Finishing Up Lining Paper

Round 2 of the lining paper hanging in the bedroom with getting the rest of the walls and the soffit papered. I have my brother and sister-in-law helping this time because I don’t think hanging the paper is a one person job for me. We make our way around the rest of the walls dealing with all of the obstacles of windows and doorframes.

For the most part the pieces we cut this time around are smaller so they make it a bit easier to handle. The larger the paper, the more dangerous things get as the weight of the paper can cause the sheet to start creasing and tearing more easily.

Trimming lining paper.

The lining paper is still tricky to work with because you need to work quickly before things start sticking. After pasting I let the folded paper sit for 5 minutes and even with that amount, there are times the paper tears as you unfold it. Also, when we hang the paper we overshoot the top of the wall so some of the paper overlaps the ceiling. We then trim this off but if you wait too long the paper starts sticking to the ceiling. After we’re done wallpapering I’ll need to do another touch-up of paint on the ceiling because I’ve already ripped off some of the paint from the plaster due to sticky paper.

Working around molding.

Cutting around baseboard. Note the pencil marks on the wall with measurements and instructions.

Working around trim/molding presents a dilema was to whether to trim the paper beforehand. There are times when you have a huge amount of paper overhanging a doorframe and if you start cutting around the molding, the weight of the loose paper will start ripping the paper at the cut. In these cases we’ve pre-cut the waste paper before we paste it. This works pretty well because there’s less chance of the weight of the unused paper ripping things, but also requires precise preplanning to make sure things line up when you put the paper on the wall. If you cut away too much beforehand, you ruined a sheet a paper.

Soffit with lining paper.

After the walls are done, then I finish things off with the soffit. Unlike the walls the soffit is sheetrock so for this I primed with Guardz and then Shieldz sizer as per Bradbury’s instructions. I’m not sure the best way to wrap a soffit so I just use 1 sheet to go from top to under the soffit. It works well, but there is some issues getting the corner to lay flat so I’m nervous that will eventually sag. The other issue is that I already papered the wall under the soffit so as I overhang the paper on the soffit, the soffit paper starts sticking to the existing lining paper. I need to work quickly to get that sticky paper off the wall and then have to scrub off any of the tears caused by removing the tacky paper.

With all of the paper installed, next up will be to double check any loose seams and then add another coat of diluted paste (sizing) to the lining paper in preparation for the actual wallpaper.

Finished walls.

Looking good.

All done with lining paper.