While wallpaper is still very popular in private homes, decorative wall design has gone out of fashion in public rental apartments. Not because the selection is too small – in fact, the time and cost factors play a decisive role. The fact is: a wall color can be painted over or replaced more quickly. But here too, the effort involved in giving the children’s room a new coat of paint is enormous. It is much quicker and easier to beautify the bare walls with decorative design elements – such as photo wallpaper, wall stickers or a border.
By far the easiest and quickest form of children’s room wall design is wall stickers. They stick (usually) to all surfaces, not just smooth surfaces, but also to woodchip wallpaper or textured plaster. Provided, of course, that the walls are dry and dust-free. The selection of child-friendly motifs is almost endless: whether dots or stars, light stickers or jungle animals – there are no limits to the design possibilities. However, you should keep a few tips in mind before you put the wall stickers in your child’s room, such as:
And now here are a few instructions on how to attach the wall stickers at even intervals: Take a square piece of paper or cardboard – for example 40 x 40 cm, depending on how large the gaps between the stickers should be – and hold it like that on the wall with one of the corners facing upwards. Now use it as a kind of placeholder between the stickers when you stick them to the surface one after the other. Important: Initially only press the stickers lightly so that you can move them again if necessary. Only when you are satisfied with all positions are the wall stickers pressed firmly with the smooth palm of your hand.
In contrast to normal wallpaper, the photo wallpaper is only attached to one wall – and in the end forms a large motif, such as a mountain landscape or forest animals, Spiderman or Winnie the Pooh. Since the materials (usually paper or fleece) are very thin, the surface must always be clean and dry, smooth and dust-free. In other words, if the walls in the children’s room have just been freshly painted or plastered, you should wait at least three to six weeks before applying the photo wallpaper. And of course there should no longer be any old wallpaper on the affected wall. Small cracks and holes should also be filled as fine unevenness will later show through the thin wallpaper.
If you would like to attach the photo wallpaper afterwards, proceed as follows:
You can find detailed instructions for attaching a photo wallpaper here.
If you only want to add small accents to the walls, doors or furniture as part of your children’s room design, self-adhesive borders are a good choice. Here too, the use of aids such as a spirit level, a squeegee or a rubber roller is essential. Thanks to the self-adhesive backing, it is easy to attach the motifs (e.g. clouds or llamas, space or hot air balloons) to the wall. They stick to all dry, flat and adhesive surfaces. The only important thing is that you attach the border straight (use the spirit level for this) – and follow the following steps: First, peel off the film, position the motif on the desired surface and press the border evenly. Then check whether all edges are straight. If this is the case, take a rubber roller or a squeegee and smooth the material.
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