Sophie At Home: Oh, The Wonders of Wallpaper!

Have any ideas about that big improvement that happened over at Wattle Cottage yet? If you remember, way back when I shared our ideas for the third bedroom at Wattle Cottage, I said we were planning on some sort of beige, damask wallpaper on the wall with the window. Then, just a few weeks ago I said that we had ordered some wallpaper from Ebay. Guess what comes next...?

Yes, we put up the wallpaper (if you guessed right, you can give yourself a pat on the back, yay!)

This wasn't really something we were willing to battle solo. Especially since I have never dealt with wallpaper and mum hasn't for at least 20 years! That's why we were so grateful to have a kind friend with expert wallpapering skills who was willing to lend us a hand (after some bribing...)

So last Saturday afternoon Pat came over (with kids in tow) to help us get the job done. I'll give you a basic run-down of what we Pat did, but I'm no expert!

First up, Pat used an awesome laser ruler thingy-me-giggy to get a straight line to start wallpapering on. You probably already know this, but you always start wallpapering in the middle of the wall and not of the edge because your walls are never exactly straight. So unless you want crooked wallpaper, it's best to do it this way.

Pat did this by checking how wide the wallpaper was (it will have it on the package it came in) and measuring in from the corner a bit less (so there will be a bit of wallpaper hanging off but it's better to be safe rather than sorry). She used the laser ruler thing to get the straight line and then ruled it with a ruler and pencil all down the wall. Use a spirit level to check that the line is straight though, just in case! Meanwhile, mum and I were mixing up the wallpaper paste.

Our wallpaper was of the "paste the wall" variety, which according to Pat is the way to go seeing as it is a lot easier to work with. So after the paste had been left for at least 5 minutes (stirring occasionally), Pat started pasting the wall...

..and then putting up the wallpaper so that it was in line with the straight mark she had made. See that part on the side that looks like it's hanging off? Pat would just cut that off with a Stanley knife afterwards.

Next up was wallpapering around the window. Working towards the window like this was alright. Funny thing is before we bought this house, this bedroom belonged to preteen girl who had only just painted the room purple after years of pleading her mum. It would have been very disappointing to leave her nice new ultimately purple room, hence this note left by the window. It has been slightly covered with the paint from the trim now, but this is what it says: This was JK's room so don't paint it OK. I don't feel so bad seeing as we're just wallpapering this wall. It's not actually painting it.

Mum helped out around the tops and bottoms of the window to get a taste for modern wallpapering without totally messing up. By the way, don't be afraid that the wallpaper glue is going to dry before you put up the wallpaper. It stays sticky for ages!

Among all this chaos, I was still here! Being the very important support person. ie. rag fetcher, cup of tea maker...

... or flower head?

I loved sitting in on all the action to know what to do next time (there will be a next time!)

It all seemed to be going very well... nonetheless, it was a tiring job (I meant doing the wallpapering, but I suppose being a flower head took some effort too) so we stopped for a break to rest up... and enjoy a delicious chocolate cheesecake prepared by ~~yours truly~~, mum!

After a much deserved break it was time to get back to it. The next part was be extra tricky because of the window ending. In fact, maybe too tricky (even for the expert!) because unfortunately, whilst trying very hard to get the wallpaper to fit around the window, the wallpaper didn't lay flat and got crinkled in one place. That meant taking the whole sheet off and doing that part again. Never mind...

...or do mind! Whilst the second time, mum and Pat managed to successfully put the wallpaper around the window, we still had to waste a whole length of wallpaper :(

And that had it's consequences when mum and Pat got to the last part before finishing. There was not enough wallpaper left. We couldn't finish. We had used both rolls. It was disappointing (very).

So Pat went home without us finishing the job. Mum has gone and bought some more from Ebay (thankfully there was more left!) and we saved the paste in a sealed container for when the new stuff arrives. Do you think we can tackle the last one or two lengths without Pat?

Despite the wall being unfinished, the whole reason we were getting stuck into wallpapering this weekend was because we had a guest arriving to stay in that very room the next day. So we still had to make it look pretty... this is where I come in handy. I threw together lots of random things to make it look like something out of a magazine...