There may be moments during the application process where you thing you’re doing everything wrong - it’s natural to have creases as you work through the smoothing process.
Below: Before and After using Frond Silhouette from Anthropologie. Link here!
My favorite store to get wallpaper from is Anthropologie. They offer hundreds of prints and I find their wallpaper to be of high quality. I also have one room where I used super sale wallpaper from Arhaus - the final look is gorgeous. The Arhaus wallpaper did not come pre-pasted - I had to apply my own paste which was a new endeavour for me.
Below are some photos of inspiration for different areas in our house that have a wallpapered wall, which are two of our bathrooms, my office, bedroom, and my daughters bedroom. I love how each rooms turned out.
Below: Before and After in our bedroom using Rosina from Anthropologie. Click here to get.
Below is from Arhaus. The print is discontinued, but here is a similar pattern. This is NOT pre-pasted paper.
Below: Before and After in our primary bath featuring Magnolia Blossoms from Anthropologie
Combating Millennial Grey below with wallpaper from Arhaus. This print is discontinued, but here is a like print.
Below is Thin Air from Anthropologie. Click here for link.
Below shows Paul Marrot from Anthro, which is a discontinued pattern - but there are so many more to pick!