New Trends in Wallcoverings
Wallpaper continues to be a very popular choice for residential decorating. This is a trend that started at least six years ago, and it is not losing any steam. Hester Painting & Decorating has been installing wallpaper for over 50 years. Over those five decades, wallpaper has always been cyclical in its popularity, and right now it is still on the upward cycle.
There are currently five trends in the wallcovering choices for the higher-end homeowners and interior designers that we are finding on almost every wallpaper project.
- Hand-painted delicate papers
- Grasscloth and other natural materials
- Metallic motives
- Floral motives
- Geometric patterns
Examples of our work
When a client is looking to hire a wallcovering installer, there are a few things to look for or ask for from the prospective installer.
- How much experience do they have?
- Do they have a portfolio of photos of their work on their website?
- Do they work with interior designers often for this kind of work?
- Do they have references from clients for specifically installing wallpaper?
Once the client has chosen their beautiful new wallpaper for their home, there are a few mistakes that their installer can make that will ruin the wallcovering.
- The installer thinks they have hung this kind of paper before, so they don’t read the directions. That is a huge mistake because many papers look similar, but there are differences between different brands. In addition, even if it is the same exact paper, the manufacturer could have made changes in the production process that requires a different paste or new prep work. Any qualified installer always reads the instructions.
- The installer should always inspect all of the materials before cutting. If there is a problem with the materials, they need to address it before moving forward with any work. If they cut a piece and then later discover an issue with material that was not initially inspected, there could be headaches with replacement pieces and dye lots.
- The installer should always layout the room in advance to use the wallpaper efficiently. In addition, some wall coverings are hand-painted for a specific scene and require each piece to be placed in only one location on the wall. If not properly laid out in advance, huge problems will result.
- If the manufacturer’s instructions call for liner paper to be installed, that is not a suggestion, and any installer who acts like it is optional is wrong. If they skip that crucial step, it might look fine when they are finished, but the seams will eventually start to split and pull away from each other. Also, make sure your installer knows what direction to hang the liner paper. This is not a trade secret, but it is definitely something that a surprising number of installers do not know the correct way.
- Another important thing to remember is that the installer should hang three sheets and then stop and have the client or the interior designer take a look and approve the way it looks. You don’t want to wait until the end of the job to find out that the client doesn’t like something.
