Wallpaper Mural Installation in Atlanta

To be clear about what this is: we install printed wallpaper murals — custom-printed images and panel sets that arrive as numbered drops and go up as wallcovering. We are not painters, and this is not hand-painted street art, which is what many Atlanta mural searches turn up.

A mural is one continuous image split across strips, so there is no repeat to fall back on: every drop has exactly one correct position, and a small error at the first seam is visible in the picture by the last. Recent examples are in the project portfolio.

Measuring and ordering

Murals are made to your wall, so measuring comes before ordering. We measure height and width at several points, because almost no wall is square and the mural must be sized to the largest dimension it has to cover, not the average.

We then order with deliberate bleed — extra image at top, bottom and sides — so there is material to trim into out-of-level ceilings and out-of-plumb corners. Ordering to the exact measurement is the most common way these jobs go wrong: with nothing spare, a ceiling that drops half an inch leaves an unfixable gap. We also ask for the full order in one printing, since color shifts between runs.

The layout consult

Before ordering we walk the room and work out where the image should land. A mural is a picture, and its subject wants to sit somewhere sensible in the finished room. That means looking at what stands in front of the wall, since a headboard or crib covers the lower third; at outlets, switches and vents, which interrupt the image wherever they fall; and at windows and door casings, which remove whole sections of it. The answer may be to shift the image up, size it larger and lose some at the edges, or move it to another wall — a conversation far cheaper before the print order than after.

Panel sequence and seams

Murals arrive as numbered panels, and the numbering is the whole job. We lay the drops out and confirm sequence against the supplied diagram before any paste is mixed. Where the material allows it we then hang with an overlap and double-cut the seam: the panels are lapped slightly, cut through both together against a straightedge, and the waste pulled away so the edges meet exactly — a butted seam can otherwise leave a hairline white line through the image. Either way the first drop is set to a plumb line, not to the corner, because corners are rarely plumb and every panel inherits that error.

Wall preparation and materials

A mural shows the wall behind it more than a patterned paper does, because there is no busy repeat to distract the eye. Orange peel and knockdown texture read straight through a smooth print, so those walls are skim-coated and sanded flat, then primed so the paste is not drawn into the drywall and the mural strips off later without tearing the face. The same prep applies to a wall just stripped of old paper — see the wallpaper removal page.

Non-woven is what most suppliers print on now and the easiest to hang well: it is dimensionally stable, so it does not expand wet and shrink dry — exactly what you want when panels must line up. Peel-and-stick suits rentals and nurseries and is genuinely removable, but it needs a smooth, fully cured painted surface and can lift at seams over time. Traditional paper still appears in scenic panel sets; it expands when pasted, so each panel must be booked and rested for the stated time or the drops dry to different widths.

If you are weighing a mural against a texture for the same wall, grasscloth and natural fibers sit at the opposite end: no image to align, but seams that are visible by design and a face that cannot be cleaned once it is marked.

Where murals go, and what affects the price

Most of what we hang is accent walls and murals in living rooms, dining rooms and stairwells, and nurseries and children's rooms — usually a single wall behind a crib, a small job with a large effect.

The mural itself is a separate cost from installation and varies enormously by supplier. On our side the drivers are the wall's condition and how much skim-coating it needs, the height, and whether the mural crosses corners or is broken up by windows. Send photos of the wall, its measurements and a link to the mural you are considering, and we will flag anything worth changing before you order. Pricing questions are on the FAQ page.

Mural questions