How to choose Wall Papers for your Home?

Who does not love highlighters for their house? This blog covers what kind/material/designs/durability/preparation/maintenance of a wall paper.

1. Your choice counts first, may be you love floral and hate geometrical and not sure on abstract designs or love metallic and you are not the bland non-metallic type, you do not like jazzy, all these should be accounted.
2. Take into account the size of the room and how many walls you are going to highlight.
3. Now the wall/walls/ceiling in context, is it well lit, or do you have light points to add focus light fittings?
4. How big is the wall, the length and the breadth?
5. Does the wall have undulations?
6. Is the wall painted or just cemented or has putty or a primer?
7. If you have ceiling on mind, is it the top floor? what is above this ceiling, does it have a room, bathroom, terrace, garden etc?
8. Should I add highlighters?
9. What material is good? Matt, semi-gloss, glossy,3D Thick material, thin material.
10. Washable/ non washable wall papers?
11. How to maintain wall papers and durability?
12. What is the durability of the paper once installed?
13. What is the wastage per roll of wall paper?
14. Embossed vs Non-Embossed wall papers.
15. Preparation and material used to stick the paper to the wall
16. Stick wall paper after 6-8 months of construction of a house

Having covered most of the above questions, you are now mentally set with answers to choose your wall paper.

• I have great affinity for floral pattern, so should I go for metallic or non-metallic designs?
  • This depends on the wall and the lighting. Do you have ample natural light to ensure the metallic designs glitter? Or, if you have light points to add focus lights then go for metallic designs.
  • What about highlighters? I like multiple designs a floral and geometric pattern.A bad planning I call it. Floral pattern can go with plain or light leafy patterns, do not combine floral and something geometric or abstract.
  • Yes, combinations make home look elegant.
  • 3D designs are mostly used as highlighters or if the walls are huge. Refrain from using 2D patterns for smaller walls.
• How to make combination of colors?

Do not make combination like Indian Sarees body vs Border combination. Your wall paper is not going to be draped on a body! Go for colours in the same colour family, a light beige with a dark beige, a sky blue with a ink/navy blue etc. Colour family is very important else your house will look more like a circus house.
You can also choose to have a dark colour with creams or whites, that will still be ok. May be I go for a pink colour paper that has lamp/diya designs on it and and you want to go for Beige/white/cream stripes, it will suit for sure.

• Ceiling wall papers should be light and self-designed colours.

Do not go for bright colours on the ceiling or contrast designed or patterned colours.  Light colours should be used so that the room looks bigger and brighter and reflects light that falls on it.

• Material of the paper!

Materials vary from 0.25mm to 0.6mm. The thickness is simply related to the quality of the paper, the thinner the lower quality and lower is the price.  However, few designs will still be good in thinner varieties, go for it. What matters is the way one handles the papers while laying. If you use professional layers they will definitely know how to use thinner papers, however if you are doing a DIY work should do it with utmost care.
Other thought here is if one should High gloss, semi-gloss, matt finish or embossed pattern (most comes with semi-gloss or matt finish). These all are personal choices, also if there is less light or no focus lamps go for glossy, the though process is when a lot of light falls on glossy paper it does reflect but also light focuses in one place and hits the eye.

• Embossed vs Non Embossed!

Kids or even adults love embossed patterns, the feel of that when we run our hand is definitely a different experience. I feel like a blind person when I close my eyes and feel the wall and the patterns over it could be Forest Hues or a Eiffel tower or a favorite Jerry cartoon.
I would be careful to use an embossed wall paper in an entrance of a living room, I do not want all my visitors to feel it and make it dirty or tear with their long uncut, polished nails! Or beautiful damsels with high pointing heals resting their foot on the wall/wall paper Be choosy!

Let us start with the type of wall and wall preparation to welcome a wall paper-

• Is the wall painted or just cemented or has putty or a primer?

