Why You Need to Pay Attention to Wallpaper Repeat

Wallpapering can be a very time consuming and frustrating endeavor, depending on your skill level and the size of the room you are wallpapering. The longer it takes to paper a room, the more careless most people become. The problem is that for the duration of the process, you must pay attention to the wallpaper repeat, otherwise you may make some very obvious mistakes, resulting in having to redo the entire project.

Defining Wallpaper Repeat

The term wallpaper repeat refers to the repetition of the patterns on the wallpaper. There are some types of wallpaper, such as linen or grass-cloth that don’t have any pattern to follow. They are easy to hang and the best type for beginners. Other wallpapers have easy patterns, such as strips, that make it easy to apply them with minimal attention to the pattern.

However, the most luxurious and eye-catching wallpapers have patterns where you have to constantly pay attention to the repeat to create the look you want. If you mess up the repeat, it will be obvious and the room will look a little wrong.

Straight Across Match

These are the patterns that should be easy to follow, but you still need to pay attention to the repeats to ensure you don’t mess up the final look of the room.

You should be able to line up papers with this pattern by aligning the new strip against the one that has already been applied. Just make sure you pay attention when you begin applying each new strip so that you don’t mess up the repeat.

Drop Match

These are the most difficult and time consuming patterns to add, and one mistake will mess up the entire room. To get the repeat right, you must line up the next strip not only with a strip that has been applied, but you have to be planning for the next strip as well. This means you have to be thinking about three wallpaper strips at all times. It can be time consuming and is not for people who have never hung wallpaper before.

There are different degrees of drop matches, so if you have hung wallpaper before and want a little more of a challenge, consider a half-drop match. It will be easier to complete the project without making critical mistakes.

The Results of Mismatched Repeats

The more complex the pattern, the more obvious the mistake. It can completely ruin the elegant effect you wanted in a room since people’s attention will be attracted to the mistake instead of the pattern. It’s even more difficult to look at misaligned repeats than wallpaper from different dye lots because it can take longer to put your finger on what the problem is. It can also cause headaches in some people.