Handpainted Chinese Silk Wallpaper is a luxury wall treatment that in the past only the very wealthy could afford. Handpanted wall paper is still not cheap (although you can find Handpainted Chinese Wallpaper on eBay now) because it is painted by hand onto paper backed silk and takes weeks to prepare. Usually you send your wall dimensions to the makers - usually in china - and you need to take care to get all your door and window measurement drawn to scale on a plan because the artists can then arrange the design to go around your doors and windows without any unsightly breaks in the design. The effort and time is well worth it. You get a hand painted masterpiece with a design that does not repeat anywhere and the finished wall looks as though the painter was there on the spot and painted it all in person in your home.
I chose the dining room above the dado rail for a Chinese birds and floral branches design on a green silk background but it will look equally as well in any room. The Bedroom photo above gives an idea of how it can work in a small bedroom.
When your handpainted paper arrives it will be packed in rolls, you may need a specialist paper hanger to install the wallpaper. The maker will provide detailed instructions and recommendations, which need to be read carefully, and patiently considering that their first language is probably not English.
If you are an experienced paper hanger and want to do it yourself then you need to take extra care that your wall is flat and smooth, to prepare for the best result. Then you need to layout your pieces in order and find the initial the piece to start with, then you look for pin holes along the edge in the next piece that have to match up with the first piece so the pattern lines up correctly.
Another issue is gluing the paper to the wall. This is not like applying regular wallpaper - in this case you apply the glue to the wall- not to the back of the hand painted silk wallpaper - this is to make sure your expensive silk wallpaper does not get stained by the glue.
To smooth down the paper on the wall you first place a piece of wallpaper liner paper over it to protect the surface while you smooth down the paper onto the wall.
Another tip I discovered is that if your design goes around doors and windows to take extra care in positioning the panels and if necessary arrange for the final join to be over the top of the door or window, so that the designs along the sides on each side of the door or window are positioned correctly.
If you are not worried about your budget constraints then you will probably leave all this in the hands of your decorator. However you can cut costs by dealing directly with the Chinese makers and then managing the paper hanging yourself - which is how I wanted to do it and I am very pleased with the result. Continue reading Tips for Applying Chinoiserie Handpainted Silk Wallpaper »
