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Adding wallpaper to a space can be a great way of transforming a blank area into something bursting with personality. However, knowing which patterns to go for isn’t always easy
When it comes to giving a room a makeover, it can be overwhelming at times to know how to start. From figuring out what mood you want the space to give off to working out just exactly what pieces of furniture you’d like, making a house a home isn’t always an easy process – especially when you’re wanting the transformation to be dramatic.
With that in mind, one way to instantly give a room a new look is through the addition of wallpaper. Whether it’s used to create a feature wall, cover a whole room or even add some intrigue to the ceiling, wallpaper can turn a blank wall into a focal point.
However, just how choosing the right colour paint for a room can be a difficult task, choosing the perfect patterned wallpaper can be daunting. Odette Gibson, founder of Daisy’s Emporium (daisysemporiumlondon.co.uk) understands this and has shared her top tip for ensuring that you’ll be as happy with your wallpaper choice as you are when you see it on the roll to when you see it on your walls.
“People tend to like a certain wallpaper but then find out that it doesn’t work well in the room they’ve bought it for. They might buy a really expensive wallpaper just to find out it doesn’t work,” she says.
“What I often say to people, and it’s what I do too, is if they see a wallpaper they really like, they should buy one roll of it to see how it works and see how the colours in the room match with it.”
As well as this, sticking to certain patterns can help boost a room’s appeal. While you may be drawn to specific designs over others, not every choice of wallpaper will work in every room, with factors including light and space impacting the final appearance.
“If you’ve got a large room, then you can get away with a large pattern. If it’s a very small room, then it’s just going to crowd in,” explains Odette.
“I think it’s really difficult as well to do stripes, because with stripes you’ve got to make sure that your walls are in a good condition, and they’re completely plumb. Otherwise the stripe could start in the middle at the top of one wall and then it will go off as it comes down so you’re losing it.”
Once you’ve settled on a wallpaper, Odette stresses the importance of paying attention to a roll’s batch number. Even if you buy the multiple rolls of the same wallpaper, different batches might be slightly different in colour – something which will inevitably affect the final appearance of the room.
“Also, when you’re buying your wallpaper, you’ve got to be careful about the batches. You have to make sure everything you get is from the same batch because otherwise you might get a slight colour variation,” she says.
“Then once you’ve got your wallpaper, if the walls need replastering I’d get somebody in to replaster them. If they don’t, and they haven’t been done long, then you always do a mist coat.
“What you do is like, mix 50% white emulsion and 50% water. Wash all your walls down with that and then let it dry, then you can have a look and you can see where there’s any indentations and things like that. Then you fill it all in and sand it down and you can start wallpapering from there. But I always tend to put my wallpaper on last and start from the ceiling and just work all the way down.”
And if you’re looking to use a mixture of paint and wallpaper? Colour matching doesn’t have to be a pain. “You can take your wallpaper along to a lot of DIY stores and they can make paint that’s exactly the same colour as the wallpaper.
“So if there’s a specific part of the wallpaper that you like, say, for instance, the base of the wallpaper is blue, but it’s got pink specks in it, then you can say, ‘well, I want that sort of colour, or I want something that’s going to blend with it’ and they can create that for you,” says Odette.