Painting and Decorating Concourse
734-464-3883
SM
Wallpaper hangers will take time at the beginning of a job to plan the layout of the room.  The purpose of this is to plan where the strips will fall into place - rather than randomly, a professional wants to have control over the placement of the wallpaper.  You don't want a 1/4" sliver strip just before a door opening or a window.
Engineering Your Wallpaper Layout
Starting Point
The best place to start (and finish) is above a doorway that is used to enter the room.  You will get a mismatch at this point so put it above the doorway where it will be behind the view of one entering the room and it will be a short strip of mismatch since it is a header above the door and not a full strip length.  Skillfully paperhangers will camouflage this mismatch by double cutting along the pattern or by adding pattern back onto the paper - or both.  This final seam camouflage is of course quicker if done above a doorway rather than along the length of a full strip.

Measure Out The Room
First, you will need to measure the width of the paper you are going to hang. Take that measurement to the wall starting at your starting point and measure and mark your strip widths all the way around the room. 

Once you have circled the room you want to observe where each strip will fall and see if you need to make any adjustments.  If for instance you see that you are going to get a sliver strip just before a window or doorway, you will want to adjust your starting point a few inches or so to eliminate the sliver strip. 

If you have to adjust your start point, you will need to remeasure and remark all the way around the room to be sure you have not created another undesirable strip location somewhere else in the room with your new adjustment.

If all works out well and you have good strip placement throughout the room, you are ready to record and count your strip lengths.

Professionals Cut the Whole Room at Once Before Hanging the First Strip
If you are going to record strips and cut down the room at the start, then you need to know that you must record the strips and cut them in the sequence that you will be hanging them. If you don't clearly see why now, you will when you get to actually cutting a drop match or straight match wallpaper. 

You can hang from left to right or from right to left, but if you are right handed you will see that hanging from right to left works better.

Starting at your starting point record in sequence the strip length of each strip as you circle around the room.  You will ultimately need to add four inches to each strip measurement for trimming at the top and bottom of the wall but don't add that to the measurement just yet - right now you want exact lengths (rounded up to the nearest inch).  Once you have the length of each strip length in sequence around the room you have finished engineering the layout and are equipped with the information needed to cut down the room - BUT don't cut your paper yet - you must learn how to cut for a straight match or how to cut for a drop match. and that will be the subject of another article.
Our "terms of use" governs your use of our website; by using our website, you accept this disclaimer in full.  If you disagree with any part of our "terms of use", do not use our website.
The Internet Paint Store
"the right way to buy paint supplies"
Paint Supplies at the Internet Paint Store
Paint Supplies at the Internet Paint StorePaint Supplies at the Internet Paint StorePaint Supplies at the Internet Paint Store
Paint Supplies at the Internet Paint Store
Wallpaper Tools
The Internet Paint Store