Ordering the paper is the easy part. What decides whether a finished wall looks like a magazine page or a patched-up afternoon is everything that happens around the installer — and most wallpaper installation Dubai projects are won or lost in the week before anyone opens a roll. We have been supplying walls across the Emirates since 1974, and the jobs that go smoothly almost always share the same handful of habits.
Here is what actually happens, in order, so that designers, contractors and homeowners know what to expect and what to ask for.
Before anyone arrives: measuring, batching and acclimatising
Every good job starts with a proper measure. Not a rough guess from a floor plan — an on-site measure of each wall, height and width, with door and window openings noted separately. Pattern repeat then does its own arithmetic: a large repeat can add fifteen to twenty per cent to the roll count, because each drop has to start at the same point in the design.
Two things we insist on at this stage. First, order the whole job in one go so every roll carries the same batch number; dye lots shift subtly between production runs and a mid-wall change is impossible to hide. Second, order at least one spare roll. Storing a single roll in a cupboard costs nothing and saves a great deal of trouble if a wall is knocked in year three.
When the rolls land, let them sit in the room for twenty-four hours. Material that has come off a chilled truck into a Dubai summer needs to settle before it is pasted.
Wall preparation: the part nobody photographs
Wallpaper follows the surface underneath it exactly. It does not hide a wavy wall, it advertises one. Preparation is the least glamorous stage of any wallpaper installation Dubai project and the one most often rushed: filling and sanding, sealing fresh plaster, and priming so the paste grips evenly rather than being drunk up in patches.
New-build villas and towers in the UAE bring one extra consideration: fresh gypsum and cement render hold moisture for weeks. Hanging over damp substrate is the most common cause of seams lifting a month later. If a wall reads damp, wait. Good installers will tell you this; it is worth listening.
Dark grounds deserve a tinted primer, and heavily textured or fabric-backed materials often want lining paper first. That single extra step is the difference between a wall that looks calm and one that looks busy for the wrong reasons.
Hanging day: how wallpaper installation Dubai teams work
A professional starts by striking a plumb line, because no wall in any building is truly straight. The first drop is set to that line, not to the corner. From there the installer works outwards in both directions, matching the repeat at each seam and trimming top and bottom with a fresh blade.
Expect the room to be cleared or centred, floors covered, and sockets and switch plates loosened rather than papered around. Expect the installer to keep a damp sponge to hand and wipe adhesive off the face of the paper as they go, not at the end. Most single feature walls are finished in a morning; a full room of four walls is usually a day, two if the ceiling height is over three metres or the pattern repeat is large.
One quiet mark of quality: seams should be butted, never overlapped. If you see overlaps, ask why.
Murals and panels are a different discipline
Panoramic murals are numbered sets, not repeating rolls, and they only work if the panels go up in sequence from the correct starting point. Lay the whole set out on the floor first and check the numbering against the wall width before a drop of paste is mixed. Trimming a mural to fit is a one-way decision, so measure the ceiling height at three points along the wall — Gulf ceilings are rarely level to the millimetre.
The same care applies to the wide non-woven papers in our wallcovering collections, many of which hang paste-the-wall and go up considerably faster than traditional paste-the-back materials.
Adhesive is not an afterthought
We supply ACM adhesive from Italy with our wallcoverings, and we recommend it for good reason. Adhesive has to hold in rooms that swing from thirty-eight degrees outside to twenty-one inside, often with air conditioning blowing directly at a wall. A cheap paste under those conditions is exactly how corners curl.
Mix it properly, let it stand for the time on the packet, and apply an even film — heavy in the middle and thin at the edges is what causes lifting seams. Keep the air conditioning steady rather than switching it off for a fortnight to “let it dry”; sudden humidity changes are harder on a new wall than the heat itself.
Delivery, timings and trade orders across the GCC
We hold exclusive distribution rights in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain for the brands we carry, including Wallquest, Grandeco, Zambaiti Parati, SK Filson, Holden, Paper & Ink and Sellers & Josephson, so if a project specifies one of those collections it comes through us. Regional delivery generally runs three to seven days. Bulk enquiries from Saudi Arabia and India are welcome too, though availability varies by brand — talk to us early and we will confirm.
For hotel, fit-out and contractor work, tell us the handover date first and we will work backwards from it. Sequencing matters: wallcovering after the ceiling and before the skirting, and if Adore LVT flooring is part of the package, we will advise on which goes down first. Coordinating fabrics for curtains or upholstery are best chosen at the same time, under the same light, rather than three weeks later from memory.
Your pre-installation checklist
- Measure on site, wall by wall, and add for the pattern repeat.
- Order the full quantity in one batch, plus one spare roll.
- Check every roll for batch number and damage the day it arrives.
- Let the material acclimatise in the room for twenty-four hours.
- Confirm the walls are dry, filled, sanded and primed.
- Agree the starting wall and the plumb line with your installer.
- Use the correct adhesive — ACM from Italy for our wallcoverings.
- Keep the room at a steady temperature for forty-eight hours afterwards.
Follow those eight points and a wallpaper installation Dubai job becomes predictable rather than nerve-racking. Skip three of them and you will find out which three.
Come and see it in person
Pattern, texture and sheen all behave differently under real light, which is why we keep full sample books at both showrooms — and why we are happy to talk any wallpaper installation Dubai job through with you before you commit. Visit us in Deira, Dubai or at our Sharjah branch, browse the ranges online, or send us your drawings and we will work out quantities for you. You can also read more about the mills we represent, such as Wallquest, before you specify.
Designers, contractors, hotels and wholesalers — get in touch for trade pricing and bulk enquiries, and we will take it from there.
