Many people like to have wallpaper installed on the same wall as their TV is mounted, which is a great look for your Toronto home. But this begs the question, should you have the wallpaper installed first, or the TV mounted to the wall first?
To answer this question we have guest blogger Gordon Cameron from TEC.works taking us through the process of installing a TV wall mount on a wall that will be wallpapered. We don’t want any extra holes put in our wallpapered wall for fishing wires, so here is Gordon’s fool-proof method for ensuring a properly positioned TV that keeps all wallpaper intact:
Getting exactly the right position for a flat panel TV installation requires some planning up front.
Is the screen the right viewing height from your favourite chair?
How many other people join you for movie night, and where will they be sitting?
What about a sound bar? Sound bars typically work best mounted below the screen, but this could push the screen height up if there is a mantle. Speaking of sound, have you sorted the EARC (https://www.hdmi.org/spec21Sub/EnhancedAudioReturnChannel)? If you want good quality audio and depth, EARC is vital.
How are all the wires for the HDMI inputs, power and possibly an optical cable run from AV components to the TV? How will they be concealed? Do you need to buy some heatshrink sleeving for the cables?
You can get answers to some of these questions with a measuring tape, or even a masking tape outline on the wall. But there is no substitute for actually lifting the TV into the approximate position to get a feel for how it will fit with the room. Each of these tape outlines or temporary lifts is an opportunity to scuff up a beautiful wallpaper job. Here is what I’d recommend to get the TV installed where you want it, without damaging the wallpaper:
Determine the desired location for the TV, and then decide what sort of wall mount makes most sense. TV wall mounts can be mounted flat against the wall, tilt out a few degrees from the top, or even swivel and tilt. It all depends on your room and seating.
Mark the studs, install the desired wall mount and then hang the TV
Run all the cabling. Often there are several HDMI cables, power and possibly optical cables, and they all need to be concealed.
Once you are satisfied with the installation, remove the cabling and the TV
Loosen bolts or screws and lags and remove the wall mount
Have CAM Painters work their magic with the wallpaper installation
Install wall mount again into existing holes or lags
Install and level the TV
Rerun and conceal all the cabling
Order pizza and enjoy the movie!
Thanks Gordon for the great advice! Here’s a little information about TEC.works:
At TEC.works, we help solve technology headaches for consumers and small businesses. That might mean reviewing consumer bills for cell phones, Internet, TV packages, or home phones and finding less expensive options that are a better fit for your needs. It might mean installing a home theatre system, or a presentation screen in a retail outlet. It might mean troubleshooting WiFi signal strength in a dead spot at your home or business. We’ll find the right technology products or services for you, and then manage them professionally. Because you’ve got better things to do with your time.
So if you’re planning on having a TV and wallpaper on the same wall, why don’t you book a quote? With both us and TEC.works it will be a seamless process! Transform your home with lasting beauty!
Recently we transformed the fireplace in a loft in the west end of Toronto with wallpaper. This wasn’t a typical installation and it required more problem solving than a normal wallpaper installation. Let’s go through how we did it:
Material requirements
First, we had to make sure that we had wallpaper quantities properly calculated. The ceilings were 18′ high and it was a 15′ drop from ceiling to the top of the fireplace. Usually a double roll will do 3 to 4 drops (the distance from ceiling to top of baseboard), but in this case we were only able to get 2 drops out of each double roll. So, due to the longer drops we required more rolls of the wallpaper than a similar area with smaller drops.
The most obvious issue that had to be dealt with was accessing the two storey wall. If the fireplace wall was being painted we could just put up an extension to brush the top edge in and then roll everything else using a roller on an extension pole.
Extension ladders are problematic with wallpaper installations because it has to be set up to one side in order to avoid the path of the strip of wallpaper. This means that the installer has to lean far to one side in order to install a strip of wallpaper, an awkward position to say the least. However, if the painter or installer was to look into a website such as platformsandladders.com for other solutions to reach inaccessible places, they might find various mobile platforms that could be set up in such a way that could make the installation of the wallpaper, to be a much safer and easier process.
Step ladders are generally used on most wallpaper installations, which is fine on ceilings up to around 12′. This particular installation would have required a 16′ step ladder, which wasn’t practical to get through condo hallways.
