Glowing wallpaper: selection and sticking

Familiar to all of us wallpaper through the efforts of inventive manufacturers, they are taking on more and more new forms. Not so long ago, luminous wallpapers appeared on the market and immediately attracted attention. Their name already suggests the main feature of the material: in daylight, these wallpapers are not much different from paper or vinyl analogues, but in the evening they begin to emit a soft pleasant light, creating a cozy atmosphere. The range of luminous wallpapers is growing every day, so before buying them, it does not hurt to figure out how to choose them, and then glue them.

Main advantages and disadvantages

Luminous wallpapers have several advantagesdue to which the demand for them is constantly growing:

• excellent decorative qualities - The main and most important plus of this finish;
• fire safety. The coating in the manufacturing process is treated with special primers that prevent ignition and flame propagation;
• high wear resistance. Most often, a polymer base based on nonwovenwhich resists mechanical damage. The paper base is not so durable, it is used to make luminous wallpaper much less often;
• antistatic and moisture resistance. The surface of the wallpaper can be cleaned even with a damp cloth, of course, if we are talking about material on a non-woven basis.

Among the minuses can only be called a price. It is not space, but higher than, for example, on acrylic or vinyl wallpaper.

Types of luminous wallpaper

All luminous wallpapers can be divided into two kinds:

• luminescent;
• fluorescent.

Fluorescent wallpaper

For the manufacture of such wallpaper is used. phosphor paint, which includes phosphorus. Particles of matter accumulate energy during the day, giving it away in the evening, which is accompanied by a pleasant dim glow, which, as a rule, has shade from green and blue to orange and yellow. Manufacturers claim that this paint is completely safe for human health, but on sale wallpapers of this kind can be found less and less.

If you want to create a luminous wallpaper, you can do it yourself, and take non-woven as the basis wallpaper for painting. This requires special paint, appropriate stencils and a little imagination.

Fluorescent wallpaper

Such wallpapers are made by applying a multi-print pattern onto a non-woven fabric based on polyester. Dyes and fluorescent powderwith the help of which the image is formed are absolutely safe for health. It turns out that in the afternoon fluorescent wallpapers look like ordinary ones, and when the lighting conditions change and depending on the availability of the corresponding backlight, a beautiful three-dimensional glowing pattern begins to appear.

When evening comes, the pattern on such wallpapers receives slightly luminous contours, but the pattern is fully revealed in the dark during special luminescent BLB lamps. They differ from ordinary ones by the presence of black spraying on the inside. Of course, the fact that fluorescent wallpapers require the use of additional elements is a minus, but this drawback is insignificant, since in the end it is possible to achieve an incredible effect.The pattern on the wallpaper seems three-dimensional and can easily become a highlight of the interior. Lamps are recommended to be installed no closer than 1 m to the corner of the room.

Luminous wallpaper, whatever it may be, is recommended use only in fairly spacious rooms, or to draw with their help only one wall or part of it. Otherwise, it will be impossible to fully enjoy the glow of the wallpaper, and the light from them will be too bright and irritating. Often glowing wallpapers use in entertainment facilities: night clubs, cafes and restaurants. In living quarters this finish is widely used: from bedrooms and living rooms before children's rooms.

LED wallpaper

The first mention of LED wallpaper appeared in 2006. Today, this material is more likely to apply to promising developments, but since it can also emit light, it is worth mentioning about it. The peculiarity of this material is the use of LED-chips, which are integrated into the base material. Thanks to them, landscapes and drawings depicted on the wallpaper come to life and, moreover, become an additional source of lighting. After the advent of such a technology, many large wallpaper manufacturers became interested in it and predict it will become widespread in the future, but for now LED wallpapers remain very expensive, and you can’t find them on sale.

