Difficult Areas
Rectangular Archways
A little planning ahead can make this easy. With your
yardstick in hand and th width of the wallcovering in your
head, you can plan the strips so they fall into positions
that make it easy to wrap the arch.
The width of the arch and the width of the wallcovering you're using will determine
where you want to start measuring-from left to right, or from middle of the arch
going left and right. Either way, by planning it, you can figure out the best way
to do it.
So, when a rectangular arch is involved in the room, plan that wall first. After
planning where the arch strips will fall, measure backward to your starting corner.
Arch strip A should fall so that enoughof the right hand side overlaps the arch to
cover it. A horizontal cut will be made precisely at the top edge of the arch over
to the wall. Then the wallcovering below that cut will drop around the left hand
vertical side of the arch.
The next strip B will be short headers. Cut these long enough to wrap around the
underside of the arch. The net long strip on the far right C, should be wide enough
on the left side to wrap around the arch, again, after a horizontal cut is made
precisely at the top edge of the arch.
After hanging these strips, you'll still need to fill in the area on the underside of the
arch at extreme left and right. Cut matching pieces. Tuck the top ends under the
wallcovering on the face of the arch, where the horizontal cuts were made, and smooth the
piece onto the underside of the arch, filling the space. If you are not wallpapering
the wall on the other side of the arch, trim it 1/4" shy of the edge to prevent fraying.
NOTE: Brush a compatible paint color along that edge before you hang. If papering the room
on the other side of the arch, wrap all your pieces around to that wall slightly and trim to
a 1/2" overlap.