Scaffolding was the best solution. The scaffold frames were 5’x5′, which meant that they could be easily maneuvered through the hallways, and we could have brought them on a service elevator if we needed to. Scaffolding, similar to that from Tiger Scaffolds, can help in many different ways during construction and is a must on any site or building structure. It keeps workers safe while enabling them to reach the highest points of a building. It can be used over and over again and can withstand all weather conditions. Not to mention, you can get scaffold security systems to protect people and buildings from accidents. If construction crews are looking for scaffolding services in Sheffield or any other area, they will need to do their research first to make sure they are getting good quality equipment.
3 levels of scaffolding were used, so the scaffolding height came to about 16′ when it was fully assembled. This is where our employees really found the best benefit of their scaffold tool belt.
Wallpaper Installation
Once we had the access issue taken care of, the installation was fairly straightforward. Each strip was hung by two installers, the first on the top platform and the 2nd on the middle platform. Once the top portion was put in place the top platform installer would descend the floor to complete installation of the strip.
Through proper planning we were able to take a complex install and turn it into a regular day at work. If you’d like CAM Painters to tackle your complex wallpaper installation why don’t you book a quote? We’d love to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
One of the things we’ve been doing more of the last few years is mural installation. Murals are a specialty subset of wallpaper and were traditionally very hard to source. They don’t just come in the form of wallpaper though. Some artists offer custom murals LA which are painted directly onto the wall, to show a beautiful image or text. Wallpaper is an easy option, but if you’re interested in getting a traditional route, contact an artist. Traditional paint stores with their books of wallpaper, just weren’t able to offer them. Now, however, with the popularity of online shopping, many websites specialize in offering wallpaper murals. In fact, some printers will make a custom mural from any digital image you can supply them!
What’s the difference between traditional wallpaper and a wallpaper mural?
Traditional wallpaper
The main difference is that wallpaper is a repetitive pattern, whereas a mural can be anything at all. Some popular murals can be city skylines, world maps, even a picture of a marble slab.
How to select a wallpaper mural
You want to make sure that the size of the mural will fit the size of your wall. If it’s too big for the wall you might lose some of the picture as it’s trimmed to size. If the mural is too small then it won’t fill the entire wall.
World map mural in a nursery
Therefore, you want to purchase a mural that’s bigger than the wall it’s going on. A good rule of thumb is to have at least a couple of inches of waste, but not more than a foot. Therefore, if your wall is 8’h x 10’w you’ll want something that’s in the range of 8’2″ to 9′ high by 10’2″ to 11″ wide.
Is there a different installation process?
Since there is no repetitive pattern to a mural, the picture is divided into numbered panels. The actual installation process is no different than normal wallpaper, in most cases it uses the same paste and the same techniques. However, there’s no room for error, because if a panel is ruined, there’s nothing to fix it with. Therefore, when it comes to the installation you want to select an experienced wallpaper installer, rather than a novice.
CAM Painters has taken on many mural installations and has the expertise to ensure your installation is done to the highest standards. Why don’t you book a quote? We’d love to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
I have a dark wallpaper to install in my Toronto home. I’ve heard that the seams can really show on dark papers, how do you prevent this from happening?
What is the issue with installing a wallpaper with a dark background colour?
The basic issue is that if some precautions are not taken the seams will look lighter than the rest of the paper. The overall look then becomes little thin white lines at each seam and not a consistent background colour.
Keep the seams tight!
When paste is put on the back of wallpaper, some wallpaper swells a little bit, then as the paper dries it can shrink back to it’s original dimensions. An inexperienced wallpaper installer might not account for this. In this case they might install the wallpaper at it’s most swollen state and then as it dries, it shrinks back and exposes a sliver of the wall underneath.
An experienced installer always read the instructions! The instructions will give how long to book the wallpaper (ie. let it sit so that it has a chance to swell and contract back). Some papers don’t swell very much at all.
This is all vital information to make sure that once the wallpaper is dry, the seams stay tight.
Paint a dark colour on the walls
Despite all efforts to keep seams tight, a good precaution is to paint the walls the same colour as the wallpaper background. Then if seams open up a little bit, it’s not revealing white walls, but walls painted the same colour, thus hiding the seam.
Colour the edges of the wallpaper
Regardless of the colour of the wallpaper, the backing of the paper is generally very light, This means that the edge of the paper is light as well. Sometimes this shows a little in the finished product, especially if the walls aren’t perfectly smooth. A good precaution is to colour the edge of the paper with a colour similar to the background colour, It can be done with a marker or pencil crayon when the paper is rolled up tight, this ensures that the colour only gets on the edge of the paper and not on the face.
