Glass bead wallpaper in Mottram St Andrews

Scot Hindley is Traditional Painter’s Associate Painter and Decorator in Cheshire. He explains how he prepared and decorated a hall stairs and landing with Mylands paints and glass bead wallpaper in Mottram St Andrews.

The property was only built two years ago for my new clients, and was all painted out in white, leaving a blank canvas throughout.

What makes this different to most jobs I take on is that this Hall Stairs and Landing was going to take 43 rolls of wallpaper to complete.

Specification

The specification from the client was to paint all ceilings, coving, doors and trim; line the walls and then finish with a high quality wall covering.

Preparation

Before all the glory work though, there was a fair bit of prep to do.  All the coving was timber and had shrunk slightly over the past couple of years. This was filled back and the occasional knot bleed was treated. (This is the little yellow stain you can get on your casings, doors and architraves.)

The casings and architrave had the same problems and so I used the same spec as the timber coving.

The walls and ceilings had a number of cracks that were raked out and filled with Gyproc Easi-fill, left to dry and then sanded back smooth.

All the walls were then sized with Zinsser Gardz, to aid and promote the installation of the lining paper.

Lining paper

A ready mixed paste was chosen for the lining paper (in this case Beeline “yellow top”) because the final wall covering requires a ready mixed paste.

This hallway had its challenges though, as it has four levels, three stairwells. Plus the entrance hall was a little tall – just the 6 meters in height!!

The walls are cross lined so that the joints do not conflict with the finished wallcovering that is dropped vertically.

Paint ceilings and coving

The ceilings were then painted out with two coats of white matt emulsion. This I did before painting any of the trim or doors, as any overspray from brush or roller may fall, and need to be cleaned or rubbed off, which is not ideal.

Woodwork

The woodwork (doors and trim) comes next. The client requested an eggshell finish  so I chose to use the Mylands of London eggshell. It is proving to be a really tough water-based paint, perfect for busy traffic areas like hall stairs and landings.

The doors need some prep first before we can paint them. In this case as well as sanding the trim, I used a product from the Krud Kutter stable called * Gloss Off” It promotes adhesion, and is a belt and braces system that I like to use.

The doors were originally painted in oil-based satinwood back in 2010. This was the year of the yellowing oil based paint outbreak, and the very year I stopped using oil, for that very reason.

From the photograph you can see the difference – a good example of what I’m talking about. The magnolia on the left was once white!

Also note that the door on the right and the architrave has only been painted with one coat. It obviously had a second coat on top of that, but it does show the incredible hiding power that Mylands paint has in its locker.

From a usability point of view, Mylands eggshell levels and flows brilliantly as well. I used a 2″ Proform Contractor brush to great effect.

Finish wallpaper time

Once the doors and trim was finished its then we can start with the finish wall coverings

I’d had to erect scaffolding to paint round the lights and that aided in the papering of the wall with the window and door to navigate. It was a standard vinyl paper by Villa Nova.

Glass bead wallpaper

The walls going up the stairs were to be finished in a glass beaded non woven paper with a big leaf pattern with a big repeat. The tool I used to spread out the paper to remove air bubbles was my 7” felt roller which is perfect for beaded paper, as it reduces the loss of beads attached to the paper. When beads do disconnect, they can sometimes have a nasty habit of getting under the wall covering.

The stair walls needed setting out correctly with the pattern match, as the entrance was 6 mtrs high and the pattern was flowing up both stairwells. It was trimmed with an *18mm Olfa Sharks Fin with the black blades.

I was very pleased with how the project want, and the end result I think speaks for itself.

If you are in Cheshire, please visit Scot Decorators website for further information, or if you have any questions about using the materials he has mentioned, or you want tips on abseiling down stairwells, ask on the forum.