Your favourite alternative to paint is back: wallpaper! This is all thanks to all the stylish new prints, dimensional fabrics, and new processes and materials that make installation and removal quick and easy. Wallpapers are fun and can add more personality into a room as if giving it a totally new transformation. It’s an art form and we’re here for it. Often seen in photos of style bloggers, HGTV and Instagram famous homes nowadays, it’s definitely on-trend.
Indeed, today’s wallpapers have really evolved from their previous designs, now boasting of dramatically oversized and whimsical prints, some even featuring characters from famous narratives and prints pulled straight off the runway. With today’s printing technology, you’re bound to get richer colours, sharper images, and more textured fabrics that can also be three-dimensional.
You can go overboard with wallpaper if you’d like but designers suggest restraint, only using it purposefully, perhaps as an accent in one or two rooms. Low-maintenance is the key to all of it. While installing and removing wallpaper was once a painful headache, with the advancements in technology, you have new adhesive formulas that offer stick-and-peel fabrics, allowing you to safely strip your wall without leaving any residue at all. The days of scraping off wallpaper are gone and it is now a stress-free alternative to paint.
But with all the designs available on the market, when it comes to choosing the right wallpaper, where do you start? Maybe the following guidelines can help you find the wallpaper of your dreams:
You need to know what type you’re looking for. Wallpaper types vary by material and adhesive coating. There’s non-woven substrate paper that is easy to dry-strip from the wall. Then there are pre-pasted papers that come with a water-activated adhesive backing. Both options are durable, easy to strip, and generally grease-resistant.
You have to print match to find out how to properly line up the strips. There are three types: straight which runs the width of the paper across the seam and onto the next strip, random which continues seamlessly, and drop which must be aligned horizontally and vertically on either side because of how the pattern offsets slightly from strip to strip.
You need to learn about pre-pasted wallpapers. These usually need to be booked, a term that means wetting the paper and letting it sit for about 10 minutes, as the glue activates. There are also unpasted papers that don’t come with adhesive, these will require you to paste the wall or the back of the paper.
Then there are the inches of how far a pattern stretches vertically before it begins again, these are called repeats. Usually, the lower the repeat, the lower the waste because it would be easy to calculate how much wallpaper you would need exactly.
Here’s the tricky part, calculating how much material you’ll need. But with the help of an online calculator and a proper contractor, you will be able to get this done right. It can get tricky when you consider how many windows and doors you may have in a room. Retailers often sell these by the roll, most of which cover 25 to 28 square feet.
The latest wallpapers are more durable and easy to maintain. They are often scrubbable by a sponge and detergent or washable, which can be cleaned gently by wiping with a damp cloth.
If you’re afraid of commitment, then don’t fret because removal is easy. Just peel or strip it off, any little residue left behind can simply be removed with soap and water.
If this all sounds daunting to you and you would need the help of professionals, get in touch with https://www.yesmydesign.com.au/. With years of experience in the field, they can properly guide you in choosing the best wallpaper for your home or office.
Resources – https://www.design.org.au/
