In a busy household, it’s easy for wallpaper to get smudges, finger prints and even some splattering that you’re not sure what it is. Young children can add their own designs to it that are quite often food related. Removing spots and stains on wallpaper can leave the room looking as fresh as a daisy and is well worth the effort.

Here’s the easiest way to do it:

What you need:

• Rubber gloves
• duster
• 1 x bucket of warm soapy water
• 1 x bucket of clean water
• sponge

Move everything away from the wall

To prepare, move furniture to the middle of the room and lay down a sheet to collect soapy drips. You might also want to stick a piece of foam onto any picture nails to remind you where to hang them back up – in particular if your wallpaper is patterned.

Get ready to clean

Get your buckets at the ready. If you turn up the cuffs on your rubber gloves, then you’ll catch drips before they go down your sleeves. You might also want to grab a step stool so that you can reach higher up the wall to remove dust. Keep yourself safe by using tools with longer handles when possible.

Get cleaning

Before you wipe the walls down, run the duster around the room, in particular up high and lower down where it is most likely to settle.  If you see some cobwebs, then you might want to use a vacuum cleaner with a long nozzle - the perfect way to remove them.

Wipe the walls down with the soapy water using a squeezed out sponge. Work from the bottom up to avoid dripping down the walls. Most of the marks will come off with a wipe with the sponge. If you come across any particular tricky spots, then you can try removing them with white vinegar mixed with a little water.

As you work around the room, keep an eye on the colour of your water – you may have to change it if it’s looking a little grey. Use the clean water to remove any trace of soap.

Depending upon the material it’s made from, wallpaper can be fairly fragile so work in small spots at a time. If you need to take a break, take it between walls – not half way through a wall.

Once you’ve completed your task, sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy your fresh room.

Before you get started, check out our flower wall sticker – It makes a fun and fresh addition to any wall.

For many years, wallpaper wasn’t even a consideration when it came to British home décor. It was something that you’d find on the walls of a downmarket pub or possibly at an elderly person’s home but it wasn’t something to even consider adding to your own space. Now things have changed, wallpaper has made a comeback and it’s time to learn how to select the perfect wallpaper for your home.

Where are you going to place it?

Durability needs to be something that is considered when picking your paper. Hanging a fragile paper in a child’s room is only going to result in more work for you. Vinyl papers last longer than most and they are washable so work well in a child’s bedroom, in a kitchen or bathroom.

Consider your style

If you have a romantic streak then you’ll be naturally drawn towards the floral styles. Large scale florals have been very popular recently and they are great for a relaxed and comfortable feel. If you’re a traditionalist the you could find yourself wanting to go with a stripe or a gentle damask. For dining rooms you might want to go for a geometric pattern or something with metallic accents. Take your time to choose something that will blend with room furnishings. You could approach this by picking one colour from your room furnishings for the wall covering.

Consider the room size

Keep in mind that larger rooms can take darker colours. If your rooms are on the cosy side and you’d like to give the illusion of them being bigger than they actually are then it’s wise to go for a lighter colour.

Ask for help

If you don’t know how much you need, then ask. You just need to provide the room dimensions, measurements of walls and doors and the sales person will help you work out how much you need to buy.

Here’s one final tip, if you’re not ready to change the whole room, then you could always add wallpaper to just one accent wall. Adding it to the end of the room can make the room feel longer.

Check out our urban art wall sticker collection for something a little different.

Wallpaper can be a powerful tool when it comes to perception of space in a room. If you use it in a thoughtful way, then you can transform your home into something that appears to be a lot larger than it actually is.

Use lighter colours to give the illusion of a bigger room

Whether you use paint or wallpaper, application of a light colour on the walls can give the illusion of a bigger room. If the wall colour is similar to the colour of the room furniture, then that feeling of space comes from the walls appearing to be further back.  Darker colours and busy patterns will make the room feel more cosy and a little smaller.

Small patterns or no patterns work best

Using wallpaper of a light colour with no visible pattern is going to deliver the illusion of more space than one with a busy pattern. If you have a smaller home and you do want to use a pattern, go for one that is has a smaller and paler design. You might even want to try a texture as opposed to a pattern. Pin dot designs and very narrow stripes can also give the illusion of the room being larger than it actually is.

