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.

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.

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 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.

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

Buy two selected wall stickers and receive a FREE cushion! To find out more click here

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… 

A great way to inject some life into your rooms and make people do a double-take is to introduce some subtle co-ordinating colour splashes or colour pops to dramatic effect.  Placing one bright, bold statement piece into an otherwise muted space creates a focal point that draws the eye, adding some much needed energy.  Go a little further and match just a few more items in the same vibrant shades and your room will really come alive and start to feel like one carefully designed space.

Naturally we think one of the best solutions is to add in a decal or two!  Why?  Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, our wall stickers come in a range of colours for you to choose from, so if you feel like you want to create a strong theme like in the picture below you can simply pick your sticker in the colour and style that matches the other pieces in the room.  Alternatively use one of our colourful designs as the main colour splash in your room to create an impactful focal point.  Secondly, all of our products are designed to be easily removable, which provides a great opportunity for flexibility – simply peel them off when it’s time to update your colour, avoiding the time, effort and expense of completely redecorating.

If you’re feeling enthused but need a little more convincing, you can follow The Binary Box tumblr blog to see the images and ideas we find from around the web, and you can also find all the images in this post and many more from the following Tumblr bloggers, all of which are a great source of interiors and design inspiration:

http://designtraveller.tumblr.com/

http://oleosobretela.tumblr.com/

http://enchantingdesign.tumblr.com/

http://missblackkat.tumblr.com/

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...

...We were contacted by The Bug Detective to create an over-sized sized sticker from the artwork they had supplied.  As usual we worked with them to talk through their needs and find the best solution based on the technology available and their budget.  The stickers pictured were printed to match their exact specification - always important and sensitive considerations for us when dealing with carefully constructed corporate identities.

The final articles were carefully packaged and sent via courier to The Bug Detective office, where they put these very large stickers up themselves and achieved some very professional and "spectacular" results!

If you'd like to discuss a custom logo wall sticker with us or any other design you have in mind, please feel free to get in touch with your requirements and we'll be happy to provide a quote and talk you through the process.

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...

We got back to Ideas Pad with a detailed set of artworks showing how the design would fit, and once approved, it was printed in full colour to exactly match with their corporate colours and then chopped into sections for easy assembly on site.  With the help of a handy diagram it took one evening for them to put the whole lot up and the results are really impressive!

If you're interested in creating your own version of one of our designs or want your company logo made into a removable wall sticker then please feel free to fill out our contact form with as much info as possible to get the ball rolling.

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!

Get a load of these fresh and zingy colours Dulux have released:

Forest Falls 1 & Forest Falls 4 – Dulux.com

Forest Falls 1 & Blue Diamond 5 & Summer Breeze 4 – Dulux.com

This great collection is inspired by the escapism of nature. These beautiful colours are sure to give your home that outside-inside feel!

We’re also really loving the calm and peaceful shades that are on-trend with the Beach theme interior stores are going crazy for! This trend isn’t exactly new, but it’s one that’s so classic it’s predicted to make come-back after come-back. Here are some images to get you inspired to create your own nautical-nest!

nautical-living.co.uk

Louise Garman.net

 http://morgandesigninc.blogspot.com/

This nautical style is probably one of the easiest design trends to achieve, and it’s hot for 2011! Combine crisp whites and cold blues to create rooms that look like they belong in a lighthouse. Don’t forget to add some natural rope as well … you can never have enough natural rope in your nautical-themed rooms!

 cocomale.com

We also played around with Adobe Kuler to give you some great ideas from both of these colour trends. Have you ever played with Kuler? We really recommend it! You could spend hours in front of it just creating fun colour combinations. (It’s definitely a site to look at if you’re thinking of re-decorating!)

Here are some of the ones we came up with following these two colour trends:

Kuler is great in that you can create colour combinations from existing images, which makes being on-trend more effortless! So sit back and relax, knowing that if you have a specific colour or pantone in mind, you can ask our bespoke service to colour-match your stickers for you. Now there’s no excuse not to get creative ;)

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

–

Do I hear you all saying “ooooh” and “aaah”?! Thought so!

We’ve also designed some Vintage style bunting that looks amazing on the wall! Plus, it’s fab because you can cut them with scissors to fit any sized space.

We would also like to introduce our very first (drum-roll please) clock wall sticker! This is our first design for a clock, but you can definitely expect more of this sort of thing in the future because we had so much fun with it! This fabulously cool sticker comes complete with a Karlsson clock mechanism and fun English-themed stickers with numbers on them! So now, instead of buying one of these boring clocks:

You can buy one of these!

There are alot more great new ranges planned for 2011 with simarly exciting designs and our next collection will be launching shortly. If you want to be the first to hear about our new collections then sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page. .

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.

I.D. Wood App. Use this app to identify more than fifty different types of wood using your iPhone screen. If you have any home projects that are wood based (and who doesn’t?!) then this is a good app to have.

Houzz Interior Design Ideas. This app is associated with Houzz, a site where users create their own ideabooks to show off their best home decor ideas. It’s a great source of inspiration for people planning to do their own DIY design.

Interior Design Inspirations. This is another terrific app for getting inspiration. It’s for the iPhone and has a random shake feature which allows you to easily explore creative design options for your own home.

Dream Home. Yet another great inspiration app, this one is updated weekly with photos of terrific interior design ideas from around the world. You can filter by style, room and colour to find the exact sources of inspiration that will help you figure out what to do in your own home.

GoDesign. This app is actually for professional interior designers and helps them to organise their many projects. If you’re a DIY designer with a lot of projects planned for your own space then this can be a helpful tool for you too.

These are just a selection to get you started and if you know of any other useful tools then please get in touch so that we can share them with everyone.