If I were a decorator then my first experience of putting up a sheet of wallpaper wouldn't have ended with it comically peeling itself off the wall from the top down, almost in slow motion. That was a laugh. No, really it was.

However, I repasted it and reattached it, and a whole bunch of other sheets - 6 in total - and now the bare plaster area of the walls in my hall looks like it has been inexpertly covered with lining paper, which appears to show all the flaws in the underlying walls AND any bits of grit or crap that managed to make their way under the paper in the process.

Do I sound impressed with my first "go" at papering? No? Well, I'm not. I'm also not too suprised, nor worried about it. I'll have a go at painting over this paper and see how it looks. I suspect that, once painted in matt emulsion, the flaws will be less apparent and the wall will look ok. It's not the end of the world. It was also a first attempt and I was using very little more than guesswork, hope, goodwill and something I remember reading on the net once.

I was also using a pasting table and some solvite.

I'll have another go in another room tonight and see what happens.

Last night I also did some painting. Gloss paint on a bay window frame and a room full of skirting board. Theoretically, I'm moving ever closer to finishing that room. Jings.

Part of the last two nights' DIY marathons (over 4 hours each night - in fact last night was 6) is to bring up my stamina levels for the planned weekend of decorating in Newcastle. Plus, it is useful to know how long certain jobs can take. Overall, no DIY job can take as long as it takes to clean the sodding paintbrush after gloss paint.

Yuck.

Labels: DIY