Our old bungalow had wallpapered walls in almost all rooms save for kitchen and bathroom, where it had "oilcloth" (??). The walls were of hand-applied plaster over lathe, drywall had not been invented. Early on, they were painted, as evidenced by shades of color remaining as I dutifully scraped off the old wallpaper covering it. I learned this chore early, for at least once a year, my Mother asked for new wallpaper in at least one room. The old man cringed and winced, even though he knew he was good at applying it. We three, but more often just my Mother & I, spent hours poring over wallpaper samples displayed in huge bound books, too heavy for me to lift, laid out on sloped stand-up tables at our local store, Figatner-Scott Paints. Sometimes the chosen design was in stock, but usually it had to be ordered. The old man measured the rooms, and told my Mother how much to order. Order was the key word, shortened from ordeal. I never knew if he secretly enjoyed, or totally hated, these wallpaper-hanging chores. Plenty of S.O.B.s went down, to be sure. He mixed the paste, wheat paste, actually flour I was told, with my Mother's eggbeater: I still have it! How'd ya think I'd have a pic? Sometime along the way, he heard of a product named "Adhesium". Came in a quart paint can, stank funny, looked and acted like a shaky jelly. The label had an image which I have tried to find in vain. A man, a painter, clad in white coveralls, face contorted in rage, kicking across the room a bucket of wallpaper glue. The caption read, "When your job is to the bad, and you're in a fix, use Adhesium, IT STICKS!" What I remember most about summertime wallpaper hanging was, to stay out of the old man's way! His work was flawless, but woe to one who intervened causing a flaw! Frank
Hmm, this thread seems to be discouraging me from having wallpaper in our house, huh. It looks like a heavy job to me and painting the walls would be easier. We are currently deciding on repainting the interior walls of our house or applying wallpaper. I know it's not easy but this thread tells me about that "flaw" which I understand cannot be cured. So maybe if we decide on installing wallpaper then we have to get a professional to do the job for us.
When we lived in California, wife wanted to wallpaper the kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom. Her friend worked for Color Tile so they picked out the patterns and got the rolls. I didn't know much about applying or prep so read a bit. Remember 'Sizing' the walls and other prep work. What I found out when I got to the bedroom, the pattern she picked out had a 22 inch repeat. That drove me crazy. Lot of waste. So far, I have dodged that bullet where we live now.