We hang wallpaper in Weedon Bec, about 8 miles west of Northampton in the NN7 postcode area. In the older cottages on Queen Street and Church Street that usually means lining paper and careful pattern setting on walls that are far from true; in the newer homes it means preparing plasterboard so the paper can come off cleanly in future.
Out-of-true walls in the old cottages
The 17th and 18th century cottages of Upper and Lower Weedon were built in ironstone and limestone, and their walls were never plumb. Corners wander, the ceiling line rises and falls along a wall, and a chimney breast may lean one way while the window beside it leans the other. Paper shows all of this. A strong vertical stripe hung against a plumb line will drift away from a corner that is out by a couple of centimetres over the height of a room, and a large repeating motif will step visibly along a sloping ceiling.
That shapes the advice before a single roll is bought. On walls like these we usually suggest:
- A cross-lined base, with lining paper hung horizontally, so the finish paper sits on an even surface over old plaster with fine cracking.
- Patterns with a small or random match, which hide a wandering corner far better than stripes or bold geometric repeats.
- Setting out from the focal point of the room, usually the chimney breast, so any pattern mismatch falls in the least visible corner, behind a door or by the window.
If you have your heart set on a stripe in a cottage on Church Street or Queen Street, we will hang it, but we will show you where the compromise will fall before we start.
Paper and damp after the village floods
Paper is less forgiving of damp than paint. Paste needs a dry wall to grip, and paper laid over a wall that is still giving off moisture can lift at the seams or grow mould on its back. That matters in the parts of Weedon that have flooded from surface water: the village centre around Church Street, Bridge Street, New Street and West Street, and South Street, in 2012, November 2024 and March 2025.
After a flood we would rather see the lower walls dry thoroughly and spend a season in paint than rush a new paper on. Where the walls have been replastered, the fresh plaster has to be fully dry and then sized so the paste does not soak straight in. Once the moisture readings are steady, papering can go ahead.
Plasterboard at Harmans Chase and Cavalry Fields
The newer houses at Harmans Chase and Harmans Way, and the earlier estates at Cavalry Fields and Holm Close, have flat plasterboard and skim walls. Hanging is quicker here, and these rooms suit feature walls in bolder designs because the wall is true. The thing to get right is the surface underneath. Plasterboard has a paper face of its own, and paper hung straight onto unsealed board can pull that face away when it is stripped years later. We seal or size the board first so the next person to redecorate does not have to repair the wall.
Paste-the-wall non-woven papers are a good choice in these homes, especially for a single feature wall in a living room or behind a bed, because they strip dry in whole lengths.
Staircases and small rooms
Cottage staircases in Lower and Upper Weedon are often tight and steep, and papering a stairwell there needs a small platform built to fit the stairs rather than a standard board. Long drops on a stairwell also make a pattern match harder, so we measure and order generously. For our wider approach to stripping, lining and hanging, see the wallpaper hanging service page, and for how we price papering see the decorating cost guide. Our Weedon Bec page covers the other work we do in the village.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
