While it can be tempting to get painting as soon as possible when you want to decorate a room, it’s worth taking the time to make sure your room and surfaces are best prepared before you begin. Getting the preparation right is crucial to achieving the perfect finish. It’ll also help to keep things neater and cleaner, and reduce the need for additional coats of paint. No paint can completely cover dirty or uneven surfaces, so tackling this at the start of the project avoids the need for extra work later on.

In this guide we’ll walk you through the most important steps to take, and show you how to;

• Empty your room ready for decorating, and protect fixtures and fittings you aren't painting
• Clean your walls to help paint adhere
• Fill holes and cracks and smooth your walls for the best possible finish
• Prime stained surfaces or those which have not been painted before

Once you've completed these tasks you should have a smooth, even surface ready to be painted.

Wallpapering can sometimes be a more complex task than you might imagine, but having all the right tools will make it far simpler and the result much neater.

Types of tools

Paste brush

You can use any 100mm or 125mm paintbrush to apply paste, but a paste brush has a thicker wedge of soft bristles, which makes it easier to use.

Paper-hanging scissors

These scissors have extra-long blades that make it easier to cut your wallpaper in straight lines.

Wallpaper table (pasting table)

Higher than a kitchen table and just wider than a roll of wallpaper, this lightweight folding platform is perfect for measuring, cutting and pasting paper. W-leg tables are more stable than cheaper versions, but plastic ones are the sturdiest of all - as well as being the simplest to clean and store.

Plumb line/chalk line

Want to make sure you hang your wallpaper straight? Use a plumb line (a weight on the end of a string) to get a perfectly straight vertical line. And if you need to draw a straight edge on most surfaces, snap a chalk line.

Wallpaper scorer

When you soak wallpaper to prepare it for stripping, score the surface first with a rotary scorer as it helps the water to penetrate. Then just use a scraper to lift the paper off the wall.

Paper-hanging brush

The soft bristles on this brush are designed to smooth wallpaper by squeezing out any air bubbles and excess paste. Wash the bristles in warm water when you've finished to keep it fresh and usable.

Wallpaper steamer

Steaming is the fastest way to strip wallpaper. It makes good sense to buy a steamer when you have a lot of paper to strip, or need to do the job quickly.

Seam roller

Smooth the seams between lengths of wallpaper with this tiny roller - but make sure not to use it on embossed or fragile papers.

Combination smoother/cutter

After you've smoothed your wallpaper in place, simply cut around any obstructions with the retractable snap-off blade. But don't press too hard on fragile papers, or they might tear.