How to Hang a Wall Mural: The Complete Australian Step-by-Step Guide

A wall mural installation is one of the highest-stakes DIY projects in residential interior design. Unlike standard wallpaper, where a misaligned panel is an inconvenience, a mural with misaligned panels is a permanent visual problem — the continuous image is disrupted at every join, and no amount of styling compensates for it. This is why the process matters at least as much as the product. A premium mural installed carelessly will always look worse than a modest mural installed with precision and patience. The steps in this guide are not suggestions; they are the sequence of decisions and actions that determine whether the final result looks professional or amateurish.

At Olive et Oriel, we manufacture wall murals at our Central Coast of New South Wales facility — custom sized to the exact dimensions of each customer's wall, printed across panels that align at the butt join on a level wall. We have shipped murals to homes across Australia and more than forty other countries. One thing we know from a decade of production and the installation feedback we receive: the quality of the installation almost entirely determines the quality of the outcome. A mural we are proud of can be undermined by installation that doesn't respect the process. This guide is our attempt to make sure that doesn't happen. For rooms where a mural is not the right solution, explore affordable wall art Australia — over 8,000 designs as art prints and framed canvas from $9.95.

Mosswood Forest Panoramic Painted Mural Wallpaper  ·  Ethereal Horizons Wallpaper Mural  ·  Windswept Valley Hand Painted Mural Wallpaper

Before addressing any specific step, one point deserves emphasis that most installation guides — including those of our competitors — understate or skip entirely: wall murals must acclimatise to the room before installation. Unpack the panels and lay them flat in the room where they will be installed for a minimum of 24 hours, ideally 48 hours. The substrate expands and contracts slightly with temperature and humidity changes. Allowing the panels to reach equilibrium with the room's specific conditions before installation prevents the post-installation movement that can cause seam separation and bubbling in the first weeks after hanging. In Australian climate conditions — high humidity coastal environments, dry inland regions, subtropical Queensland — this step is more important than in the temperate European conditions for which many wallpaper guides are written.

The second point that distinguishes expert mural installation from amateur installation is the sequencing: do not start with Panel 1. Start with Panel 2. Hang Panel 2 first, using your vertical reference line as the guide, then hang Panel 1 to its left. This counterintuitive sequence ensures that the most critical join — the one between the first two panels, which sets the alignment for everything that follows — is made between Panel 2 and Panel 1, where the natural hang of Panel 1 can be adjusted to meet Panel 2 precisely at the reference line. Starting with Panel 1 creates a different problem at the end of the installation where the final panel must meet an edge that has been progressively accumulated from any alignment errors across the full wall.

Wall Preparation: The Foundation

Mural installation requires a higher standard of wall preparation than standard wallpaper, because the mural's continuous image makes any surface irregularity beneath it visible in a way that repeating patterns can mask. Every hole, crack, bump, or irregularity in the wall surface will telegraph through the face of the mural under the right light conditions. The preparation must be thorough.

Surface assessment. Before any preparation work begins, assess the wall surface in raking light — a torch held parallel to the wall surface is the most reliable method. Raking light reveals imperfections that are invisible under normal overhead lighting. Mark every imperfection with a pencil and address all of them before proceeding.

Surface repair. Fill all holes with a flexible filler compound — not a rigid plaster, which will crack as the wall moves with seasonal temperature and humidity changes. Allow to cure fully, then sand smooth. Sand any raised bumps or paint ridges. The goal is a surface that feels uniformly smooth to the hand across its entire area.

Priming. Apply a wallpaper primer to the full wall surface. This step is non-negotiable on new plasterboard, which is highly absorbent — without primer, it will absorb adhesive too quickly from the paste, preventing full bond formation and making panel repositioning impossible once the panel contacts the surface. Even on previously painted walls, primer creates a consistent, controlled adhesion surface that produces more reliable results than raw paint of variable age and formulation. Allow the primer to dry fully according to the manufacturer's instructions before hanging.

Special note for Australian conditions. In high-humidity environments — coastal Queensland, Darwin, the Northern Rivers, and tropical regions — apply the primer at least 48 hours before installation and allow the wall surface to return to ambient temperature and humidity before beginning work. Residual moisture in the primer layer can interfere with adhesive performance in ways that are only apparent days after installation.

Paste Preparation and Application

Paste the wall, not the mural. This is the universal standard for non-woven paste-the-wall murals and the approach that produces the most consistent results. Pasting the wall rather than the panel provides several advantages: the panel does not need to soak (which can cause uneven expansion), the paste layer is more consistent when applied to a flat wall surface than when applied to a flexible panel, and working time is extended because the paste on the wall is less susceptible to skinning than paste on an exposed paper panel.

