The average time a family stays in a home has increased, resulting in a booming home modeling industry despite the fact that home sales have drastically declined or stayed flat in the last five years. The wallpaper industry has spiked as a result.
The public, who once eschewed wallpaper in a favor of paint, have returned to it because of popular networks like HGTV and A&E re-introducing them to all of the wonderful choices they have at their disposal.
All of us have painful memories of seeing that ugly kitchen paper in your grandparent’s house that seemed to be peeling halfway down to the floor. Those days are long gone. Your grandmother’s brown and lime green wallpaper have been replaced by more contemporary paper that is easier to install and to take down, making the whole process more hassle-free than it used to be.
For those of you that have little experience in buying and hanging wallpaper, the following steps should help you in getting started.
Choose a Room Theme
You first need to have a general idea of what type of room theme you want. As your project moves along you will be adding and taking away things but you need to have a concrete picture in your head on how you want your room to look.
The easiest way to develop your room theme is to get ideas from home related blogs or magazines. You can either browse home decoration related websites or visit your nearest bookstore and start scanning through the numerous magazines articles that are related to home decorating. You will find many of them. If you see a room that you really like, either purchase that magazine or take pictures and save that photo for future reference.
What Type of Wallpaper Do You Want
There are more than thirty types of wallpaper so you need to decide from the beginning the kind you want. Damask, faux and contemporary is the three most popular by a wide margin.
Many patterns these days also come “raised,” meaning they are textured to look more realistic on your walls. Some brick and stone textured paper really look like the real material they are meant to imitate with the technology the wall covering industry has!
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If you want a traditional themed room then you will like damask, faux, harlequin, paisley, toile and transitional paper.
If you want a more contemporary theme then you will like brick, faux textured, stripe and geometric wallpaper.
If you are looking for a nature themed room then oriental toile, bamboo and grasscloth paper will be your best bet.
It is also a good idea to know the color scheme you want. Each wallpaper design can come in several color combinations so having in mind the color scheme you want for your room will make the shopping process easier in the future.
How to Buy Wallpaper
You have two choices when you are ready to buy the wallpaper you want. You can purchase your wallpaper from a local decorating store or you can buy it online.
All paper is sold from a wallpaper collection (or book). There are hundreds of books on the market, each made from a different manufacturer. A book will typically have a theme to it (i.e. Beach, Tuscany or Wilderness).
When you go into a local store that sells wallpaper, if there is one available where you live, you can browse through the collections of books they have on stock. You can compare, see and touch each sample as well as get expert advice from one of the designers they have in the store.
Purchasing wallpaper online can be trickier. You can usually see the patterns but you cannot feel them. Additionally, sometimes the pictures you see on the Internet do not do the actual paper justice, so when you get it in the mail it looks different than you imagined. The advantage of going online is that you can usually get a specific pattern at a lower price. Online retailers do not have nearly the overhead that local brick and mortar stores have so they are able to give much bigger discounts and remain profitable.
There is also a good chance that you do not have a choice in the matter. Wallpaper stores are declining by the year and there is a very good chance that one does not exist where you live. Most people will have no option but to go online. It is a good idea, however, to purchase a sample for a couple bucks so that you do not have to pay a re-stocking fee later should you not like the wallpaper you ordered.
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Do It Yourself Or Hire a Paperhanger
You have two options once you have the wallpaper you want. You can hang up the paper yourself or you can hire a professional paperhanger to do it. Hanging up paper looks easy but it can be quite different to get it right, especially if you have never done it before. Getting the seams just right can be an absolute paint. Nevertheless, there are many YouTube videos where professionals will show you in a step-by-step process how to do it.
If you are good with your hands and are up to the challenge then hanging wallpaper can be a fun task for the whole family to do over a weekend. However, if you would rather not go through the hassle and want to ensure your paper is hung up perfectly then hiring a paperhanger is a good choice. You will find that they are not as expensive as you think and will be able to do it better and quicker than if you had tried to hang it up yourself. You can find an experienced paperhanger in your area by searching it on Google or taking help of your friends and relatives.
Wallpaper is an excellent choice to decorate your accent wall with. You can design so many more intricate scenes with it because the patterns and prints are endless. Paint is nice but there is only so much you can do with it. By following these steps you will be able to get the kind of paper you want and get the exact room you are looking for.
