Dean hangs wallpaper in homes across Kingsthorpe, NN2, which lies about 1.8 miles north of central Northampton. He strips, repairs and lines the wall first, and plans pattern and roll quantities around the house, from cottage walls round The Green to new builds at Lime Tree Gardens. Quotes are free.
Why crooked cottage walls get lined before the pattern goes up
The oldest houses in Kingsthorpe are built of coursed rubble Northampton sandstone, and the inside face of those walls follows the stone rather than a spirit level. A strong stripe or a geometric print exposes every bulge, and a corner that wanders by a finger’s width over a storey will pull a pattern out of line. On cottages round The Green, Green End and Well Yard we usually plan for a layer of lining paper hung horizontally first. It evens out small hollows, gives the decorative paper a consistent surface to grip, and stops any old plaster showing through.
We also hang from a plumb line, never from the corner, and decide in advance where the last length will meet the first. In a small cottage room with low windows under timber lintels, that join usually goes above the door or behind a tall piece of furniture where nobody will see a broken repeat. Papers with a small all-over or random-match design forgive an uneven wall far better than bold verticals, and Dean will say so honestly if a chosen design is likely to fight the room.
Damp is the other cottage question. Springs come up in the old village, including the Kings Well beside The Green, and paper and paste hold moisture against a wall that needs to dry. If a wall shows tide marks or salts, we raise it before any paper is bought.
Height to play with on Vicarage Lane, Green End and at the Old Rectory
The 19th-century houses give paper more room. The brick terraces on Vicarage Lane and High Street, the early 19th-century three-storey house at 17 Green End and the Domestic Revival Old Rectory with its large sashes all have taller rooms that can carry a large-scale print or a dramatic colour without closing in.
Height changes the arithmetic, though. Longer drops mean more waste with every pattern repeat, so roll counts are worked out from the actual wall heights rather than a quick estimate, and a batch number is checked on every roll before the first cut. In a three-storey stairwell the longest lengths are hung from a safe platform built over the stairs, and they are matched at eye level where any error would be most obvious. Older papers in these houses are sometimes painted over, which makes stripping slower; if lumps of old plaster come away, we patch and seal them before lining.
Bays and chimney breasts in the 1930s bungalows
The row of hipped-roof bungalows running from The Green into Knights Lane has bay windows with several casements in each. Papering into a bay means many short pieces turned round frames and window boards, each matched to its neighbour. A common alternative is to paper the chimney breast or the wall opposite the bay and paint the bay itself, which shows the paper off and avoids a run of awkward cuts. We will talk through both options on site.
Estate houses and new builds: the work before the first roll
On the 1960s to 1980s estates (Spring Park, Obelisk, Chalcombe Avenue, Hinton Road, Brampton Park) the walls are generally straighter, so the effort goes into removing whatever earlier owners left behind: several layers of paper, painted-over vinyl, or old woodchip if it is there. Once stripped, walls are filled and sanded so no ridge shows under a smooth modern paper.
In the newer homes at Bective Close, Lime Tree Gardens, Scholars Court and on the former campus land, fresh plaster must be completely dry and then sized or sealed. Without that, paste soaks straight in, lengths are hard to slide into place, and the paper becomes very hard to remove later. The full process is on our wallpaper hanging service page, the wider picture of local housing is on the Kingsthorpe area page, and the decorating cost guide explains what affects a quote.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
