Should I wallpaper myself?

[iCantStopppEatinggg]

I’m sick of trying to find a reliable decorator to put up some wallpaper. Is it really difficult to do? I’ve watched a few YouTube videos but I’m terrified I will mess it up then it will cost more to fix. What do you think should I just go for it or keep trying to find a decorator and get it done professionally?

I thought you were planning to have your body wallpapered 🤣

Yeah have a go! It doesn't stick right away so there's a bit of wiggle room.

Admit this is what I thought too upon reading the thread title.....😂

Walls yes, give it a bash. Ceilings no....I speak from dastardly experience!!

I clicked wondering if this was a discussion of Gillman’s
work.

putting up wallpaper is not difficult at all, especially the modern stuff. You just need to remember to buy enough to pattern match and don’t rush.

Thank you all. I’m going for it! I’m going to try it Friday so if you have any tips please share!

lol! It does sound like I wanted to wallpaper myself! Sorry didn’t mean to have a misleading title

I was going to say no, it'll be an absolute bugger to pattern match on a human frame.

You’ll look lovely in floral!

I also imagined you sticking it on your body!!

Yes do it, it's really therapeutic, nothing major can go wrong, don't do it with super expensive stuff first.

Most crucial let someone know if you do live alone that you are up a ladder, as climbing up while holding sticky paper is tricky.

You can also paste the wall, but in my experience never as good.

Make sure you hang the pieces straight. Use a spirit level to start with.
Take your time.....let the wallpaper paste sit for a while after you've mixed it....the more expensive the paper, the easier it is to put up.

I used the oral Kiely one and it was £50/roll and it was beautiful to work with!

It’s fine. Just buy decent stuff - get wallpapering table, sharp knife and decent brush

Wallpapering is very, very, very easy.

I had visions of Wallace and gromit inventing a wall paper machine 🤣🤣 sorry op but I couldn't help it

I wallpapered a wall for the first time last year, full of trepidation and convinced it would fall off. It was easy, quick and so so so much less annoying and more effective than painting. Now I'm working my way through the whole house.

Get 'paste the wall' paper, it's nice and thick so covers a multitude of sins, it's also really easy to hang, you don't have to do any of that paste, wait for it to soak in, fold it into a weird configuration then finagle it to the wall stuff.

Use a plumb line to draw a straight line where you want your first bit of paper to go.

Slap ready made paste onto the wall using the biggest brush you can find, be generous and really spread it out.

With the paper still on the roll, start at the top and roll it down the wall.

Use a wallpaper smoothing tool to press the paper flat against the wall and then to form a nice sharp crease at the bottom. Use a Stanley knife against the edge of the smoothing tool to cut along the bottom.

Get a damp cloth and sweep it all over the paper from middle to edges to smooths out any paste bubbles.

Then repeat with the next piece until you've done your whole wall.

If you need to you can gently move the paper around a bit to get a nice close match between each length and to match any patterns.

Give it all another wipe over with a clean damp cloth to get rid of any rogue bits of paste then trim up the top line if you need to.

Good for you!
Im no expert but can hang wallpaper.
Check all the rolls so that you get the same batch numbers.
Buy more than you think you need, I've always gone for three drops per roll unless it's a difficult pattern.
You can return unopened rolls.
Fill any holes with some polyfilla, let it dry then lightly sand.
Make sure the walls are clean and dust free.
Arm yourself with a pasting table, bucket to mix the paste, brush to apply the paste, wallpaper brush to smooth the paper as you stick it to the wall and a damp cloth to wipe off any excess at the joins.
Clean the paste table after you've pasted each piece.
Start in the middle of the room, if you have a fireplace/chimney breast , start in he middle of this, find the middle by measuring the wall.
Cut the paper slightly longer than you need, get the first piece up, smooth gently as you go (gently press any air bubbles out by brushing towards the edges) don't stretch the paper when it's wet as it'll shrink when it's dry, after you've smoothed each piece cut the excess of, smooth into the crease of the ceiling and the crease against the skirting board, run the back of a pair of scissors along the crease to make a line, carefully peel away from the wall and cut along the crease, smooth back down.
Don't get any lumps from the paste onto the paper and make sure you cover the edges of the paper, along what would be the join,measure the next piece, making sure the pattern matches, repeat above steps and keep going.
Don't panic if it looks a little bumpy, it should dry back smoothly.
Post a pic when you've done it

Forgot to add, check the paper and see if it's paste the paper or paste the wall 😁

We have recessed windows and awkward angles in the room I would like to paper. If it was just a straightforward box style room, I'd feel more confident, but don't know how to manage the fiddly bits...

Do you think self derive paper is better than just the paste one?

I've got to say I love a bit of DIY but I am absolutely terrible at wallpapering I usually end up wasting so much it'd be worth paying for a decorator 😂

There are loads of very simple tutorials on youtube. We watched a series about putting up lining paper then successfully lined a large Edwardian room with lots of angles. The chap doing the video had a very calm reassuring manner - he normally teaches apprentices. Everything was broken down into tiny stages, eg how to prepare everything, how to mix paste, how to cut your paper etc all in different short videos. I wish I could remember his name, they were very soothing to watch! I think he was from Mansfield or thereabouts.

Like tiling, I would never attempt it!

I would think a self adhesive one would be a bugger to hang. It would be like that sticky back plastic/vinyl stuff that sticks to itself if you lose control while trying to coordinate getting the paper in the right place and removing the backing sheet and smoothing it down perfectly so it doesn't crease. That's just how I'd imagine it though, haven't actually tried it.