Wallpapering 101
By T SampsonLesson 3: Hanging the Paper
Hanging Murals
Murals are a great way to accentuate a motif in a room, especially on large barren walls in larger rooms. Murals are usually pre-pasted vinyl just like wallpaper and borders. Most of your major wall covering retailers sell a variety of murals. They come in a variety of designs, motifs, and colors.
Murals come in a variety of different sizes, ranging from a little smaller than 2 x 4 foot to the full murals that are 8.3 feet high by 13.8 feet wide. The smaller ones usually consist of one panel, while the largest may have eight panels.
If you have a wall that you would like to hang a mural on, you need to be sure of its size before you make any purchases. You’ll need to measure the wall area and picture in your mind where the mural will go. Some of the larger murals can be cut down to fit the area that you may have in mind, but part of the picture will be compromised. On some murals the top, or sky sections, can easily be cut off without affecting the integrity of the design. On others, the bottoms may be lessened as they may be covered up with room furnishings and their loss wouldn’t make a big difference in the overall picture or design. These are just a couple of things to keep in mind when shopping for a mural.
Murals hang just like wallpaper. It is imperative that a sizing be applied to the wall prior to hanging, to insure the proper adhesion, and to allow for some panel movement during- installation. It is important that you start from a level line with the first section(s) of your mural. If there are multiple sections, always start from the top first. If the wall surface is larger than the mural, you’ll need to pinpoint the exact location where the mural will go. Make a light mark on the top outside corner of the wall where the first panel will go, then make a mark for the tip of the lower outside panel. You should use a level and make a light level line vertically from the top mark to the bottom mark, to use as a reference in insuring that your mural will be hung straight on your wall. Then all you have to do is to hang the appropriate panels against the level line and proceed from there just like you were wallpapering. Make sure that your pattern matches up, and that your seams are right. With the mural panels you will have multiple seams to deal with.
If the mural is the same size or a little larger than the wall you are mounting it on, you will need to start with the same technique that is used to begin hanging wallpaper. You will first need to figure the width of the four panels that go across the top and bottom of the wall. Then you can figure out where the center will be. Figuring back from the center with the first two panels, you will figure out how much of the first panel will wrap the corner to be cut off. When this is completed, you can measure out from the corner the rest of the distance of the first panel, and make your mark for your level line for the top and bottom first panels. Then you can apply the first top and bottom panel to the wall, trim the excess at the corner and continue on with hanging the remainder of the mural.
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