Shimmery wallpaper can reflect light and so the room will appear to look larger. You also won’t get the unpleasant clash with your furniture that can happen with busy wallpapers.

Make the room look taller

A low ceiling can be given a small vertical stripe wallpaper to lift it higher by tricking the eye.

Make the room look longer

Adding wallpaper to just one wall in the room can give the illusion of the room being longer than it actually is. The most effective way to produce this effect is by wallpapering the wall at the far end of the room, and using colour on the walls (either paint or wallpaper) that is light coloured but coordinates with the wallpaper.

If you’ve opted to use pale colours in your room but want a pattern to lift the décor, then check out our pattern wall sticker collection.

You’ve decided to surprise the family by hanging new wallpaper over the weekend that they’re away, but it’s now evening, you want to make a start but you don’t have what you need. The wallpaper is stuck fast!

You can make wallpaper removal solutions at home that are just as good as those offered in the DIY stores and they’re lower cost too. All you need to get started is a plastic spray bottle and some hot water.

Fabric softener – take off the top of the spray bottle and add 1 part liquid fabric softener to 2 parts hot water. Give it a very good shake. Now score the wallpaper with your tool so that there are plenty of abrasions for the solution to soak into.

Spray the wall and wait for 10 minutes. Your wall should now be ready to start peeling the wallpaper from the bottom by the skirting board.

Another solution that you can try is 1 part white vinegar with 5 parts hot water.  Mix the two together and again, spray onto a wall that has been scored with a tool. Once it soaks in, it should make wallpaper removal a breeze.

Wallpaper is easiest to remove if you start at the bottom of it, and peel upwards. If you are left with strips of paper stuck on the wall that refuse to come off, then give them a good soaking with your solution. Using warm water usually works best as it will dilute old paste to release the paper.

For protection of your floors, use an old bed sheet. It will soak in any liquid – as opposed to a plastic sheet or a tarpaulin that will collect the liquid in pools. You’ll save yourself time and trouble.

If you want some inspiration on what to put in place of your old wallpaper, take a look at our living and dining room wall sticker collections.

Once you start to see your wallpaper getting a bit shabby around the edges, then it’s time for a change. Wallpaper can be a struggle to remove if it’s been up for donkeys years, and if it is, then not to worry – you’re about to learn how you can do it in a jiffy.

Taking old wallpaper down can be just what your room needs to get a new fresh look. If the condition of your walls is pretty good, you can decide to paint over them instead, but with all the new designs and styles of wallpaper that are now available – it would be a shame to miss out.

Tools for the job:

• Wallpaper scorer
• Wallpaper removal solution
• Bucket of warm soapy water
• Paint roller
• sponge
• Wallboard knife
• Steamer
• Old sheet

Pull it off

Sometimes things go just the way that we want them to. The wallpaper can be grabbed in the corner and it will peel away easily. Take it slow and steady and it’s likely to come off in one strip.

Score the paper

If your wallpaper is not having any of that – then it’s time to pull out the tools and the wallpaper removal solution. Put your sheet down to protect the floor before you get started.  An old bed sheet is usually better than a plastic one as it will allow liquid to soak in.

The wallpaper solution remover is usually provided in a spray bottle, so score the paper. Then be generous with your spraying, give it time to soak in and help it with the sponge or the paint roller to distribute if necessary. After ten minutes or so it will have soaked in – in the meantime, down tools for a quick cuppa.

After a couple of biccies, it’s time to get back to work with peeling off the wallpaper. Pull out your wallboard knife and begin at the bottom of the wall. You may be able to peel off the paper in large strips, depending on its condition.

Once you’ve removed all the paper, then it’s time to wash down the walls with the soapy water. This will remove any sticky residue left from the paste.

Now your wall is ready for its new covering. Take a look at our bestselling wall stickers if you fancy something a little different.

Check out our Best of British Cushion Giveaway promotion at http://thebinarybox.co.uk/cushion-giveaway

15% January Sale is now on until the end of the month so why not check out our latest range of wall stickers.

