Thinking Of Hanging Wallpaper?

Residential Wallcoverings Come In An Abundance of Materials & Styles

Sep 23, 2007

Wallpaper can be a key component in your interior decorating scheme! You don't need a professional paperhanger for most types of wallcoverings...give it a try!

It’s quite true that hanging wallpaper can completely change the appearance of a room quickly and dramatically. The wide range of choices in color, texture and pattern can create vibrancy, serenity, warmth, and ambiance depending upon what you choose. Despite its reputation for being difficult, time consuming, and fraught with frustration, installing wallcoverings has become steadily easier as the quality of the products and the required tools improves, and a staple of interior decorating. For most, you probaby don't require the services of a professional paperhanger.

Paint, of course, comes in every color imaginable, from dozens of variations of white to the deepest and richest jewel tones imaginable. Traditional paint finishes include flat, satin and gloss. Through variations in materials and application, paint finishes and techniques including the faux effects of ragging, sponging, combing, marbeling, crackling, and many more, all with particular qualities of durability, washability and appearance.

Why choose wallpaper over paint? The most obvious reason, of course, is style. If you’re looking to evoke a particular look or feeling, whether it be a country flavor or a historical vignette, wallpaper may be what you’re looking for. Residential wallcoverings come in every style, color, texture and many degrees of durability. Each type has distinct characteristics that make it appropriate – or not – for particular areas of your home. The most common categories include:

Each of these requires a slightly different method of application. Some are prepasted vinyl wallpaper, some require an adhesive be applied. Certain types are easy to work with and forgiving to errors in cutting, some are not and are best left to the skills of a professional paperhanger.

From old-fashioned cabbage roses to whimsical animals, to Oriental motifs and current trends in art and culture, you can find nearly any theme or pattern imaginable. The countless choices in patterns and textures make wallpaper an excellent choice to pull together the components of a particular room or area. Wallcoverings can also mask flaws and imperfections in the wall surface that paint cannot.

When it comes to choosing wallpaper that is right for your project, talk to the experts at your local decorating center or hardware store. They can be a great help in getting you started in finding the right products, assist in measuring for your wallpaper and order the right amount, and make sure you have the right paperhanging tools that you will need to get the job done.

The copyright of the article Thinking Of Hanging Wallpaper? in Interior Decorating is owned by Pam Sissons. Permission to republish Thinking Of Hanging Wallpaper? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.