Pre-painted walls can be struck with wall papers. Ensure the painted wall is not damp or has fungus accumulation. Treat the wall before you start thinking of a paint or wall paper. Likewise, if you have a brand new house, avoid sticking wall paper directly on cemented wall. The wall should have a coat of lime finish or a putty finish and more so if it has a smear of Oil Primer the durability of the wallpaper is more as water might also not pick up moisture from the atmosphere because of the oil primer smear.

• If you have ceiling on mind, is it the top most floor? What is above this ceiling, does it have a room, bathroom, terrace, garden etc?

Walls are prone to leakages because of the bad/no waterproofing on the roof. Water might peculate to the walls and make them damp.  Damp walls are very bad for wall papers or even paints. First get the roof checked and waterproof it (will be adding one more blog on waterproofing) and then once the treatment is done, wait for one season cycle to be completed then either pain or go for wall papers.
Walls and ceilings that have a washroom above /adjacent or terrace above have to be first checked for cracks and dampness. If damp or you see water marks or cracks treat them before you start painting or sticking wall paper.

• Sizes of the walls matter!

For walls smaller in dimensions, width being lesser than 8 feet, do not go for big wide patterns. Go for smaller designs on the paper. If this wall has natural light falling on it then go for brighter colours. Now, metallic designs for such walls smaller in width is preferable when you have focus lights where the metallic designs get highlighted or silver or gold glittered, still you can choose to use if you do not want to have focus lamps.

• Wall undulations!

Wall with a lot of undulations are prone to damage of wall paper after installation plus even the undulated wall gets well highlighted when a wall paper is truck over it.     If you think that "is" the wall for your wall paper then go with coats of putty to minimize undulations. That will make the wall paper more elegant and durable.
Pondering on the wall paper itself,

• Maintenance and Durability!

Glossy papers can be maintained very easily, just wipe with a dry cloth and you are done.The dust particles that are settled gets wiped off. On the contrary a scratch is highly visible in Glossy than a matt finish.
Matt finish as said is not much scratch prone, scratch I do not mean scratch with a sharp weapon or a ball pen, even a skin leaves a mark and so will a wall paper!
A damp cloth wipe should keep the matt, semi-gloss and embossed ones clean.              Now, bear it in mind, this is no cloth or a emulsion wall that you take a brush and soap and scrub them to death! Finger Nails are definitely not friendly for wall papers

• Wastage in a wall paper!                                                                                                                          A wall paper roll is typical 57sft that could be 22 inches and 27 inches wide.                   and you can easily take 4-5sft to be a wastage. Mainly, cause of damages during laying, or the joints that might come to the centre of the wall and will not be appealing. However, store these wastages and do not trash them, they will come handier when you see a cut or a marks/stains that cannot be wiped with a damp cloth and for the wallpapers that accidentally get torn, you might use these papers to add an artistic patch.

• Preparation and material used to stick the paper to the wall

Repeating here that the wall should not have undulations. Prepare your wall well, ensure it has a Oil primer or a primer to ensure durability of the wall paper.
One can use Fevicol SH or any thinner form of glue, smear that on the dry wall evenly and also on the paper strips once they are ready to be struck, ensure that there are no air gaps when you stick. There are a lot of YouTube videos that are provides the methods to cut the paper and stick them. Once wall papers are peeled and removed, wall preparation should be started afresh where old glue has to be scratched and removed and process is started all over again.

• Durability of the wall paper!

Durability could again depend on maintenance. Let us say there is no damp wall, no undulations,  no touching tampering on the walls, wall paper would easily last for 10 years. It lasts for even more till we get bored too. Also, the glue does not last longer than 11 years. So it starts peeling and you can start seeing bulges. If you feel you are able to add some glue and keep it stiff, you could or calls for a change. Once peeled, wall preparation is required as told before either for a paint or re-doing wall paper.

• Washable/non-washable!

Mostly all papers are washable, this means take a damp cloth and wipe. There is no scrubbing with brush like a dirty cloth or a car wash is required unless you want to tear the paper out of the wall completely.

Hope these help you to decide on wall papers, I will be more than happy to help you out in this process of selection and execution.

Disclaimer: These are my observations and not taken from any source.

PS: This is also posted on my wordpress blog dreamstoexperiencec