Removal is the harder half. Old wallpaper usually takes the paper facing of the drywall with it, and what you are left with is a wall that cannot be painted until it is repaired.

A lot of painters will strip the paper and then hand you a separate quote for the drywall work. We do not. Stripping, skim coating, sanding, priming and finishing is one job and one price.

The sequence

• Score and steam the old paper off
• Wash the adhesive residue off the wall
• Skim coat where the facing tore
• Sand flat and prime the repairs
• Paint or hang new paper

Hanging new paper

We hang paper and murals too, including the grasscloth and pattern-match work that has to line up across a whole room.