Peel & Stick installation guide
For Peel & Stick and Canvas Peel & Stick. The adhesive is already on the back: no paste and no water. Your mural arrives as numbered panels with a layout sheet, each printed to overlap the one before it by 1 to 1.5 cm. A second pair of hands makes it easier. Read this once before you open anything.
First: is the wall suitable?
Self-adhesive panels hold only on a smooth wall. Check this list before anything else.
Do not hang on:
- textured, rough, uneven or dusty walls, where the adhesive has nothing flat to hold
- bare, unprimed drywall
- paint less than three weeks old, which is dry but not cured
- satin, semi-gloss, non-stick or scrub-resistant paint
- existing wallpaper
- brick, raw wood, unsealed plaster or masonry
- flaking, chalky or previously water-damaged paint
- any wall with damp or mold
The ideal wall is primed, painted with a cured matte or eggshell finish, clean, dry and smooth.
Quick test: shine a phone light flat along the wall. Shadows mean texture: fill, sand and prime the wall smooth before you start.
Tools and wall prep
Tools
- Tape measure and pencil
- Level, or a laser line
- Sharp utility knife plus spare blades
- Straightedge or wide taping knife, used as a cutting guide
- Plastic smoother or squeegee
- Clean, soft cloth
- Step ladder
Prep
- Turn off the power at the breaker and remove switch plates and outlet covers.
- Remove any old wallpaper and paste residue, and fill and sand any holes.
- Wipe the wall with clean water only. No detergent or cleaner, and no residue.
- Let it dry completely. In a humid room this takes longer than you think.
- Clear enough floor to lay a full panel flat.
Draw your line
Measure one panel width out from your starting corner, minus half an inch, and draw a plumb vertical line with a level or laser. Panels are about 39 inches (100 cm) wide. The right-hand edge of your first panel follows that line, not the corner. Corners are not plumb, and a first panel hung to a corner puts every panel after it out of true.
Hanging Peel & Stick
Unroll the panels on a clean floor, lay them out in number order and let them lie flat for twenty minutes before you start: a panel that has been in a tube wants to curl.
No water, no paste. Work top down, one panel at a time, and keep your hands clean.
Peel back the top 12 inches
Fold the liner back on itself at the top of panel 1, leaving the rest attached. Do not remove the whole liner; a full-length panel with no liner will stick to itself.
Align the top edge
Hang the panel with its right-hand edge on your plumb line and an inch of surplus above the ceiling line. Press only the top two inches at first so you can still lift it.
Check, then commit
Step back and confirm the panel follows the line. Lift and reposition now if it does not. Once you are happy, press the top section down firmly with the smoothing tool.
Work downward in bands
Pull the liner down another 12 inches and smooth from the center outward with the squeegee, top to bottom. Smoothing from the center pushes air to the edges rather than trapping it. Do not pull or stretch the panel as you go, or the design will not line up with the next one.
Overlap panel 2 onto panel 1
Every panel is printed with a 1 to 1.5 cm (about half an inch) overlap. Lay panel 2 over the right-hand edge of panel 1 by that much, match the design across the join, and smooth it down the same way. Repeat for every panel in number order, always adding to the right.
Deal with bubbles
Small bubbles usually work out to the nearest edge with the squeegee. For one that will not move, pierce it with a pin at a shallow angle and press the air out. Do not slit it with a blade.
Trimming, corners and openings
Trimming
Hold the wide taping knife hard into the corner where the wall meets the ceiling or baseboard, and cut along its edge with a sharp blade. Change the blade every few cuts. A dull blade tears paper instead of cutting it, and the tear is not repairable.
Internal corners
Never wrap a full panel around an internal corner. Trim the panel about half an inch past the corner, then start the next wall with a fresh plumb line and let it overlap that half inch.
External corners
Wrap about an inch around an external corner, press it down hard, and start the next panel on the new face against a fresh plumb line.
Outlets and switches
Hang straight over them with the power off. Once the panel is up, feel for the opening, cut a shallow X from corner to corner, trim back to the box, and refit the plate over the paper.
Doors and windows
Hang the panel over the opening, then cut a diagonal into the corner of the frame, press the paper into the edge and trim along it with the taping knife.
Care, cleaning and removal
Cleaning
Dust with a dry microfiber cloth. For a mark, use a soft cloth barely dampened with water, blot rather than scrub, and dry the spot straight away. Never use bleach, solvents, abrasive pads, magic erasers or steam.
Removing it later
Warm a bottom corner with a hairdryer for ten or fifteen seconds, lift it, and pull downward at a shallow angle with your hand close to the wall. If a section resists, warm it again rather than pulling harder. Wipe off any adhesive left behind with a damp cloth.
How cleanly a panel comes off depends on the paint underneath. Try one corner first.
Common questions
Skip bare drywall, raw wood, brick, heavy texture, existing wallpaper, flaking paint and anything with damp or mold. Paint that is less than three weeks old is still curing and will pull away with the paper. Non-stick, satin and scrub-resistant paints also give adhesive very little to hold onto. A primed, cured, matte or eggshell wall is the ideal surface for every material we sell.
Wipe the wall with clean water and let it dry fully, with no detergent or TSP cleaner left behind. Fill and sand any holes, remove switch plates and outlet covers, and lay a drop cloth. Then draw a plumb vertical line one panel width, minus half an inch, from your starting corner with a level or laser. That line, not the corner, is what your first panel follows.
One careful person can hang a standard wall, but two make it much faster and much straighter. The second pair of hands holds the top of the panel against the line while the first smooths downward, which is where most alignment errors happen. For ceilings, stairwells or anything over about ten feet tall, treat a helper as required rather than optional.
Dust it with a dry microfiber cloth or a vacuum brush attachment. For a mark, use a soft cloth barely dampened with water, blot rather than scrub, and dry the spot right away. Avoid bleach, solvents, abrasive pads and steam on every material, and keep water away from the seams.
Last updated October 4, 2026.