Wallpaper a TV unit
This is something a little different for me, wallpapering a bespoke built-in TV unit, made from MDF. I will show you how to wallpaper custom built furniture.
The client had decided to use the existing chimney breast to plant the unit on to. I was called in after the original carpenters failed to wallpaper it properly. Therefore, this goes to show that trades should stick to their relevant trade and not try to be a “jack of all trades, master of none.
Preparation
As I have always stated before, good preparation is key to producing a quality job. The decorating trade is based on quality of finish. Anyone can put a brush into a tin of pint and paint the wall, that’s the easy bit. The difficult bit is knowledge around what products to use on what surface.
The previous employed trade used powered filler. This is fine for plastered walls, not ideal for MDF. In fact, I did use powered filler because I needed to ‘feather’ the edge between the plastered chimney breast and the MDF unit.
The rest of the unit I used a two pack wood filler (which is resin mixed with the catalyst benzoyl peroxide). I needed to ‘feather’ the joints so this did not show through the wallpaper.
As you can see the carpenters built the frame and then placed the inserts in place. these had to be filled and sanded to a smooth finish
First wallpaper Insert
The first section is made up of two pieces of paper. A top section and a bottom section
The first section is dropped down on the face of the unit and then wrapped under edge and around the corner. (1st wrap)
The 2nd section is then lapped over the top of waste section which hangs down from the first section. It is then wrapped over both external corners and tucked around. The reason for lapping over the top is to allow for a splice. (2nd wrap)
Splicing is putting two pieces of wallpaper together (overlapped) and then using a sharp snap off blade, cut through both bits of paper to form your own join.
As you can from the image where the top section is overlapped by the bottom section. This is then cut through both bits of paper. Remove the waste paper and re-join the paper.
Follow the top section of wallpaper through until you reach the opposite side. Then do this procedure for the opposite side with two sections of wallpaper, wrapped and spliced through.
Finish each wallpaper section
Finish the wallpaper by completing the top section first and then the bottom section, making sure you wrap each section over the external edges. This always gives a professional finish to the edges.
Finally, complete the middle section last and the returns onto the chimney breast. The most difficult bits are the first sections. Once you master that, the rest is easy
Hi Jason love what you did here. My question is I’m having a tv media unit built with in wall fire. Can I wallpaper it or is it best to paint the colour to match wallpaper on sides?
I have fallen in love with a wallpaper but don’t think it will look good if I wallpapered the whole wall including media unit. Any advice greatly received
Hi Azmat. The thing to remember is that all the external angles must have wallpaper wrapped around the external edge. If the wallpaper has a large pattern, then trying to keep that matched would be hard. If the wallpaper is plain (similar to the paper I used in this project) then matching is not a problem. If you are doing it yourself and you very limited experience in wallpapering, then I would paint it. If your experience is limited, it would drive you mad trying to keep those external edges papered and spliced.
Best of luck, hope it goes well.