Wallpaper planning · 3 min read
Ordering a wallpaper mural? Check what stays on the wall before it prints
A mural can fit the wall edge to edge and still lose the best part of the picture. In the illustration below, the doorway hides most of the setting sun. Before buying, look at the cropped artwork with your wall’s openings drawn over it.
Draw the wall inside the print rectangle
Sketch the area you want papered, including the trim where the paper will stop. Record widths and heights in several places, keeping the largest measurements and the smaller ones. The largest help establish print size; the smaller ones tell you where part of the image will disappear. Leave high or hard-to-reach measurements for the installer.
For a sloped wall, Murals Your Way uses the greatest width and height and supplies a rectangle. It also measures across door and window openings and excludes baseboards and crown molding. On your sketch, mark the slope's high and low ends and each opening's position relative to the same corner. Subtracting the door's square footage would not tell the printer which piece of the picture goes there.
Separate the wall measurement from the size you enter
Extra printed material around the edges gives the installer room to trim. Wallsauce advises customers to add a margin to their dimensions. Murals Your Way describes bleed that it adds when printing and distinguishes single-panel and larger multi-panel orders. Ask the supplier which dimensions to enter for your particular order; do not combine the two companies' allowances.
Keep one line labeled 'actual wall' and another labeled 'order size,' both with units. Ask which edges include extra material and whether the image preview shows those edges. Important details belong inside the area that will remain.
Put the doorway on the proof
Suppose the wall is 12 feet wide, with a three-foot doorway toward the right. On a copy of the scaled preview, the opening occupies a quarter of the wall’s width. Mark its actual position and height as well. If the sun disappears behind that outline, try shifting the crop or choose a different image while the order can still change.
Wallsauce lets customers position the crop after entering dimensions. Murals Your Way says customers can request a digital proof before purchase and a printed sample to judge color and texture. Use the proof for placement and the sample for appearance. Save the approved crop and orientation with the dimensions rather than relying on the original catalog image.
Check the panels against the approved picture
Wallsauce supplies numbered panels intended to hang in sequence. For your chosen mural, confirm the panel count, first panel and direction with the supplier. Moving a middle panel to avoid an opening would move one slice of the scene out of place. Resolve a composition problem before printing.
When the order arrives, check the design, material, panel labels and complete sequence against the approved proof before any panel is cut or hung. If something differs, keep the labels and contact the supplier first. For an installation request, send Coast & Craft the proof, wall sketch, product link and whether the mural is ordered or already on hand.
Sources & product details
Manufacturer instructions for your exact product take precedence over general planning guidance.