How to mix wallpaper paste

How many times have you mixed up wallpaper paste to put up that new wallpaper you just bought and end up mixing something that resembles lumpy porridge, jelly or water. The reason for this is you must have mixed it wrong.

So how do you mix wallpaper paste? Firstly you will need to gather the tools you require. You will need :

• A clean bucket
• Something to stir the paste such as a stick
• A sachet of wallpaper paste

Mixing the wallpaper paste

Take your clean bucket and fill it with water, the amount of water will depend on the type of wallpaper you are going to be hanging and how many rolls you are going to hang. It’s always easier to mix an entire sachet rather than trying to mix half as it’s not easy to get the ratio right, unless like me, you have mixed up gallons of the stuff!

Here is a guide to how much water to use and how many rolls you can expect to do with one standard sachet of paste.

Take the bucket of water and give it a good stir (not with the wife’s wooded spoon from the kitchen), next cut the top off the sachet of paste an tip it all in, now stir again one way then the other, do a figure of eight, do this for around 20-30 seconds.

Once the paste chips are all dissolved leave to stand for a further 90 seconds then give it a final stir before using.

Once mixed, paste will last for a few days in the bucket so you can come back to it cover it to stop anything dropping into it and come back to finish the job another day.

If you need to know how many rolls of wallpaper to buy, why not use our wallpaper calculator.

How to wallpaper around a door

Following from my recent post, wallpapering around a window reveal this post continues on from that and will show how to paper around a door.

Where to start wallpapering

Before you start papering you need to work out where the paper comes to at the door architrave, to do this measure your roll of paper, then start at one corner of the wall with the door in it and mark the sheets from the corner to the door, then over the door and to the other corner, does this work out OK? What you are looking for is not to end up with a sheet falling just short of the door architrave and you having to fiddle about putting in a small strip. You may have to start with a half sheet from the corner to avoid this situation or it may just work out OK if your following the pattern around the room.

Once you have worked out the best place to start, use a plumb line or a level to mark a vertical line from the ceiling to the skirting board ensuring you allow a little paper to return around the corner by about 1cm.

Putting up the first sheet of wallpaper

Once you have pasted the first sheet of paper, line it up with your vertical mark on the wall and smooth out the bubbles as you go, trim the top and bottom and wipe any excess paste off the paper, continue doing this until you reach the door frame. One thing I always find easiest is to take the sheet of paper that is going to start to go around the door architrave, hold it up and match any pattern then mark the paper on the inside of the architrave then take the paper to the paste table and cut the bit that would go over the door off, this saves getting paste all over your door and frame and also can make it easier to handle.

Continue reading How to wallpaper around a door

OK, so you’ve been nagged into doing some DIY at the weekend and have to get out your paint brushes, you head of out to the shed to get them, but when you get there and look at the brushes they look as if they have seen better days. The bristles are all splayed out and it looks like it’s have a ‘bad hair day’!

So how could this been avoided?

Simply put you need to store your brushes, and all equipment for that matter, correctly.
When you have done your decorating and have washed your brushes out you need to store them correctly until the next time your ear is bent to do more decorating 🙂

How to store your paint brushes

Once you have finished painting, remove as much paint as you can from the brush by scraping it on the edge of the tin, if your using water-based paints next wash the remaining paint in clean water. If you are using oil-based paints you will need to wash the brushes out in white spirit, turpentine or a brush cleaner before washing in clean water. Once you have ensured you have all the paint out shake the water remaining water out of the bristles. Now take a piece of dry kitchen towel and lay the brush at one edge, now wrap the kitchen towel tightly around the brushes bristles, finally fold the end of the kitchen towel over at the end.

Now you can store you brush away knowing that when you come back to it, your brush will be in good enough condition to use.

A simple but effective way both DIYers and professionals alike can store brushes. Happy decorating!