In conclusion
A couple of simple steps will ensure that the seams of darker wallpaper will be nicely hidden. If you nave a dark wallpaper that you want installed (or any wallpaper for that matter) why don’t you book a quote? We’d be happy to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
“I’ve opened up my roll of wallpaper and I see in the instructions that they recommend a lining paper, What does this mean?”.
In this post we’ll go through what lining paper is, what it does and when it should be used.
What is lining paper?
Basically, lining paper makes wallpaper more sound and durable, similar to how a primer can prepare a surface for painting.
What is the purpose of lining paper?
Wallpaper liner, or lining paper is a blank paper which is installed before wallpaper, as a way to reinforce the wallpaper going over the top.
In walls where there are cracks or surface irregularities the liner can smooth these out and make them less noticeable.
When the lining paper is hung horizontally and the wallpaper hung vertically, the wallpaper can withstand both vertical and horizontal movements in the wall.
When should a liner be used?
Much like our primer example, sometimes lining paper is necessary and sometimes it’s an unnecessary step. The first place to look is in the installation instructions; a wallpaper manufacturer will generally say in the installation instructions whether or not a liner is recommended.
Here are a few general rules that a manufacturer will use when deciding to recommend a liner:
Thinner papers sometimes require a liner, because they are less effective at hiding surface irregularities than a thicker paper. In other words, any little bump on the surface underneath shows through the paper as a bump.
Metallic papers sometimes require a liner for the same reasons. Any little bumps show through the glossiness of the paper, whereas a matte paper would hide those imperfections better.
Can I still use a liner even if the manufacturer has not explicitly recommended one?
Of course, we can install a liner under most wallpapers no problem! There’s no downside to installing lining paper, except for the extra cost.
Here’s an instance where you might consider using a lining paper, regardless of what the instructions say:
If your walls have a lot of cracks, which is typical of some older Toronto homes. We see this usually in old plaster walls where there is some movement in the plaster. These cracks will generally come back if a lining paper is not used. As we discussed, a lining paper can flex with movement in the walls and keep that movement from damaging the wallpaper above.
In conclusion
If you want a wallpaper installer that will ensure that your paper is properly installed according to the manufacturer’s directions, why don’t you book a quote? We’d be happy to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
We recently completed a project in the east end of Toronto that consisted of 7 separate accent walls, and the client was delighted. Here’s what we did:
How much wallpaper is too much?
The first question you might ask is, 7 different types of wallpaper in one house, isn’t that a little much? The answer is a resounding NO! The client employed the services of an excellent interior designer, and all the different wallpaper worked well together.
Master suite
There were 2 different wallpapers used in the master suite, one for the headboard wall in the master bedroom and another for the window wall in the ensuite bathroom
The master bedroom accent wall has a wonderful large scale botanical print, which really adds some punch to the room. The ensuite bathroom has a small geometric pattern. Geometric patterns are very popular in bathrooms, they can mimic the look of tile, at a fraction of the cost!
Spare bedroom
This accent wall continues the botanical theme. The wall is an alcove of sorts, with the bulkhead above. One clever thing the interior designer did was select a very matte paper. Why was this clever? There’s pot-lights in the bulkhead overhead creating a very angular light source, if the paper had any gloss in it whatsoever, it would show seams and any slight imperfections in the wall. The matte paper is much more forgiving in this regard.
Office
In this room we have a tree print that really plays with the light. The print is a little more glossy than the background, so it changes depending on the angle that one looks at it. That’s just one reason why pictures of wallpaper don’t do it justice, one needs to see how light plays off the different textures and levels of sheen, really cool paper!
Main Bathroom
In the main bathroom the client picked a chinoiserie wallpaper and had me install it on the wall opposite the mirror. It was a wise choice to install it only on one wall, the pattern has a lot going on and would have been a little too much if installed on all the walls.
Main floor accent walls
On the main floor we did 2 accent walls, one in the dining room and one in the living room. Since the main floor is an open concept it was essential that the wallpaper harmonized with each other. One way to do this is to select the same wallpaper for both areas. However, our client selected 2 types of wallpaper with the same colour, but different pattern. The best way to do this is to select 2 papers from the same collection which ensures that the colours will match.
Here’s the finished product!
Master bedroom accent wall
Master ensuite accent wall
Spare bedroom accent wall
Office accent wall
Main bathroom accent wall
Living room accent wall
Dining room accent wall
In conclusion
If you’d like to introduce some pattern into your home, why don’t you have us install some wallpaper accent walls? Book a quote, We’d love to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
