How to Hang Wallpaper on Stairs
Hanging wallpaper above your stairs brings with it some unique challenges, but can offer a beautiful look for your stairwell when completed.
In this quick guide from Stair Rods Direct, we’ll cover everything you need to know about wallpapering a stairwell, including costs, measuring, and application. We’ll also look at the methods for staying safe whilst wallpapering the full height of your stairwell. While you can hire a painter and decorator to wallpaper your stairwell, with careful application it is perfectly possible to do it yourself.
Why is Wallpapering Stairs Such a Popular Choice?
Whether you are looking for bold and vibrant patterns or muted hues, there is a wide range of wallpaper available for your home. Wallpaper has established itself within the contemporary interior design world as an attractive and quick way to bring character to a room, offering a personalised look that couldn’t be achieved through other decorating methods like painted walls. Wallpapering above your stairs can give the entrance of your home a unique and exciting look.
How to Calculate the Cost to Wallpaper Above Your Stairs
Wallpaper rolls are typically 10m in length and 53.5cm in width. These numbers can vary, especially the width, so make sure to check the specifications of the wallpaper you choose against the dimensions of your wall, ensuring you avoid buying too much or too little wallpaper for your stairs.
After measuring and comparing with the product specifications, you can establish the number of rolls you will need. Prices for a roll of wallpaper can vary from as little as £5 to over £60, depending on manufacturer and design complexity. Because of these vastly differing prices, it’s difficult to guess an average cost. An entry-level ready-mixed wallpaper paste costs about £10 a tub and can hang up to 5 rolls of wallpaper.
If wallpapering yourself, it can be an affordable method to decorate above your stairs. Using simple maths you can calculate the amount of wallpaper needed for your hall stairs and landing, precisely establishing how much it will cost.
How to Measure Wallpaper for Stairs
You’ll need to measure your wall area fully in order to establish the correct amount of wallpaper rolls needed to wallpaper above your stairs. Due to the long length of a stairwell, there can be problems aligning patterned wallpaper caused by stretching, so if you are inexperienced in hanging wallpaper it may be preferable to choose a wallpaper that doesn’t need to exactly match when the pattern repeats.
How to Hang Wallpaper Above Stairs
Before you begin to hang your wallpaper above stairs, it’s vital that you establish a safe method for hanging wallpaper at the long heights of your ceiling. You will need a safe working platform from which you can apply wallpaper to the top of your stairwell wall. A conventional ladder will not be secure within a stairwell, but there are special ladders available, with adjustable legs that can sit on multiple steps.
Remember, Use a Support When Wallpapering
Depending on the layout of your stairwell it may be possible to wedge a ladder safely into stair rise. You can also build a platform through a combination of ladders and scaffold boards. There are also specialist equipment options for stairs, that would be available through a local tool hire company. In order to maintain safety, it is important to have a second person with you, both to pass you wallpaper and to maintain the integrity of your stairwell platform.
Firstly, much like when wallpapering a room, you must make sure your wall is free of flaking paint and existing wallpaper. Some old wallpaper should peel straight off, while other types may need to be soaked and scraped off.
Plan your application route in advance, aiming to start with the longest length of the wall. It’s important that whatever platform method you end up choosing, you have your placements planned in advance, to avoid a situation where you are leaning a ladder on freshly placed wallpaper. Use a plumb line and a long ruler to mark out the spacing of your vertical lines in advance.
With the assistance of your helper, start to paste the wallpaper onto your wall, applying paste to the paper directly. Smooth down the top, before moving down the wall, smoothing as you go. You should not trim in advance for the angle of the skirting board or dado rails along the stairs. Instead, trim once you have the paper attached to the wall, using scissors to carefully cut to size, fitting snugly to your wall. If there are fixings on your wall, such as power sockets, hang the paper and then cut around the fixing using a sharp knife. Leave a little spare paper on each edge, then unscrew the fixing, attach the wallpaper behind it, before reattaching the socket.
With this method you can work your way along the stairwell, aligning wallpaper sheets to make sure the pattern matches if you are using patterned wallpaper.
Complement Your Wallpapered Stairs with Our Stair Accessories
Once your stairs are brilliantly wallpapered, you can think about other ways to improve your stairwell. At Stair Rods Direct, we sell a range of beautiful Stair Rods, giving a classical look to your home, the perfect accompaniment to a stylish wallpaper. Our Stair Rods come in a range of styles and colours.
Whether you are looking for minimalist blacksmith stair rods to combine with your autumnal wallpaper, or our range of eye-catching royale stair rods to combine with a floral patterned wallpaper. We stock even more options, like Victorian Stair Clips and stair runners.
When looking for even more ways to add character and style to your stairwell, our range of stair rods are the perfect choice. For more guides, such as painting your stair bannisters, or fitting stair runners, have a look through the rest of our blog.