Hanging wallpaper border can be very easy, even for someone who's never done it before. It doesn't take much time and when you're finished, your room looks amazing!
Preparation:
Before you get started, you will need to prepare your walls correctly. First, you will need to make sure your walls are clean and free of any texture, dust, etc. You can clean your wall with warm soapy water. Just make sure you rinse it well and allow it to fully dry.
It is highly recommended that you use an oil or acrylic based wallpaper primer and sizer combination on your wall where the border will be hung before you actually hang the border. This is great because it allows your border to stick better onto the wall and it also enables you to take the border down very easily when you want to redecorate. If your wall is a dark color already, you might want to opt in getting the wallpaper primer/sizer combo in a white tinted color to block out that dark color. This will prevent any fading onto the border you might have during and/or after installation. Most acrylic primer/sizer combos are water based, which allows for an easy clean-up. You paint it on your wall where the border will hang and it dries in about an hour. If you're using the white-tinted combo, you might have to use a couple coats to ensure the wall color is blocked. After the primer/sizer combo has dried, you are ready to hang your border. There are also some sundries available that are a primer/sizer AND paste in one which is great to use.
We recommend you not paint the primer/sizer on your walls too many days before you actually hang the border. This is because on your wall where you paint the primer/sizer combo, it is a little tacky. This is great because it allows your border to stick better onto the wall. If you allow the primer/sizer to sit too long, dust and hair will get attracted to it and it won't work nearly as well as if it's freshly painted. We recommend hanging the border no more than 24-48 hours after application of the primer/sizer combo.
Getting Started:
Now that you're ready to apply the border, you'll need a few tools first. You will need the following:
Stepladder or stool; level; a sharp utility knife (box cutter works well too) to trim the border; damp sponge and luke warm bucket of water; dry flat area to paste (if applicable) and cut; rag/towel; water tray to submerge border in; PATIENCE.
Now that you have the tools you need and have your area set up for installation, you are ready to start hanging your border.
Take the border out of the manufacturer's package and reverse roll it. Also, just a note: hold onto the label that came off the border. This has important information about the pattern and manufacturer you might need to know for future reference. Also, there should be some helpful hanging hints on the back of the label (just in case you want a second opinion).
After the border is reverse rolled, place it into the water tray (filled with luke warm water) and allow the border to be submerged in the water NO MORE than 30 seconds. At about the 10 second mark, start unrolling the border out of the water (make sure all sides of the border are wet). About halfway through, you can "book" the border that's out of the water. "Booking" is where you stick the paste sides together (it won't stay stuck to itself, I promise). After you "book" half the border, take the last part of the border and "book" it. So you should have the two ends of the border facing up and meeting each other in the middle of the roll. This process allows the border paste to activate and relax for easier installation. You should keep the border piece "booked" for 3-5 minutes, depending on what the manufacturer's instructions suggest.
After the 3-5 minutes are up, you are ready to hang. Take the beginning piece of the border (the first half you "booked") and undo it where the border isn't sticking to itself anymore. You will then apply the unstuck portion of the border onto your wall in the location you desired to hang. Tip: For hanging borders, start the first piece right above the entry door of the room (if you are hanging the border at the ceiling). If you are hanging the border in the middle of the room, start at the edge of the entry door.
As you have the beginning of the border placed, smooth the rest of the border straight along the wall using a damp sponge. Do not push too hard when smoothing or you will squeeze too much of the paste out from underneath the border and you won't have enough to allow the border to hang. After you hang the first half of the border, undo the end piece of the border and continue to smooth out with the sponge until you reach the end of the border. If there is some paste that oozes out, make sure and wipe that off the front of the border immediately before it dries. If it does dry, it can cause discoloration of the border print.
Hanging the Second Piece, and Beyond:
You've officially hung your first roll of border!!! Congrats. But don't get too excited. You still have the rest of the room to go! After you've hung the first roll, step back from it and examine it. Make sure it meets your expectations: it's hung at the right level, it's straight, there are no bubbles in the border where you didn't smooth it out well enough, etc. If everything meets your criteria, then move onto the next roll.
Before you hang the second roll, you will need to match up the beginning of the second roll with the end of the first roll. Sometimes the pattern repeat will not stop and start from roll to roll. So you will need to figure out where the second roll's pattern meets and continues with the end of the first roll's pattern. Example: if you are hanging a sports border and the repeat is baseball, football, soccer ball, basketball, you'll need to make sure the beginning of the second roll starts with a baseball and not a soccerball or your pattern will be off. For the second roll (and third roll, etc), you can follow the same installation process as you did the first roll.
After your room is complete, enjoy it! Wallpaper adds so much to your room and makes it more pleasing to the eye and senses. Thanks for using wallpaper and border. Please contact us with any additional questions you might have.
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