Looking to give your new walls a visual punch? Or give an old room a quick new makeover? Look no further than the good old wallpaper. Experts agree that after having been sidelined for quite a while now, wallpapers are now enjoying the spotlight all over again.
From vintage florals and botanicals to contemporary geometrics and abstracts, wallpapers today come in a plethora of designs, patterns, and textures. Convenient and hassle-free, they are a great way to add an element of sophistication and a unique character to your space. “You can have your room ready within three-four hours without any dust when you use wallpaper,” says Neha Jain, Interior, and Wallpaper Expert, UDC Homes, adding, “They are cost-effective too as you have multiple options starting from Rs 50 per square feet to Rs 1,500-2,000 per square feet depending on the type, design, and quality.”
There are several ways to use wallpaper, with the most common one being covering all four walls of a room. This adds a sense of warmth and character at once. You can do what you wish with large prints, but for smaller rooms, avoid dark colours and small prints. Large sparse prints and prints with horizontal stripes create an illusion of space and are hence suited for smaller rooms. Further, if you have a low ceiling, go in for vertical stripes to make your room look “taller.”
If you are a fan of the understated, classy look, choose to cover one-half of your wall. If you choose to use the bottom half, then paint the upper half of the wall in a complementary colour and hang art on it. If you use the wallpaper on the top half, go with darker wall paint on the bottom. You can also use it on a single wall to create a feature wall.
Before sticking the wallpaper, it is key that the underlying wall is well primed. Make sure it’s an oil-based primer because that is ideal for Indian weather conditions and helps the wallpaper to stick longer. While installing, always ensure that the pattern is lining up correctly and not in a haphazard manner. It is important that the borders and seams are not visible.
In order to clean the wallpaper, it is recommended to wipe gently with a wet cloth. In case you see your wallpaper’s edges coming off, contact your dealer at the earliest and get it fixed. If left for a month or more, the paper will become very tight and it will not be possible to paste it back on the wall.