CREATING WALLPAPER FRAME FEATURE

Impulse buys in DIY stores are not the best way to go about renovation projects but occasionally you stumble across something in the aisles that you instantly fall in love with and just have to bring home with you.

Such was the case with this gorgeous roll of Lunaria teal wallpaper picked up in the bargain bucket at B&Q. I knew as soon as I set eyes on this luscious Art Deco fan design that it was destined to become a feature wall in one of my rooms.

GoodHome Lunaria Teal wallpaper

And so, after browsing through a million web images of designer rooms with wallpaper features in them, I’ve decided to create a framed wallpaper panel for the wall behind the bed in the spare room.

Should you decide to do the same, there are loads of useful tutorials on YouTube that you can follow to help with this type of project but essentially all you need is 4 lengths of pine moulding (B&Q) cut down and painted to construct your ‘picture frame’ and a tube of super strength Evo-Grip (B&Q) with which to stick it to the wall.

B&Q - sets in seconds

Fixing the frame to the wall is the tricky part and depending on the size of the frame is definitely a two-person job, one to press the mitred corner into place and the other to ensure the other end of the moulding is perfectly straight. An octopus with a spirit level could have done in minutes what took us the best part of an hour or so.

Use wooden spacers for levelling your frame

To get round this, I’ve seen some projects where people have stuck their frame onto a thin MDF sheet first then hung the whole lot on the wall. A good idea but for a large almost wall sized frame might make it quite heavy and bulky to handle. However you do it, the end result is pretty much the same.

We cut our frame out in advance to precise measurements only to face the curse of wonky walls. In order to trick the eye into seeing a straight top edge aligned with the bottom of the cornice, an extra wedge had to be inserted on one side.

Tricking the eye to see a straight line

After a lot of faffing and fiddling, there’s a teal frame ready and waiting to be filled with my gorgeous wallpaper.

Frame ready to wallpaper

Lunaria Teal wallpaper is one of those ‘paste the wall’ papers making it less messy to hang than those where you paste the back of the wallpaper. No need to add lining paper first unless you are papering on an uneven surface. When applying paste to the wall, ensure you have a nice evenly spread coat with a nice amount of paste where the paper edges will join together.

Touch up any defects with paint carefully

Finish your mitred corner joins with a bit of caulk and carefully touch up to match your painted frame. I’ve mixed my own paint colour for the frame from Dulux tester pots – 2 x Nordic Sky with 1 x Teal Touch to get a lovely vibrant teal/turquoise blue that contrasts nicely with the wallpaper.