Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog
Wallpapering a hall landing and stairs
Posted by Adrian
October 20th, 2010
How to wallpaper a hall landing and stairs
Firstly you need to measure the walls you are going to papering the downstairs hallway, upstairs landing and stairs/stairwell to work out how much paper you need to buy, our wallpaper calculator can be used for this job.
So how do you measure a hall, stairs and landing for wallpaper?
Well it’s not as hard as you may think. If you think of the upstairs and downstairs as two different rooms, splitting the stairwell wall into two parts. Imagine the skirting of the upstairs goes all the way across the stairwell wall and measure as you would normally.
You will use a lot of paper on the stair walls as there is a lot of wastage, especially if you have a pattern paper.
Now you know how much paper to buy, and have bought it, you can start to paper. So where do you start?
Where to start papering the hall, stairs and landing
You should start by hanging the longest sheet first down the stairwell, and working along one way until a corner. Mark the wall using a plumb line to ensure your paper is vertical, then measure your drop of paper ensuring you allow for the angle of the stair stringer, mark the paper at either side at the bottom allowing for trimming.
Take your roll and lay it on the paste table, then take a straight edge and draw a line joining the two marks up, you should have a diagonal line. Cut the paper as you normally would, then trim the paper along the diagonal line, this will save you getting paste all over the carpet when you hang the sheet.
Paste the sheet and allow to soak, and then hang the first drop. You should then take the roll of paper and line it up with the one you have just put up, unroll it and ensure any Patten is lined up, then mark and trim as before, continue doing this until you reach a corner, then do the same the other side of the longest drop until the other corner.
Once the longest drops are done you can work as you would for a normal room.
Tags: Hall stairs landing, Wallpaper, Wallpapering
Posted in Decorating Tips | 41 Comments »
41 Responses to “Wallpapering a hall landing and stairs”
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- How to measure a room for wallpapering :: DIY By Design DIY Tips Blog
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Great information, simple and easy to follow instructions.
Thanks for all the info’.
regards,
Alison
How do I hang anaglypta on stairs?
@Jeff, You would paper with anaglypta the same as with any other paper.
That is the most useful decorating tip I have ever read. Thanks
All these years of decorating I have been staring in the wrong place, it sounds so simple to carry out, will follow the instructions .
So what if the longest drop is half way up as the stairs. do you still start there?
@Zhorik
Yes start with the longest drop and work one way to a corner, then from longest drop the other way to a corner.
Thanks. This method worked for me.
Cheers very helpfull thanks
How do you wallpaper staircase that has a roof/ ceiling slanting
Just wallpaper the same as you normally would, you can measure using the roll and cot the top and bottom of the paper whilst it’s dry to save getting paste all over the carpet and ceiling.
How do you wallpaper around a window recess that sticks out without ripping or it looking like a bodge job.
how do you wallpaper around the end wall which is stepped at the bottom of the stairs with the angle of the stairs on one side and a normal ceiling to floor on the other side?
How do you paper a staircase wall that has a banister running down it. Last time I tried it the paper was running off by about 5 mils even though both cuts were plum
@Steve
Make sure you have plenty of paste on the wall and paper, this will allow the wallpaper to move around easier. Use a plumb line to mark a straight vertical line before starting.
When wallpapering were is the best place to start
@Jim When wallpapering a stairway, which is what I’m guess you are asking as you don’t say, I start with the longest drop first, as described in this post.
You can find more wallpapering tips here.
Hi I am wanting to only paper the bottom half of hallway walls up the staires but looks uneven when I’ve marked walls up the staires is there a method used for this
@Andy
If you mean to get a straight line to work to, best use a chalk line. You can buy these at any DIY store, mark at the top of the stairs, mark at the bottom, get someone to hold one end on top mark, go to bottom mark with other end, pull tight and ‘ping’ the string leaving a chalk like to work too.
Hope that helps.
Where do you start if it’s horizontal?
@Derek
I assume you mean papering horizontally as in cross lining?
I typically start at the top and work down.
