The Daily Telegraph - Features
Inherited hideous wallpaper? Here are five ways to fix it
If you’ve just moved into, say, No10, and need to change the decor, Lucy Foster has the answers
You’d hope that Wednesday night’s Spectator Awards ceremony might have given us some juicy political gossip, but the big scoop of the evening was Jeremy Hunt’s remark that the eye-wateringly expensive wallpaper Carrie Johnson is said to have hung in the prime ministerial flat is nowhere to be seen. He now says it must have been painted over by Liz Truss during her brief tenure in Downing Street, if it ever existed at all.
While we’re all entitled to make our living spaces bearable, common sense would suggest they might be smarter ways of dealing with such ocular assaults. Handily, professional decorator Emma Anderson (Instagram @EmmasInteriors) has insider tips on how to relieve your home of the worst wallpaper offences.
PAINTING
Should we ever paint over wallpaper? “I understand why clients ask for this because it is the cheaper option,” explains Anderson. “And it can look nice but the wallpaper underneath has to be pristine, because the paint will show up every seam, every dent, every loose corner. You can stick these edges down and skim the seams with filler, but there’s no guarantee it’ll give you a perfect finish. Expect questionable levels of success.”
PLASTERING
“This can be done, but it’s certainly unusual,” says Anderson. “You wouldn’t want to plaster over something that can feasibly just peel off the wall.” But some wall coverings aren’t going anywhere, unless subjected to a sustained fire storm. “I remember some particularly stubborn woodchip that after days of soaking clearly wasn’t going to budge,” recalls Anderson. “The plasterer I was working with painted over it with Febond Blue Grit, a bonding agent, then plastered. It did work. But saying that, I wouldn’t do it myself.”
PAPERING
This is what everyone used to do. Even the National Trust has found many a sumptuous wall decoration under layers of paper thanks to past inhabitants’ laziness. “I wallpaper over lining paper so it’s exactly the same,” says Anderson. “Again, you wouldn’t want to wallpaper on a surface that could just peel off, so make sure the base paper is really sound.” Anderson also explains that the base needs to be very clean so the paste can adhere. “Washing down old wallpaper is tricky. You want it to be properly degreased but if you get it too wet, it will start to disintegrate.”
STEAM OR SPRAY?
If you’ve decided to take it all off, what is the best method? “Wallpaper steamers are quick but if you steam one area too long, you can end up taking off a patch of wallpaper and blowing a dinnerplate size of plaster, which will then require filling or, even worse, professional skimming,” says Anderson. “I’d also avoid steaming the ceiling, as you’re going to have scalding hot water dripping on you.” She advises a gentler method. “With anything thick – woodchip, textured wallpapers like anaglypta, or even wallpaper that’s been painted over – you need to score it first. A Stanley knife risks damaging the plaster below. I use a decorator’s scoring tool that you just roll over the paper. This allows liquid to penetrate beyond the paper to the paste.”
Then you should turn off the mains and tape plastic over the sockets “as there’s going to be a lot of water running down the walls”. She then makes a solution of water and fabric conditioner (“maybe a few capfuls of conditioner to a bucket of water”), fills up a garden sprayer and soaks the wallpaper. Wait five to 10 minutes for the water to sink in (“the wallpaper should go dark”) and the paper should then just glide off the wall, assisted by a scraper tool. “Once the paper’s off, I tend to go over all the walls again with the water solution and scraper to ensure all the paste is removed too,” she says.
AFTER REMOVAL
Wallpaper in an old house often hides a multitude of sins. “If I’m quoting to do work in a house that was built before 1950 and the client is saying, ‘This wallpaper has to go’, alarm bells start ringing. I make it very clear that, once the wallpaper is down, a plasterer will probably have to be called in. If you’re decorating a period property, you need to budget for that.” Perhaps that’s why Liz Truss painted over hers.