Perfect your papering with these top tips.

• Ready-mixed wallpaper paste is easier to use than powdered paste (which you mix with water) because you just open the tub and start. It’s also more expensive, so if you’re doing a lot of wallpapering, powdered paste will work out much cheaper. If a particular paste is recommended on the wallpaper’s label, use that.
• It’s not a good idea to use a window, door frame or corner as your starting point, especially in a period house, because it may not be straight. Instead, create a perfectly straight vertical line using a plumb bob and chalk line.
• To paste your wallpaper, lay it front side down on a clean and dry pasting table. Work with your pasting brush from the top downwards and outwards, being careful not to get paste on the front of the paper.
• Once you’ve pasted the length of wallpaper, fold the top and bottom inwards so they meet in the middle, pasted sides touching. Long lengths should be folded like a concertina. Leave the paste to soak in to the paper for the recommended amount of time.
• Make sure the length of wallpaper is a few centimetres longer than the wall at both the top and bottom. To trim it to fit once it’s on the wall, run the back of a pair of scissors along the grove where the ceiling (or coving) and wall meet at the top, and the wall and skirting board meet at the bottom. Very carefully ease the wallpaper away from the wall, cut it along the line you made, and stick it back down with a paper-hanging brush.

DIY news bulletin

In these cash-strapped times, anything that saves money has to be a good thing.

Black & Decker certainly thinks so, as its latest power tool is a three in one.

The innovative Evo multi-tool is a drill-driver, jigsaw and sander combined, so not only do you save money, you also save on storage space. What a great idea!

The body of the Evo is well designed, with rubberised grips, a sensitive variable-speed trigger, and a handle to give you extra leverage.

There’s a drill-driver, a jigsaw and a sander attachment, and changing them is easy – just press the button and slide the attachment off (the eco-friendly 14.4V lithium-ion rechargeable battery attaches and detaches in the same way).

The drill-driver attachment can power through up to 25mm of wood and 10mm of steel and has 11 clutch positions for precise working.

When you switch to cutting, the jigsaw attachment can get through up to 50mm of wood, 10mm of aluminium and 5mm of steel. It has a tool-free blade clamp, so changing the blade is simple.

The sander attachment is especially brilliant for sanding vertically – it’s much easier than using a conventional sander.

The MFL143K Black & Decker Evo multi-tool comes with lots of accessories, including blades, drill bits and sanding sheets, and costs £149.99. Find out more at www.blackanddecker.co.uk/evo

Research by Bosch Power Tools reveals that Britons waste £2.1 billion a year on replacing household items that could be fixed.

Some 37% of UK consumers replace furniture even if it is isn’t broken, with 81% claiming it’s because they enjoy buying new things and making their home modern and fashionable.

When it comes to repairing household items, only 12% of Britons think they have the skills to be able to do a good job. Those who claim to have the skills to repair their furniture are spending less than £100 a year, whereas those who replace items are shelling out five times as much on their new purchases.

“This trend is easily reversible,” says Bosch Power Tools’ Chris Tidy.

“With a few DIY skills, fixing furniture around the home and giving your home a new look is simple. If you start off small, plan the project and use the correct tools, you can’t go wrong.”

Ask the expert…

Q: I recently had my living room walls replastered and now I want to wallpaper them. Can the wallpaper go straight on to the new plaster?

A: No, you should seal the walls before you start papering, because otherwise the new plaster could sap moisture from the wallpaper paste, and the wallpaper could get stained by the salts in the plaster.

Try International for good plaster-sealing products, including 3 in 1 Primer, Sealer, Undercoat (£13.49 for 750ml), which dries quickly and works on wood, metal and brickwork as well as plaster. It’s a great all-purpose product to keep in your shed or garage.

Seasonal task…

Have you bled your radiators? It’s important to do this occasionally, especially if you’re already using your central heating, because it gets rid of trapped air in radiators and ensures that they work more efficiently. Only bleed your radiators when they’re cold and the heating is turned off.