Spoonflower prints your Prepasted Removable Smooth Wallpaper for easy installation with a beautiful, seamless repeat. Please read the detailed instructions below before beginning your installation so you are well prepared.
The most important thing to know is that Prepasted Removable Smooth Wallpaper is not recommended for use on walls with texture or walls painted with "scrubbable" paints.For highly textured walls, wallpaper may not be a good option and testing is recommended. In fact, customers often like to practice installation before placing a larger order by ordering a Test Swatch of their design.
For best results, apply wallpaper to a surface that is a solid, light color. Allow recently painted or primed walls to cure for 4 weeks prior to installing wallpaper since application over uncured paint can lead to bubbling. We have not tested installation of this substrate over other wallpaper, or over other paper that has also been primed over.
GETTING READY
GET A FRIEND & SET ASIDE SOME TIME
Hanging wallpaper is a two-person job. And whether you are doing just a wall, or an entire room, make sure to set aside enough time to complete the entire installation in one day. Since paper shrinks as it dries, completing the task in a timely manner will ensure a seamless match of your patterns!
MATERIALS
Painter’s tape
Paint roller or sponge (for booking)
Sharp utility knife
Extra blades
Drop cloth
Bucket (or paint tray if using a paint roller) of clean water
A long flat surface
PREPARATION
PREPARE YOUR WALL
Important Tip: Depending on how much time may be needed to prep your walls, be sure to set aside a couple days, or even a few weeks, depending upon what you need to complete.
Before applying any wallpaper, ensure your wall is smooth, clean and dust-free. Patch or sand any damaged areas of the wall, especially where sharp edges might pierce or tear the wallpaper. For best results, apply wallpaper to a surface that is a solid, light color. Allow recently painted or primed walls to cure for 4+ weeks prior to installing wallpaper. Applying wallpaper over uncured paint can lead to bubbling as moisture tries to escape.
Please note our Prepasted Removable Smooth Wallpaper is not recommended for use on walls with high texture or those painted with "scrubbable" paints. Be sure to check the manufacturer's details or data sheets for the paint you are applying to your walls before installing.
PREPARE YOUR PAPER
Unroll each strip so that they face the same way. The top of the strip has no white space, and the bottom has a narrow line of white space labelled with any barcode information. Do not trim any part of the paper before hanging.
Note: While the wallpaper rolls are numbered ("qty1-1 of 8" and so on), these numbers are not aligned to installing these panels in any particular order. It is simply to notate the quantity of items in your order. You can see an example of this below.
DECIDE WHERE TO START HANGING
If you're applying multiple rolls of wallpaper across one, two or three walls, you can start hanging from the farthest left corner to the right, or from the right to the left. Once you start in one direction, commit to it. All our papers have a small design overlap along the right edge that will help with seamless installation and consistency will ensure a smooth repeat of the design from one panel to the next across your wall or walls.
If you are planning to cover all the walls of a room, chances are that the last installed panel won't match seamlessly with the first panel. To help reduce the visual disconnect for this total installation, you will want to consider where you start by making sure that the first panel is not at a focal point within the larger visual design of the room.
Example: Start hanging in a corner hidden behind an open door, or put the first panel behind where a tall piece of furniture might go. While the design won't match seamlessly at this point, it will be far more inconspicuous than if it is at the corner across from the couch or on the wall facing the bed.
If you have walls of different heights and are planning to purchase rolls of different lengths, deciding the best place to start will require forward thinking. In some circumstances the vertical repeat of the design should be taken into consideration before placing your order, and because this will vary from design to design, please contact us with questions before placing your order. However, once you have your paper, you will still need to determine the best place in your room to begin installation. For example, the longer roll might set up an overall repeat option that the shorter rolls cannot match, but if you start with a shorter roll instead, the longer roll might still work effectively. You will want to visualize the installation before getting started.
Installation
Check out this quick video before you get started! Written steps with diagrams can be found below.
BOOKING THE PAPER
Booking the wallpaper is the process used to activate the prepasted adhesive with water. Enough water must be applied across the paper to create a goopy consistency in order to ensure effective installation.
There’s a few ways to start booking, but these two are the most common:
- Use a clean paint roller or sponge to thoroughly wet the back of the paper.