For all the beautiful images of the most aspirational and inspiring homes from all over the world the reality is that many of us live in homes styled in a much safer and more neutral fashion.  The incredible piece of wall art in the picture above can’t help but catch our eye and make us dream just a little of making a bold and daring statement for ourselves, but then doubt creeps in and we wonder how we could ever make it work, and do we have the room, and where do we even begin???  Perhaps the best place to start then is with the basics and then build in confidence and experience from there…

We're continually working on custom wall sticker projects for all kinds of clients, from homes to businesses, and retailers to bars, but we thought we'd share this one as it's another great example of the team that commissioned it succesfully applying a large and complicated sticker for themselves...

The team over at Ideas Pad sent us some great photos of their newly applied custom project and we think they've done a brilliant job in realising their ambitious vison.  We've previously supplied them with our Urban Art Monkey Bomb wall decal and when they moved into a bigger new office they got back in touch with some artwork and dimensions and we worked with them to make sure everything fitted exactly as it was supposed to. Read on to find out more...

Colour Trends for Spring & Summer 2011

This year there are some great new interior colour trends that we at The Binary Box are in love with! We decided to fill you in on some of our favourites, and introduce you to Adobe Kuler, a great colour-scheme creator that’s perfect for all you budding interior designers! This Spring and Summer, get ready for exciting nature-inspired colours and the fabulous nautical-living trend that interiors just can’t shake!

Fancy a Cuppa? One Sticker or Two?!

You might have got a little mailer this week from us about our new range, Time for Tea. We decided we should also give you all a bit more of a run-down on it, so we’re writing this blog (plus we just wanted to show off because we’re so proud of it!)

Time for Tea was inspired by the English-Country-living interiors trend that’s happening right now. We think it’s really inspirational and we at The Binary Box are in love with it! We also really like the hand-made culture that comes with the country farm life and decided a range should be grounded in these ideals.

The collection has seven designs, and we aimed at them having a more interactive aspect than usual. Check out our blackboard and whiteboard wall stickers ...

From measuring up to choosing the right colour there are a lot of challenges when it comes to decorating your home, so wouldn't it be great if someone could give you a helping hand without calling in an interior designer. Well as always we thought we would try to help you out with some useful tools that we have found, check out these great smartphone apps that are like having a mini designer you can keep in your pocket.    

Home Interior Layout Designer – Mark on Call. This neat little app is perfect for planning every step of re-doing your home from choosing the right paint colour to seeing is a piece of furniture will fit in a certain spot.

Home Sizer. This simple iPhone app is designed to make it easy for you to calculate square footage as well as costs of construction. This is important for the planning and budgeting stage of your DIY home design project.

Ben Colour Capture. This iPhone app is a must-have item for anyone who will be repainting their home. Use your phone to take a photo of anything and match the colour in the picture to the closest available paint colour so you buy the right paint for your project.

Over the coming weeks you will be seeing some changes to our bestsellers, the first to get a revamp is our popular space invaders wall stickers. The new designs are inspired by the popular 80's retro video game and feature a set of our own unique invader characters. These are available in full colour and black and grey at the moment but we want to know what you think, if you would like to see some different colours then get in touch and the most popular ones will get added to the site.

Keep checking back for updates to some of our new designs, our World Map is the next one to get a make over and if you would like to see any changes to any of our products then please let us know.

Do you ever get frustrated when you are searching for affordable furniture to fit a particular space and just can't seem to find anything that fits? Well I stumbled across this site when I was searching for unique decorating tips and I thought I would share this with you, it's full of great ways to customise your new or existing furniture by combining various IKEA pieces together.

Here is an example which combines OLEBY Legs into the BRODER shelf to make a great slim desk for those who are short on space. The site is packed with example of projects that other users have completed by combining two or more pieces of IKEA furniture in order to make something that perfectly fits their room. I know it has given me some great ideas for future projects and I will be sure to post any pictures of the end result. If you are a bit of a DIY whizz and have created something you think is cool then send it to us and we would be more than happy to post it up for the world to see. 

Our next big project is decorating the new office, we have made a start on the designs and are looking to install the graphics shortly so watch this space for updates and some pics of how we are getting on.

In the meantime if you want to check out the IKEA Hacker website or even post some images of any IKEA hacks you may have already done then you can find it here. http://www.ikeahackers.net

Hello and welcome to our new look blog and website, we decided to do some spring cleaning and spruce up the look and feel of what we do for 2011. The new site is packed with new features designed to make it easier for you to find the products you want and then customise them to fit your home.