16 — Friday, February 21, 1997 — North Shore News

| OME:

Get the hang of wallpapering

WALLPAPER can do
wonders for a dreary
room, for an entrance
hall, for a tiny powder
room, for a bedroom,
study or kitchen — in
short, for any space
that needs a face lift.
We haven’t used it much
lately because it’s not easy to
part with plain white walls.
But now that color is back, it
might be tempting to check
out new wallpaper designs.
Improved printing and color-
ing techniques have produced

CHOOSING a pattern Is
just the first step when
wallpapering a room.
Most walipapers today
have trimmed edges and
are pre-pasted, making

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attractive choices.

Most of today’s wallpapers
have trimmed edges and are
pre-pasted which makes
installation easy; the main
challenge is to wade through
the dizzying array of stvles,
textures and patterns.

Here are some helpful
hints for those of you who
want to make wallpapering a
weekend project
and observe the
transformation
from plain wails to
Pattern, texture
and color.

The question
of how many rolls
you will need can
be daunting, so
let’s make this
simple: take the
measurement of
the room or walls you want
to cover to your favorite
paint and wallpaper store and
ask for an estimation chart.
This will tell you at a glance
the nurnber of single or dou-
ble rolls needed. Large pat-
tern repeats require ten to
twenty percent extra.

Prepare walls for
papering

© Remove old wallpaper,
wash, sand and fill holes and
cracks so that walls are dry
and smooth. ~

® Porous surfaces and recent-
ly plastered walls should be
sized with a coat of diluted
wallpaper paste.

© Remove cover plates from
electrical ourlets.

© Have the following items
handy (to cut down on stress

and extra trips): a stepladder,
large scissors and/or X-acto
knife, steel-edged ruler, mea-
suring tape, table for cutung
strips, a string with a weight
attached (to be used as plumb
line), seam roller, brush and a
little extra paste for cdges in
case they won’t adhere, plastic
trough to soak pre-pasted
paper, pencil, sponge and

“ It’s not easy to part with

plain white walls. But now

that color is back, it might
be tempting to check out
new wallpaper designs.”

some rags.
© Finally, keep your cool and
work with a cool partner if
possible.

Use your plumb line to
draw a vertical line at your
starting point and thereafter
on cach wall as you go along.

If you are using plain or
slightly patterned paper, start
beside a window.

Papers with a bold pattern
should be centered on the
focal point wall, usually the
one opposite the entrance.

Measure the wall height
and cut your first strip two
inches longer at top and bot-
tom. If you are working with a
large pattern, cut it so that the
pattern will be complete at the
top after the two inch (5 cm)
allowance has been trimmed.

Remember to follow the
same procedure for subse-

quent strips so that the pat-
tern will match in cach strip.

Two final points before
you soak the first strip in the
water trough: turn the elec-
tricity off, and make sure you
have your strips right side up
— there have been cases
where wallpaper or even
ceramic tile has been installed
upside down.

Roll the pre-past-
ed paper inside
out and soak it in
the trough for
one minute (or as
per manufactur-
er’s instructions).
Gently pull the
tup of the stip
up the wall, lee
the water fow
back into the
trough and pat it
into place, leaving two inches
(5 cm) at the ceiling line and
at the base for trimming.

Use the paperhanger’s
brush to smooth out wrinkles
and air bubbles, always
towards the edge of the paper.

Run the back of the scis-
sors along the ceiling line and
the baseboard or floor and
carefully lift the paper to cut
at the marked line.

You may find it casier to
do the trimming with a stee!-
edged ruler and X-acto knife.

Repeat until you get to an
inside comer; it has to be
treated with special attention
because it is hardly ever
straight. --

Measure the distance fro:
the last strip to the corner
and cut the next strip so thar ~

See Rule page 17

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