UKH

Decoration activities look like inclusion of a map wall. Coverage of the lake district as that's our playground (unfortunately skirting boards mean if we want the full extent of the Northern Fells, we just cut off the house at the bottom, but I want the whole NP for planning purposes, and there's not much we need south of J36). I'm looking forward to losing many an hour staring at it and plotting activities.

We can get proper wallpaper printed of the OS 1:25k, covering our specific dimensions, for nearly £300. However I'm tempted to buy a set (2 probably needed due to the double sides) of the 4 OS Lakeland maps and wallpaper them onto the wall, as this will be quite a bit cheaper.

Does anyone have any experience of wallpapering with OS map paper? Does it work? Any considerations around the print on the back or paste requirements?

Cheers for any experience!

I've done this with success with a variety of OS maps. 

On one wall, I have a complete set of old Fifth Series 1:250k maps giving complete coverage of Scotland

I also have assorted more recent individual 1:50k sheets. 

All these have been pasted onto old painted wallpaper using ordinary wallpaper paste, without any problems. The only thing you need to be a bit careful with are at the overlaps, and potential differential stretch and expansion, but if you're consistent with the paper paste, this isn't too hard to deal with. 

The 1:250k maps were bought over a period of time from charity shops, while the 1:50k sheets were assorted duplicates. 

I did it with nautical charts wallpaper pasted on a bathroom wall. It looked great, I used shellac to try to seal them to protect against the damp. Eventually though they went a bit mouldy, though I think this is because the walls were cold non-cavity victorian brick and external.

Probably worth trying the maps first, if it doesn't work to your satisfaction then not much £ wasted before going down the bespoke wallpaper £££.

I note that it sounds like all the "I've done that" responses are on single sided maps (I may be wrong), so I'd get a "scrap" version and try a little bit out to check the reverse side doesn't show (or bleed) through.

Of course that test bit doesn't have to be lakes, so get down the charity shops for any 2-sided OS 25k map 😁

Slightly at a tangent, but a local pub has, I think, 1:10k maps on the wall. Local drinkers have had much fun highlighting their houses, and underlining interesting places such as "Slack Bottom" etc.

Would it be worth getting a high resolution of a smaller area. Such as an area centred on your house? 1:25k will be the same as a standard map but bigger. A higher resolution will show all sorts of local points of interest, invisible on a smaller scale map.

OS custom maps are one sided aren't they? Could have whatever area you want then too.

We have that, could then centre over house in our case or your chosen fell but I think they have limited sizes so maynot fit the NP

Pretty sure they're the same size as a standard sheet and same scales, so the op could make essentially the 4 NP sheets but have them without the overlap in the middle and move the extents a bit if required.

Top tip: If anyone else is thinking of buying one for normal use, don't centre it on your house; if you do you're always on the fold.

Got hit by the opposite when the 1:50k sheets came out in 1974. Found myself at the corner of four maps and a couple of km away from a 4 way overlap.  I was well into my having to ride up every yellow road going phase by then so it proved expensive (65p per sheet).