Hi experts, hope you can give some wallpapering advice.
I have an awkward 'sculptured' corner on my landing, you can see pictures at
The previous attempt was by a so-called professional who didn't make much of a job of it, so I'm going to have a go.
Can anyone offer any tips on how to do this properly? 'Paint it' won't count.
TIA Ken
Eew.
Erm - how about:
Not very helpful! I have bought a house with original features as this and was wondering the same thing?
Plain paper and paint over it. Anything with a sizable pattern will look weird anyway. Thin vertical stripes might work, if you're careful. Thick vertical stripes work so long as you arrange them to be clear of the corner itself. Note that the horizontal distance isn't constant around the corner, so you'll have pattern matching problems.
Then paper the corner. Use a drop of paper centred on the corner and paper the round part of the corner and the adjoining walls.
To handle the squared top and bottom, cut a rectangle out of your paper before hanging it. This should be the height of the square corner, with a vertical slit made upwards beyond this, to the height of the smooth part of the curve (ie there's a dangling "apron").
Hang this paper so as to give a smooth drape around the corner. Make vertical slits in the apron so as to get a smooth drape onto the transition part of the corner. Depending on the weight of the paper, either cut it just on the edge of the squared part, or half an inch past it as an overlap. Tear these overlap edges, don't cut them, so as to avoid a sharp edge.
Now take another piece of paper and paper the square part of the corner. Match the sides into the first piece of paper, as necessary. Trim the upper edge to just cover the sharp edge into the transition.
If you have narrow vertical stripes, paper this sharp corner as two pieces. Match the sides and lose the discontinuity on the sharp edge.
Practice this with a couple of feet of paper on the bottom corner first, before attempting it "for real" and with two transitions to worry about.
Bloody wallpapering. I hate it! However, I have finally found the perfect tool to cut wet paper in situ. An Opinel knife (from camping shops) and one of those old fashioned kitchen knife sharpeners that you pull the blade through. No more tearing or peeling back and trying to cut to a line you can't see properly.
You cannot take a single piece of paper around that shape - topologically that's impossibe, though I'm sure you already know that. Tht means there will have to be a join. Since he shortest route around that corner is via the rounded bit, any paper that went around the rounded bit in one piece would leave insufficient paper above to reach the corner above. That means there has to be either a join on the rounded bit, or a join all the way up the wall. If you choose to take the paper arond the corner in one continuous piece, with a join on the rounded bit, then that just leaves that dart to paper. My feeling is that it would be better to simply cut out that shape from the wallpaper, and simply paper the corner above and the rounded bit below, then add in a dart of paper later to cover the darted bit, but how succesful that is depends on how your paper is patterned.
My own advice is that it is difficult to take wall paper around a corner, internal or external, as the walls are rarely at right angles and the paper will start to wander off at an angle, so I would paste up enough paper to go around the corner by whatever amount will get you past that dart, stick it lightly into position, trace the shape of that darted bit onto the paper by rubbing the paper against it with your nail or something hard, then cut down that line with scissors so that you have a flap of paper the same shape as the darted bit on the edge of your paper but free to flap about. If you're lucky you will be able to glue it to the darted bit and get a slight overlap, but try it with a test piece to start with as I'm not 100% sure that you won't get a gap. fINISH WITH A PIECE OF PAPER COMING FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION AND ANY NECESSARY TRIMMING AND TWEAKING.
Andy.
On 19 Feb 2005, Ken57 wrote
We have the same situation; I was happy with the way the guy (a real pro) did ours. I've posted images for you:
HTH -- post again if you need more detailed views of it.
...
features.
Mind you, the other evening I was shown a large extension to a house like ours - outwards and upwards - and I wouldn't be happy with it. It seemed institutional, probably because there was a lot of corridor and all the walls were flat and blank and the corners very straight and accurate.
Didn't look natural!
Mary
On 19 Feb 2005, Mary Fisher wrote
Ours is at the point that the front entrance opens out to form the passage beside the staircase: there would have been an arch there originally (hence the "top" change), and I suspect it's just easier to balance it with a sharp corner at the base (which makes fitting a skirting board a lot easier).
On 19 Feb 2005, Harvey Van Sickle wrote
-snip-
I've just taken a closer look at it: this details how the actual change was handled:
On 19 Feb 2005, Harvey Van Sickle wrote
That's the Laugh of the Day!
... at the expense of my keyboard though ...
Mary
Topologically it's dead easy.
Rounds off a heavily trafficed corner, but leaves a square corner for the skirting.
Yes, that's fair enough. Those sharp corners on my friend's new extension walls will soon be knocked off by her teenagers ...
Mary
Bah! You're right of course.....I've seen enough of those OU progs with whatnot bottles, toroids and thingy strips to know better. Perhaps a better word is 'geometrically'?!
Andy.
You are looking at this arris in the wrong way. It is not an awkward corner and was designed to be painted, not to be papered
This is a designer feature of your house which you are wilfully covering up having spent good money for a house with character. Plaster mouldings are vastly underrated IMHO cos there are so few people who have the skill to do them nowadays that design programmes and mags daren't feature them.
Anna
~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|
Thus spake the expert.
I haven't thought about this before but Anna has convinced me. Wasn't hard to do :-) Thanks. I'm now wishing that the only such corner in our house was like that but at least it's round and not sharply squared like the neighbour's new extension walls.
Mary
Mary
Wow Harvey, thanks for such a complete response. I'll see if I can emulate your photos, though I suspect more patience and expertise has been applied here than I'll ever muster
Ken
David not sure how serious you are but it's a tempting suggestion. What puts me off is that I haven't a clue how to apply it.
I think I'd still be better off using my rudimentary wallpapering skills, as oposed to my non-existent plastering skills! Ken
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