Wallpapering/Feature Walls in Limerick & Clare

At Limerick Painting & Decorating we provide cost effective wallpapering/feature wall services across Limerick, Clare & surrounding areas. A single feature wall can change how a whole room feels, and it’s one of the most requested jobs we get. Whether it’s a bold wallpaper behind the bed in a Castletroy semi detached home, a textured plaster effect wall in an Ennis living room. A full wallpapered hallway in one of the older period homes around O’Connell Avenue. The job comes down to the same thing: correct prep and a clean, straight finish.

Irish walls aren’t always kind to wallpaper. Older houses often have uneven plaster, damp patches, or layers of lining paper from three different decades hiding underneath the last coat of paint. New builds bring their own issues, usually fresh plaster that hasn’t fully cured, or skim finishes that are too smooth for paste to grip properly. We deal with both types regularly, and we prep for the wall you actually have, not the wall on the sample book.

We hang all wallpaper types, including patterned rolls, textured and grasscloth papers, digital photo murals, and paste to wall vinyls. We also do painted feature walls for anyone who wants the statement look without the seams. 

Tell us about the wall or room you have in mind and we will get back to you with a clear, written quote.

We look at the actual wall condition before quoting, not just the room. This means checking for damp, old adhesive residue, hairline cracks, and how many layers of previous wallcovering are already there. This is the step that determines the real cost, so we don’t skip it.

If you haven’t already picked a paper, we’ll talk through pattern repeat, roll match, and durability, because some papers handle hallways and kids’ rooms far better than others. We also price a painted feature wall alternative if you’re weighing up the two.

This is where most feature walls succeed or fail. Old paper is stripped back fully, because we don’t paper over paper. Cracks are filled, uneven patches are skimmed or lined, and damp-affected areas are treated before anything goes near the wall. New plaster is left to cure or sealed with the correct primer or size so it doesn’t pull moisture out of the paste too fast.

On older or patchier walls, we hang lining paper first. It’s an extra day’s work but it’s the difference between a feature wall that looks sharp in five years and one that’s already lifting at the seams within twelve months.

We work out drop points before the first sheet goes up, so the pattern is centred properly on the focal point of the room, whether that’s the chimney breast, the bed wall, or whatever the eye lands on first. Patterns are matched at every seam, corners are cut clean, and sockets and switches are worked around neatly.

Skirting and coving edges are trimmed and sealed, trim is checked once the paper has fully dried and settled, and the room is left clean, with furniture back in place and dust sheets gone.

This is the most requested job we get: one wall papered or painted as a focal point while the rest of the room stays plain. We centre the pattern on the chimney breast, the bed wall, or whatever the eye lands on first coming through the door, and cut clean into coving, skirting, sockets, and switches. A single wall on a sound, prepped surface is usually a one day job.

Papering a full room needs accurate roll calculations, a planned starting point, and consistent seam work on every wall. We calculate the drop count from the pattern repeat before anything is ordered, so you are not left short mid job or paying for rolls you never open. Corners, window reveals, and door surrounds are cut and matched so the pattern reads continuously right around the room.

Stairwells are the trickiest prep and hanging job in most Irish houses, because of the height, the angled walls, and the awkward access over the stairs. We work off suitable staging and scaffold boards rather than balancing a ladder on a step, which is what keeps long drops plumb and seams tight the whole way up. Hallways also take the most daily knocks in a house, so we steer clients towards washable papers or a hard wearing painted finish in these areas.

Murals arrive as numbered panels that have to be hung in sequence onto a dead flat, well primed wall. We check the panel numbering against the supplier’s hanging plan before the first drop goes up, then butt joint each panel so there is no overlap and no visible line through the image. Because there is no repeating pattern to hide a slightly off seam, this job lives or dies on the prep and the alignment.

We strip old wallcovering back to bare plaster using steam or a score and soak method, depending on how many layers are underneath and how well they are stuck. Once it is off we assess what is left, because decades old paper often lifts patches of the skim with it. Cracks are filled, blown or hollow patches are cut out and made good, and the wall is sealed with a mist coat or primer so it is ready to paint.

If you want the impact without the seams, a painted feature wall in a deep Dulux Trade or Fleetwood colour gives you the same focal point for less outlay. Strong, heavily pigmented colours need a tinted undercoat and two full topcoats to cover evenly, and we allow for that in the quote rather than leaving you with a patchy finish. We also apply textured and plaster effect finishes where you want depth and shadow on a single wall.

Get a free, no-obligation quote for your feature wall or wallpapering job.