Who doesn’t love a spot of redecorating from time to time? It’s exciting to see rooms take shape and even more so to have a beautifully finished room in which to spend time… a change is as good as a rest, after all!
But when it comes to contemporary designer wallpaper, the choice is so vast that it can be very difficult to reach a decision, as you’re sure to find numerous designs that you love.
So where do you begin? Before you start shopping for wallpaper, take a look at the other design decisions you’ve made in the various rooms you plan to redecorate so you can match the paper to your furnishings - unless you plan to replace absolutely everything and start completely from scratch.
For example, if you’re going for something contemporary and fashionable, bold geometrics will hit this nail on the head, as would anything metallic, large-scale florals or something with a bit of gloss to it. Textured wallpapers are also big news right now and they really do help add interest to a space.
Once you’ve given that a bit of thought, you need to decide how you’re going to use the wallpaper. Remember that the style and design of the paper you choose will affect how you treat it in the room you’re redesigning.
So if you’ve gone for a striped wallpaper, you could easily use it to cover all the walls in the room for a beautiful and stylish look, but this would perhaps not work so well if you were going for a dramatic pattern. This would work better if you wanted to have a feature wall to highlight one part of the room.
No doubt you’ll be tempted by the idea of DIY and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try to hang the wallpaper yourself - but remember that it is a big job and can be quite difficult, especially if you haven’t done it before, so don’t expect it to go smoothly.
If you’re determined to wallpaper yourself, make sure you choose a design with a large pattern as these are easier to hang in repeat.
And then, of course, you have to work out how much wallpaper to buy - and this, again, can be a little bit difficult. You need to measure all the walls and then multiply the width by the height of each wall, adding everything up so you have the total square footage.
Make deductions for doors, windows and similar, and then have a look at the wallpaper you like to see how much square foot coverage it gives.
You’d be very wise indeed to order a roll or two more than you need at the initial point of purchase, so you know you’re buying the same product batch and there won’t be any differences in colour. All you need to do is check the batch number and you’re good to go.