Prepare heavy-duty non-woven wallpaper paste. Standard starch-based pastes designed for paper-backed wallpaper are not appropriate for non-woven murals — they provide insufficient bond strength for the weight and size of mural panels. Follow the manufacturer's mixing instructions precisely. The paste should be smooth, lump-free, and thick enough to hold its shape on a vertical surface without running. Allow the mixed paste to stand for the recommended time before use.

Apply paste to the wall using a wide paste brush or roller, working one panel-width at a time. Extend the paste application slightly beyond the panel width on each side — this ensures full coverage to the panel edges, which are the most vulnerable points for adhesion failure. The paste layer should be even and generous without being excessive. An insufficiently pasted wall is more common than an excessively pasted wall, and the consequences of insufficient paste — panel lifting, seam separation — are more severe than the minor inconvenience of excess paste on the face of the panel.

"The discipline of a mural installation is in the preparation, the sequence, and the patience. A mural hung by someone who takes their time with each step will always outperform one hung by someone trying to complete the job quickly."

Daintree Botanical Panoramic Mural in Khaki Green Wallpaper  ·  Ethereal Valleys Wallpaper Mural

Materials

• Laser level: The most reliable tool for establishing a plumb reference line. A laser that projects a continuous vertical line across the full wall height is significantly more accurate than an optical spirit level for any wall taller than 2.4 metres, and the accuracy of this line determines the alignment of every subsequent panel. This is the most important tool in the kit.
• Heavy-duty non-woven wallpaper paste: Not standard starch paste, not powder paste, and not paste designed for paper-backed wallpaper. Non-woven specific paste, pre-mixed or mixed from concentrate following instructions precisely. The correct paste consistency is thick enough to hold its shape on the wall without running.
• Wide paste brush or roller: For applying paste to the wall evenly across the full panel width and beyond. A roller produces more consistent coverage than a brush for large wall sections and is faster on walls larger than 3 square metres per panel.
• Seam roller: Used gently along each butt join after the panel is fully applied and smoothed. A plastic or rubber seam roller avoids embossing the print surface. Light, even pressure along the full length of the seam. Never press hard or use a metal seam roller.

Room by Room

• Living room: The wall behind the primary seating provides maximum viewing distance and maximum sustained attention on the mural composition. Scale the mural to the full wall height and width. Position the most important compositional element — the focal point of the landscape or botanical — at eye level from the primary seating position, not from standing height.
• Bedroom headboard wall: Full height and width behind the bed. The mural is seen from bed, in a horizontal position, at close range — this is the most intimate relationship between viewer and artwork in the home. The composition should be chosen with this in mind.
• Entrance hall: The wall at the far end of a hallway creates a visual terminus that draws the eye through the space. In narrow hallways, a mural at the end transforms the experience of the corridor from claustrophobic passage to purposeful arrival.
• Dining room: Seen across the table at every meal. The most socially prominent wall in the home. A mural here is seen by guests and remembered after they have left.
• Children's rooms: Murals in playrooms and children's bedrooms create genuinely imaginative environments. For children's spaces, peel-and-stick substrate is recommended — it can be updated as the child grows without damage to the wall surface.

Designer Tips

• Order the $4.99 sample (48cm × 40cm) to assess colour rendering in your room's specific light conditions before the full mural arrives. Mural images reproduced at scale often read differently in a physical room than they appear on screen, particularly in terms of colour temperature and contrast. The sample is the only reliable colour check.
• Trim the excess at the ceiling and floor only after all panels are fully applied and the paste has dried for a minimum of 12 hours. Trimming while the paste is still wet can cause the cut edge to lift. Use a fresh blade for every cut — a blade that has been used to trim even one full panel will have dulled enough to tear the mural face rather than cutting cleanly.
• Custom manufactured to your exact wall dimensions at our Central Coast NSW facility. The composition is scaled to your specific measurements — the focal point lands where it should and the image extends fully to all four edges. No standard roll calculations, no pattern repeat waste, no edge guesswork. 4 business days production. All import duties covered globally on wallpaper orders to more than 40 countries.
• In Australian climate conditions — particularly in subtropical and tropical regions — maintain consistent temperature and humidity in the room for 24 hours after installation. Do not run air conditioning at high cooling settings immediately after hanging. The adhesive bond and the paste cure are both affected by rapid temperature and humidity change in the first hours after installation.

Browse our full wall mural collection, read our guide to measuring your walls for a mural, or explore our full wallpaper range across all substrate types.