How hard is wallpapering??

[emsyj37]

Just thinking that I would quite like to get some decorating skills. We have our house on the market and are hoping to move somewhere bigger. We have just painted walls here and I quite fancy some wallpaper in the next house, but finding a decorator and pinning them down to a date around here seems next to impossible - plus there's the expense. I think I might like to learn to do it myself. I have found a 4 day course on wallpapering that I could do, but will this be long enough realistically for me to learn enough to be able to do basic wallpapering in my own house, or will it just be £350 down the drain? Any experience and advice welcome! TIA

I taught myself how to wallpaper from YouTube videos and am pretty bloody good at it now. I started with places that just needed lining paper up or the bottom half wallpapered and the top half painted and now do whole rooms. I wouldn't spend 350 on a course for it. It is a lot easier than it looks. A couple of botched rolls of wallpaper while you find your feet doing it will be far cheaper than a course.

Have a mooch about on YouTube and see what you think.

Really?? I am not generally blessed in the talent for practical skills department.... Do you need much equipment?

Honestly, it is a lot easier than you think. I'm probably a lot slower than most at it, but I would rather take my time and do a good job.

I have a bucket for paste, a brush for pasting, a sponge for smoothing, a Stanley knife and scissors, and a weighted piece of string to hang the first piece straight with and that's it. I use my kitchen table to paste on but you could get a pasting table too.

I did buy some ladders this week, which would be a handy, but not essential purchase unless you're doing the stairs or have high ceilings, and am going to do my stairs this weekend.

It's not that it's hard, it's that unless you do it a lot you don't keep your eye in. Someone who does it every day gets a perfect finish. A lot of the wallpaper I like is really expensive so I wouldn't do it myself as it's too expensive to get wrong.

I've got a decorator in at the moment. He's walllapering 1600 square feet of house (very high ceilings) and he's amazing. I got him from rated people and he's charging me £1500 (about 2 weeks work) and I'm in London.

Thanks Fish I might get some cheap paper and do a bit of experimenting in the spare bedroom. Annoyingly we had a pasting table in the garage that we gave away on freecycle only a couple of months ago - typical!

Good luck. I hope it goes well. It gives you such a sense of achievement to do it all yourself.

Personally I find it easier to paste the wall as well as the paper, but have a go and find a way that works for you. Let me know how you get on

It's not hard. Get tooled up, measure carefully and have a helper you won't fall out with. I taught myself out of a Collins DIY book. The important thing is not to try and fold the paper round corners. You take paper an inch round, trim, then start with a new piece overlapping slightly so you know its straight. That and a good sharp Stanley knife. Soaking the paper makes it slightly flexible and easier to work with too.

Will do. Am going to have a Youtube search now!

Emsy, begin on a part of the wall that will be less obvious if your work is not perfect. You will probably get better and neater as you go along, so save the most important section of the room till last. Have fun!