- Use a high output spray bottle to saturate the adhesive. Be sure to keep all sprays consistent so that there is a good amount of water for the entire length of the panel.
Important Tip - Good overhead lighting and a flat surface will be your friend! Since any dry spots will appear dull in the light, this set up will help you be certain the entire length of paper is saturated. If lighting is an issue, use a flashlight or even your cell phone to find variations in reflection over the roll. Most often, you will see that the edges of the paper aren't saturated. Whenever you find these spots or edges, get them wet!
Once the paper is thoroughly wet, gently fold the top and bottom, pasted sides together, to meet in the middle, as shown in the diagram below. Take care not to crease the paper. It is important to allow each panel of paper to rest in the booking phase for at least 3-5 minutes before you hang the panel. The paper will expand as the water is absorbed by the paper fibers, and then, as it dries, the paper will tighten again for a smooth professional finish.
START HANGING
Once the first panel of wallpaper is properly booked for 3 - 5 minutes, pick it up and unfold just the top half of the paper, leaving the white edge with the barcode information still booked.
Noting where you decided to start hanging the paper, align the top of the wallpaper with the ceiling - if your the ceiling edge is not perfectly straight, start about an inch above the edge and then trim the paper once dry - making sure the edge is straight and even on the wall. Ask your friend to step back and check that the strip is straight and level. If you are installing in the corner, that edge may help, too. Painter's tape can be also used to secure the paper if it begins to slip as you adjust.
Once the paper is in position, unfold the bottom half of the strip to install onto the wall. Smooth the paper downward with a damp sponge or a wallpaper smoothing tool. Take care to remove air bubbles as you go. Larger ones can be lightly pressed from beneath the paper to the edges.
BEGIN OVERLAPPING
Pick up your second roll of wallpaper and apply it so that the new roll overlaps the edge of the previous roll by approximately ¾ inch (1.9 cm). Be mindful to visually match the repeat. There is no need to trim the overlap. Because wallpaper shrinks as it dries, this method guarantees the repeat will remain without any spaces in-between each panel. Repeat this step, aligning each new roll over the previous one until you complete your installation.
Important Tips: When installing around doors or windows, apply the wallpaper as normal around the moulding. You are free to cut away any unnecessary bulk that is not installing to the wall, but wait until the paper has fully dried (usually 3 hours) before trimming it flush to any moulding.
Installing corners, both interior (in a room) and exterior (around an edge), can certainly be challenging. This can be even more difficult when you are trying to install a more than half a roll (12+") from one wall, across the corner/edge, onto the next. In a perfect scenario, it is ideal to only have to install a few inches of paper on the other side of the corner so that the paper can stay level and there isn't too much weight with the paper. Therefore, you may want to consider the exact starting point of the project and shift where you begin your first panel - as best as possible - to avoid such an issue.
It is not recommended to cut the paper for corners because you will not have the necessary overlap.
Finally, since every installation project will vary, it may be a good idea to search online for additional tips and tricks when it comes to navigating around switches, electrical plugs, window hardware and moulding, and corners.
Finishing up
Once you've installed all the panels it is time to finish up with the finer details, and while we know you will be excited to get this done, take a break and relax! You must let your paper dry completely - about 3 hours - to guarantee it completely shrunk back to it's original size.
To trim the last bits of extra paper around the frames of the windows, doors, and baseboard, you will likely want to use a sharp utility knife with a good grip. While there are many brands to choose from, we have had good luck with Olfa SAC-1 Graphic Cutter. It offers a good stability in your hand, which means the blades won't wobble as you complete those final straight cuts. Also, this is no time to be frugal with the blades! A sharper blade makes for a cleaner line, which gives you that professional finish. With the Olfa cutter you can snap off the blades for a fresh tip as needed.
Once everything is trimmed, you can recycle any leftover bits of paper. From there, wipe down the walls with a damp sponge to remove any excess adhesive. Now stand back and admire your work!
Removal
To take down Prepasted Removable Smooth Wallpaper, start at the corner of one roll and gently peel back from the wall. If the paper is being stubborn, use a damp sponge to reactivate the adhesive to allow it to release more easily. Once the paper is removed, the wall can be wiped with a damp sponge to clear up any remaining adhesive residue.