UKH

Two related questions

1) What's the best way to wallpaper a concave curve? The paper tends to pull away as it dries.

2) Am I right in thinking papering a double curved ceiling (under spiral staircase) is not possible?

1) Get a professional to do it. We did.

2) No idea. Is this spiral staircase leading up to your tower where you practice dark magics?

No, it's the other one.

Have you considered artex or gilding in gold leaf?

I have no idea of your relationship status but I assume you are trying to instigate a divorce or painful breakup from a long term partner?

Following several incredibly unsuccessful attempts at wallpapering Mrs Kalna and I now have an agreement that if one wants to leave the other, they simply need to declare that the house needs re-wallpapered. 

But to answer your questions. 1) get a professional. 2) sounds like that would need either incredibly delicate cutting / segmentation or pre-cut custom paper (no idea if this is a thing).

Maybe try one of the paste the wall papers, because you don't soak the paper there's less stretch so less contraction when it dries.

Paint it.

Yeah but getting a tin of patterned paint is murder after Brexit

Kalna_kaza has it right, I will NOT under any circumstances do any wallpapering any more for reasons of marital harmony, especially matching patterned paper. Get someone who is good at it.

Before my self enforced banishment from papering, I'd have said to leave the paper to soak longer (not more paste) so it is softer and stretchier, but if you have thick paper or vinyl surface that might help less. But the longer you over-soak it the more of a pain it'll be to hang.

DON'T DO IT!

All

Thanks for the clear advice!! I should have said it's lining paper, and partly for structural reasons! The flat bits have gone ok...

Structural paper

For the concave bit you could do it in thin overlapping strips. Low tack spray glue might work too if you wanted to do a whole sheet, no water no shrinkage. Might be worth testing how it steams if there's any risk that job will also fall to you in the future!

Your staircase will be a compound curve, you'd need to do it in small triangular segments.

jk

I have done this, once.

The way to approach this if you really want to do it is to cut the creases and the overlaps, litterally.

As you lay-up the paper against the curve you will get buckles and rucks, slice through these so that the paper starts to overlap itself, rub over the overlaps so that you can see the impression of the layer below, peel back and slice away the top overlap until enough is removed so that you have abutting pieces of wallpaper. Repeat until done.

When you're done, stop. Take a step back, take a good look at the godawful mess you have made, utter the magic word 'f@ckit' and google for a pro. I speak from experience.

The stress, mess, shitty results, wasted time, wobbly ladder shenanigans, are simply not worth the effort.

Just wait till IndyRef2 succeeds. We'll be releasing our secret stocks of tartan paint.

Structural paper, I've met this before, often the only thing holding the plaster on the wall!

Wallpaper, life is short, paint it.

Is the curved surface under the stairs actually double curved? I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually a ruled surface, which is technically developable. I imagine the treads on top are likely straight, and the underside is most likely made with laths. which are also straight.

If so the challenge is somewhat diminished, but I wouldn't tackle it myself. I would only say that I have found paste the wall paper to be a revolution. No stretch, no tears, no tears.