Hanging wallpaper and an MDF dado rail in a child's bedroom

The project

In this child’s bedroom, the aim was decorative: to create two moods on a single wall without weighing the room down. The chosen approach (a floral-pattern wallpaper on the upper wall, a deeper-toned painted dado below, and an MDF dado rail to mark the line between them) brings character while keeping the surfaces easy to live with. The exposed beams were kept and emphasised with clean cuts.

Surface preparation

It all starts with the substrate. The walls were filled, sanded, then treated with a bonding primer to obtain a sound, smooth surface of uniform colour. It is this step, invisible once the job is finished, that ensures the wallpaper adheres properly and that the light pattern does not let the wall’s flaws show through.

Fitting the dado rail (MDF moulding)

The dado line was set with a level, at a constant height around the whole area concerned. The MDF moulding was cut, fitted to the corners, fixed, then caulked for a clean joint before painting. This dado rail plays a dual role: it neatly separates the wallpapered top from the painted bottom, and it adds restrained decorative relief that structures the wall.

Hanging the non-woven wallpaper

On the upper wall, the non-woven wallpaper was hung by pasting the wall, drop after drop, matching the floral pattern so that the flowers carry over from one drop to the next with no visible break. The trimming was given particular care beneath the dado rail and along the beams, where the slightest imprecision shows.

Two-tone finishing

On the lower wall, the dado was painted in a deeper tone, matched to the shades of the wallpaper. The result: a warm bedroom, with a clear dado-rail line structuring the wall, a decorative top and a hard-wearing bottom, washable and easy to touch up over the years.