How to Hang Your Own Wallpaper Border

Are you looking to add more spice to your walls and your wallpaper without spending more on plastic or wooden chair rails? Do you want to divide up your wall and add more interest? You can save even more money and more personality to your walls by making your own borders. Wallpaper borders can compliment and highlight features of your existing wallpaper. Although some wallpaper borders are manufactured for use with a particular wallpaper, you can always mix and match and even use them against a plain wall, the options are many if you don’t limit your imagination as wall paper borders are a cheap and inexpensive way to spruce up your walls.

Ceilings, chair rails, picture rails, baseboard levels, are all fair game places to hang your borders. Make sure to take into consideration if your walls or level and even, ceiling junctions, split-level ceilings, switches, and other obstacles before embarking on the journey of wallpaper bordering your walls. Measure your wall.

Paste: if the wallpaper you purchased is not pre-pasted, you should buy special paste. You’ll also need a brush.
Sponge
Small seamroller
Scissors
Pencil
Level
Plumb Line

1. Make sure the wall surface is thoroughly clean, devoid of any holes or cracks. Allow the wall to dry before you begin. Check existing wallpaper for blisters, loose seams, and smooth them down. Measure the area you want to border.

2. Prepare the border by laying it flat on a table you’re ready to get dirty. If you are using adhesive, follow the directions. If you are going to be using paste, immerse the paper in water and add glue. For prepasted wallpaper borders you usually only have to brush the back with water.

3. Work in small increments for accuracy, and ask a friend or a family member to help. Hold the border in one hand and apply it to the wall with the other hand, smoothing the wallpaper border to place, using a sponge. When you are finished, use the seam roller to flatten the section. Press the roll and wipe it with a damp cloth to remove excess paste. Check for blisters and overlaps in the corners. You should let it dry for 48 hours before you check it again.

To corner your border, you should apply one length so it overlaps to the next wall by ⅛ inch. Make sure that when you overlap, that the pattern matches at the joint. Crease down the corner with a pair of scissors, and pullback the paper. Cut down the crease guideline, smooth the border, so there is a matching joint in the corner with the overlap invisible.

To hang your wallpaper border quickly, you should use a damp sponge rather than a wallpaper-hanging brush to make sure your border is in the right position and to get rid of excess border glue before it dries quickly. You now have now hung your own wallpaper border!