Luminous wallpaper format

Today, luminous wallpapers are presented on the market in several formats, so that you can use them in rooms of any size and for the implementation of a variety of interior ideas. So, the luminous wallpaper can be found in such forms:

• single drawing. In size, such wallpapers are more likely to resemble a large picture and are suitable for small rooms, or for zoning the space or highlighting individual sections of the room. So the paintings can have different sizes, the common format is 1.2 * 1.46 m;
• roll wallpaper. The size corresponds to other types of wallpaper, as a pattern they usually use a repeating abstract or geometric ornament that does not require fitting. Such wallpapers are often used. for mounting only on one wall, but often with such material trim and all the walls in the room;
• genre wallpapers differ in the presence of a drawing with a specific plot. Such material is used not only to organize the wall space, but also for the ceiling;
• panoramic wallpaper - This is a material with an even larger and often fancy pattern. Such decoration is suitable only for spacious rooms, where you can see the beauty of the wallpaper. The size of panoramic wallpaper can reach 3 * 5 m or more.

Often in a separate group allocated glowing 3D wallpaper, which even during the day delight with a three-dimensional three-dimensional pattern, and in the evening with certain lighting it becomes even more realistic due to the glow.

Sticking Glowing Wallpaper

Installing luminous wallpapers is not much more complicated than installation of any other wallpaper. It all starts with foundation preparation, and this stage needs to be given maximum attention, because the finished result will depend on the surface of the wall. First of all, it is necessary to remove the old coating. Old wallpaper can be slightly wetted to facilitate dismantling, and paint can be treated with special solvents. Next, you need to carefully level the surface, getting rid of all the irregularities, followed by the process of priming the base to increase adhesion.

Cutting for some luminous wallpapers, it’s not necessary, since they are already cut into finished strips, which should only be correctly placed on the wall. In this case, the installation is much like sticking a photo wallpaper. If we are talking about rolled luminous wallpaper, then cutting is performed before gluing. To do this, you need to know the height of the ceiling and for accuracy measure it at several points in the room.It is better to add 2-3 cm to the obtained value and begin to cut canvases of a certain length. If the drawing needs to be combined, then the manufacturer on the packaging, as a rule, indicates the allowance necessary for the proper joining of wallpaper.

For luminous wallpaper is quite suitable gluedesigned for vinyl wallpapers, and even PVA. It is necessary to prepare the composition as it is written on the package. As a rule, the adhesive composition is applied to the wall, where a previously prepared wallpaper is applied, unless otherwise specified in the installation instructions. It is better to glue the strip of wallpaper from top to bottom, gently smoothing with a roller from the center to the edges. Glowing wallpaper glued butt.

Try not to overdo it with the glue, as after smoothing with a roller, excess may be on the front side of the material. Even if you remove them in a timely manner, in the light of the lamps these places can be noticeable, so you need to act with extreme caution.

To facilitate the installation process, you can perform wall marking. From the corner of the room or from a certain point from which the luminous wallpaper will be mounted, a distance equal to the width of the canvas is laid. At this point, using a level draw a strictly vertical line. You can draw such lines throughout the space of the wall, where the wallpaper will be glued, in order to carry out installation strictly on them. This simple preparation will provide maximum evenness when wallpapering. After the wallpaper is glued, there should be no drafts in the room during the day. It is convenient to cut off excess wallpaper from above and below with a spatula and knife.

If you have chosen fluorescent wallpaper, now is the time to install special BLB lamps. Their number directly depends on what area the wallpaper occupies: 3 m² luminous wallpaper use one such lamp. If you decide to decorate both the walls and the ceiling with luminous wallpaper, the calculation of the number of lamps needed is somewhat different: for this you will need to divide the surface area of ​​the floor into three - the result will correspond to the number of lamps needed.

In conclusion

Luminous wallpaper is an unusual and rather simple in installation decoration of the room, which will become its real highlight. You can use this finish in virtually any room, decorate all the walls or only individual parts with such wallpaper - there is huge scope for imagination. Advise you should choose a calm drawing so that it does not irritate your eyesight.