Decorating 101: Wallpapering – Awkward Areas pt.2

Moving on to more of those thought-provoking and patience consuming areas, let us guide you in how to use wallpapers where you may have dormer windows and around your chimney breasts or fire surrounds.

Papering Around A (single) Doorway

Ideally, you’ll use the minimum amount of wallpaper if you centre a full width strip of paper over the door opening (pattern permitting).

Where a door is close to a corner, fit a narrow strip above the doorway. Pattern discontinuity will be least noticed in between two full strips.

Dormer Windows

Often in attics and loft rooms where you may have extended or converted the space into a living space there will be sloping ceilings and dormer windows with which you will need to contend.

If you decide upon wallpapering rather than painting the sloping ceiling, then you should treat this area as you would a vertical wall; no unusual problems should be involved… Other than the peculiar working angle.

What you should consider is the choice of wallpaper type, irregular pattern matching could give you unfortunate results.

Paper the wall alongside the window and then around the window itself, moving onto the wall below the other side of the sloping ceiling, finally finishing with the dormer cheeks.

Chimney Breasts & Fire Surrounds – Feature Walls…

Special rules apply to chimney breasts. For a start, since they often form the focal point in the room, any pattern used here must be centralised. The design of the paper will dictate where you begin to hang the wallpaper.

Should you have chosen a plain wallpaper with no matching requirements, start this process by measuring and marking the central point of the chimney breast. Next, use a plumb line to help draw a vertical line down the centre. Begin hanging your wallcovering, working away from this central point.

Centralised Patterns.

Where one length of paper contains a complete motif, such as a damask, you can measure and mark off from the central point of the chimney breast. Simply half the measurement of the wallpaper rolls width, and use this measurement to mark either side of the central point of the chimney breast made earlier, now use a plumb line again at these points to help you draw a pair of parallel vertical lines down the centre of the chimney breast.

Now you are ready to hang your wallpaper from these prepared lines outward. Just remember to balance the pattern from top to bottom, trying not to cut through a major design feature at the ceiling line.

Combined Length Patterns.

On the other hand, if your wallcovering has the type of pattern where two lengths, when aligned, form a single motif, you need to find a different starting point.
Here you should start by estimating how many widths of wallpaper will fit across the chimney breast and then draw a line as a guide for hanging the first length so the combined motif will in fact be centralised. Should your wall hold around three roll widths, you should look to start bang on the centre point.

If your wall comfortably holds four roll widths, you have a choice, you may want to present the focal point with a pair of parallel motifs or alternatively a central motif with each further motif falling off the chimney breast into the return on each side.

Your order of work should be from the centre (or near centre) outwards, and you will then have to turn the wallpaper around the corners at the sides so you can form an overlap join with the paper which will be applied to the sides of the chimney breast.

Follow the usual techniques for measuring round external corners, remembering in particular not to take too much paper around the corner.

Fireplace Surrounds.

When it comes to fireplace surrounds, there are so many varying kinds of mantel shelves and surrounds that only general guidance can be offered here. Think floating oak beams, plaster or marble full surrounds, cast iron facades or even open cavities. Make your decisions about how the pattern should fall as noted above and then…

The technique usually used is to brush the wallpaper down from the top part of the wall and then cut it to fit along the back edge of the mantel shelf. You can then cut the lower half to fit the contours (if any) of the surround. If you have a particularly complicated outline then you’ll have to gradually work downwards, using a small pair of sharp scissors, pressing the paper into each shape, withdrawing it to snip along the crease line, then brushing it back into place.

If there is only a small distance between the edges of the mantelshelf and the chimney breast corners, it’s a lot easier if you hang the paper down to the shelf and make a neat, horizontal cut line in the paper. You can then continue to hang the lower half separately and join the two halves to disguise the cut line.

Have you missed our previous post? Awkward Areas Part 1? Find out more on Decorting Internal & External Corners plus Wallpapering around Windows. Click Here