The Little Greene Blog

Wallpaper in a room or on a feature wall can add an interesting level of detail to the overall look of your room, but it can be a daunting task if you’ve not wallpapered before.

The following questions answer some of the basic issues that crop up during wallpapering and painting. Feel free to add your questions or thoughts in the comments.

Q) What is the best method to remove wallpaper?
A) There are a lot of different ways to successfully remove wallpaper from a wall, but some of them can be very tedious. Heat can often be the best free solution to remove wallpaper. Covering an area of the wallpaper with very hot water and leaving it to soak in for couples of minutes, then scraping it off becomes much easier. For quicker results, you may find that a wallpaper steamer helps dampen the wallpaper a lot easier, but this obviously comes at an extra cost.

Q) Can you paint directly over wallpaper?
A) In a word, yes. It is generally best to strip the wall if you are planning on painting it, but you are able to paint directly onto it with most wallpaper. You need to make sure you have an even surface, so this means pasting down any loose bits of wallpaper, and filling any holes that may be in the wall. If the wallpaper is shiny you may want to test a small area first to see how the paint reacts to the surface and use a primer if necessary.

Q) How do you prepare a wall for wallpapering?
A) This answer is best broken down into the following steps:

1. Make it smooth – Fill any holes or bumps in the wall to ensure you have a smooth wallpapering surface. If your wall is in really bad shape, you may need to have it plastered before applying any wallpaper.
2. Lining paper – Although not a necessity, lining paper will help cover a multitude of imperfections in a wall – a common issue in older properties. Lining paper should be cross-hung (applied horizontally) if you’re going to hang a wallpaper on it (this will prevent the glue from the top wallpaper lifting the joints of the lining paper), or hung vertically (with completely flush joints) if you’re going to paint it.
3. Apply the wallpaper!

Jane Cumberbatch is a Little Greene fan and our new guest blogger. She’s created a guide to re-vamping an old piece of furniture, so here’s her video, and below this is the transcript.

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We are delighted to welcome Jane Cumberbatch to the Little Greene blog.

An interior designer with a number of best-selling books to her name, including Pure Style and Decorating Easy, Jane is an authority on simple, accessible, natural styling and what she calls “A blueprint for 21st century living”.

Jane’s website – Pure Style Online – is a must for inspiring ideas and budding stylists, with a wealth of knowledge, tips and over two decades worth of first-hand design experience.

Jane will be passing on a few trade secrets along with some advice on how to use colours in your home – look out for more posts in the coming weeks and months…

We had a long, fun and fruitful four days at Decorex in London at the end of last month, with our stand showing off our ‘Camellia’ wallpaper from the Oriental Papers collection – in several colourways – and the sales team enjoying everyone travelling from afar to visit them for a change..

One famous fan of Little Greene was eager to cast his eyes over an exclusive preview of our next wallpaper collection, officially being launched in January. We are, of course, assuming it’s our charming paints and wallpapers rather than one of Terry’s legendary pinstripe suits that prompted this textbook enquiry pose from the renowned impersonator.

Terry tries to make an equally good impression by kneeling down in front of Rory Bremner

The front door is a real focal point of the home and is often one of the first things that greets the eye.   The front door can really make a visual statement so following the correct painting procedures is equally as important as choosing the most appropriate shade.

When it comes to deciding on the colour of the door, much of this should be about personal preference but it is worth considering colours that compliment the existing exterior house colours and brickwork.

Painting your front door allows for a certain amount of creativity so whether you opt for a bold, solid colour, a subtle shade or an original design, the final effect should be something you are happy to be met with everyday.  For front doors our Oil Based Gloss Paint is ideal, it is formulated to be weather resistant and hard-wearing for up to 5 years before re-painting.

To begin, remove all fittings from the door such as door knobs and locks.  Sand down the door to remove any sheen or loose paint and use a soft cloth to remove any remaining dust.  Apply a suitable oil-based primer to the door, as recommended by our guide, and allow to dry.

Having a good quality paint brush is extremely important to ensure a professional and high quality finish.  Apply the desired paint colour in the direction of the grain to avoid streaking and, if painting a panelled door, begin with the panel mouldings followed by the inner panels.  Next, paint the centre stile and then the horizontal panels (or cross rails). Finish by painting the outer panels and lastly, the edges of the door.

If you are painting a flush door, it is advisable to paint in sections in order to maintain an even look.  When each section is complete, use horizontal strokes to blend the painted sections together.

If the area is allowed to dry before blending the sections together, the job will look uneven and messy so keep the edges wet.  Working with small sectioned off areas will ensure the best finish.

Images taken from a selection from Flickr under Creative Commons Licence.
Photographers include:

• Klearchos Kapoutsis
• Athena’s Pix
• Hortulus
• Visualpanic
• Jesibo0

The best place to start when ordering your colours is to select a colour in the Oil Based Gloss Paint finish. You can then order your corresponding primer if you need to.

One of the biggest and most serious issues of our time is the growing concern about climate change.  The current scientific consensus  points the finger at human activity as the main reason for the rapid increase in global temperatures over the past several decades.  Acknowledging this is the first step in the right direction but now the focus shifts towards how the human race can help, both in terms of dealing with the change that has already occurred but also implementing a plan for the future.  Change cannot happen overnight.  However, everyone should try to contribute towards the greater good for the sake of future generations to come.

One of the chief concerns is to reduce the amount of CO2 gas that is released into the atmosphere as well as the amount of  solvents, aerosols and toxic gases that are used in products and in manufacturing processes.  As these gases build up in the atmosphere they trap heat.  The greater the human activity, therefore, the greater the concentration of gases and the only way to combat the increase in temperature is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we emit.

Everyone should take responsibility for climate change, and that includes businesses.  By leading the way with eco-friendly products, services and manufacturing processes, companies can set a great example for individuals and set the standard for conscientious business practice.

We at the Little Greene Paint Co. take our environmental responsibility seriously.  In 2004, we were one of the first UK paint manufacturers to achieve the European environmental standard BS EN ISO 14001. We believe that acting with environmental responsibility need not compromise the high quality standard of our products.

All our water-based paints carry the industry’s lowest eco-rating, with VOC content  now virtually zero.  In addition,  our oil based paints have been reformulated with sustainable vegetable oils to dramatically reduce VOC content and odour.  The paper used in our wallpapers comes from FSC or PEFC certificated sustainable forests; so for every tree used another four are planted. The pigments used to print them are completely non-toxic and our excellent wallpaper paste contains no solvent.

So it really is time to take action and make a change, even if it is only something very small in the first instance.  The future is almost certainly in our hands; instead of lamenting about what damage has already occurred, we should now look towards the future with environmental awareness and positivity and create a better world for future generations to come.