Wallpapering Ideas for Side Walls

After you have wall-papered the ceiling you will probably feel that you do not need any further advice about wallpaper hanging. The pieces of paper which you cut for the side wall should be a little longer than the height they are to cover, say four to six inches; you will of course match the paper when you cut it up, and if the pattern is large you will waste considerable paper, but that cannot be helped; often a foot in a length will be cut off and thrown away. The top will be covered with the border, so it is not important to have it even; but often no border is used, and then it is quite a particular job to have the paper cut so that the pattern matches exactly, and you will need the carpenter's square to cut the ends exactly true. The bottom will hang below the top of the base-board, and with the back of the shears you will make a crease in the damp paper at the top of the base-board; then cut it off as thus marked.

It is usual to begin papering the wall by starting at the side of a door; this gives a vertical line, easy to fit, and makes it certain that you will have to cut paper to fit not more than one side of that door.

It is common practice for paper-hangers to begin anew at the right-hand side of each door and window, and leave the short pieces over the doors and over and under the windows to be done last; do not ever tolerate this; and if you are making a bargain with a-paper-hanger always mention this point. Otherwise you will have mismatched paper at every one of these places. It takes more paper and more time to do it right, but you should consider that all you put the paper on for at all is to have it look well, and if you have got to see a botched job every day for two or three years, often wall-paper lasts ten years and sometimes fifty, it pays to do it right in the first place.

When you come to a window, go on and match the wallpaper carefully over and under it, and when you get to the other side of the window probably you will have to cut a long piece in two lengthwise to bring the pattern right; but then it will be right, and you will always have the satisfaction of knowing it, and so will other people. And this leads me to say that in ordering paper, after you have made reasonable allowances for waste, it is always well to buy at least one double roll extra for just such emergencies as this, which you cannot foresee.

Besides, you may spoil a piece occasionally. Paper doesn't cost much; it is the labor that counts. It is a grievous thing to have to say, however, that if you bargain with a paper-hanger to do the job and let him buy the paper for you (after you select it), as is a common custom, you must look out that he does not leave three or four double rolls extra on your hands, merely because he gets a commission of twenty-five to forty per cent on it. Generally you can bargain to have all full double rolls taken back and have the cash returned. You may be told that you will need some extra paper for occasional repairs; well, practically you won't. It is not often that patching is done; paper begins to fade as soon as it is applied, and a new piece of the same paper used as a patch shows about as much as though it were a different paper.

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