Hi. Some measuring advice would be much appreciated. I have chosen paper with a 60cm repeat, straight match to go on the wall that the stairs run up. We have tall ceilings – you can only get 3 drops/roll for the ground floor. The wall is single ‘storey’ to begin, then double height just after the stairs start ascending. Given the biggish repeat, I am nervous about using a regular calculator for the number of rolls. I thought I would be safest to work out each of the drop lengths I need, adding 60cm to each to allow for the pattern, and then work out what way I can mix and match lengths from rolls to determine the number of rolls, then add an extra roll for luck. Do you think this going to be way OTT? At £75/roll I’d rather not have a couple of spare rolls kicking around at the end!
@Rachel
Unless you want to work out every drop and every pattern match / repeat it can be tricky to get the exact amount of paper without any left over. Stairs use a lot because of the heights involved but also because of the angle of the staircase, there is a lot of wastage.
As a decorator I can only give ‘estimated’ amounts as I don’t have the time (or inclination) to sit and work it out to the last metre. 9/10 times it works out fine and there is only a small amount of leftover paper.
One other thing to consider it roll damage, I have come across damaged section, such as ink blotches, but only found this half way into the roll, this is rare, but can happen.
I do understand you don’t want to order too many, especially at £75 a pop. If you have the time to work it out then go for it, you can have a good night out on the saved money 🙂
Let me know how you get on.
Hi, im nearly finished the hall / stairs and now onto the landing, i have a number of doors with gaps in between the frames of approx 10cm and one with a gap of 23cm between the frames, do you recommend using a whole length of paper for each drop as that would be a lot of waste? or using individual cut out strips to fill thte gaps between each door frame then use a full width for the tops of the doors?.
Thanks
@Scott
Depends on patten really and how it looks.
I would like to know how to treat a staircase that has a horizontal ceiling on the 1st floor which then goes straight up at the 2nd floor. Behind the vertical portion is where the banister attaches and there is a linen closet. I don’t know how to treat that portion over the stairwell that goes from being the ceiling on the 1st floor (horizontal) to vertical like the other walls on the 2nd floor. Does the 2nd floor vertical section get papered like the other walls on the 2nd floor? And if so, do I just end the paper where the vertical wall then goes horizontal to become the ceiling on the 1st floor? HELP!
@Kim
Typically the 2nd floor vertical section would be treated as ‘wall’ and papered and ended where this vertical part meets the horizontal part, the ‘ceiling’. But it is individual choice really.
I was wondering if you could just help me out here please. In the stair case going up to the main floor and in the basement ,there is a separation in the wall on one side .which means the bottom section is painted,the separation has small moulding ,on the longest section of the wall ,I was wondering if I could use white and grey tone brick wallpaper on the upper half on the entire staircase walls leading to the upstairs level or would it look closed in or just be too much ? The whole upper half would be all brick wallpaper. Help please
@Suzanna
It is really hard for me to say not seeing it. It is really up to the individual.
The longest drop is at a corner – is it bad to have the edge at a corner? An inside wall meets the stair wall here
@Clare
No it’s fine to start at the corner. Have the paper lap around the corner slightly (1cm).
how do u measure a hall and stairs for papering please
@Marty
Is says in the post?
“So how do you measure a hall, stairs and landing for wallpaper?
Well it’s not as hard as you may think. If you think of the upstairs and downstairs as two different rooms, splitting the stairwell wall into two parts. Imagine the skirting of the upstairs goes all the way across the stairwell wall and measure as you would normally.
You will use a lot of paper on the stair walls as there is a lot of wastage, especially if you have a pattern paper.”
How do I build a scaffolding to paper tall part of landing with an open plan staircase please
@Darren
Sorry Darren but for health and safety reasons I can not advise you.
How do I build a scaffolding to wallpaper tall part of landing with an open plan staircase please
@Darren
Sorry Darren but for health and safety reasons I can not advise you.
Can I hang lining paper at the same angle as the stairs
@John
Yes in theory you can, I have never done it.
I think it could make it harder to do than it should be, especially the high areas. But I’m sure there is a reason you want to do.it this way.