Trainee Specialist Wallcovering Installer
Learn a rare craft. Build a creative career. Become a Master Craftsperson
Location: Central London, predominantly Zones 1–2
Employment: Initial six-month, full-time fixed-term training contract
Starting salary: £32,000 per annum during an initial six-month training contract.
Those who successfully complete their training and demonstrate the required standard may be offered a permanent Installer position, starting at £41,000 per annum.
Right to work: You must already have the right to work in the UK. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
The Opportunity
What if your eye for detail, creativity and ability to work with your hands could become a highly specialist career?
At Wells Wallcovering Installers, we install some of the world’s most extraordinary wallcoverings for leading interior designers, manufacturers and private clients.
Silks. Linens. Grasscloths. Hand-painted papers. Bespoke murals. Gold leaf. Some are delicate. Some are exceptionally valuable. Some are completely unique. Installing them beautifully requires far more than knowing how to hang wallpaper. It requires precision, patience, technical skill and, ultimately, judgement. We are looking for the next generation of craftspeople to learn that skill.
You do not need previous wallpaper installation experience. What matters to us is your aptitude, attitude and commitment to becoming genuinely excellent at what you do. We will provide the specialist training, mentoring and practical experience to help you get there.
Your Mission
Your first goal will be to master the fundamentals.
You’ll learn how to prepare surfaces correctly, measure and calculate accurately, work cleanly and methodically, handle specialist materials, apply adhesives, position patterns and cut and trim with precision.
But that is only the beginning.
As your experience develops, you’ll learn how different materials behave, how to approach complex architectural details and how to make the right decision when the room in front of you doesn’t quite follow the textbook. First you learn the process. Then you learn how to think like a craftsperson. Our ambition is to take someone with the right natural ability and mindset and give them a genuine route from trainee to highly skilled specialist.
What You’ll Be Doing
This is a practical, hands-on role. You will work alongside experienced members of the Wells team while developing your skills through structured training and real
project experience.
You will learn to:
● Prepare surfaces, primers and adhesives correctly before installation begins.
● Measure accurately and calculate drops, quantities and pattern positions.
● Develop the precision cutting, trimming and hand skills required when
working with valuable materials.
● Understand how specialist wallcoverings including papers, silks, wools and
hand-painted materials behave.
● Position and balance pattern and composition within a room.
● Work confidently around internal and external corners, architectural details
and complex spaces.
● Build a toolbox of specialist techniques and understand when to use them.
● Assess problems calmly and choose the right solution rather than simply
following a formula.
● Work cleanly, methodically and professionally on every project.
● Develop the judgement to recognise what an exceptional finish looks like — and how to achieve it consistently.
The further you progress, the less the role becomes about simply knowing how to do something and the more it becomes about understanding why. That is where craftsmanship begins. The Mindset That Thrives at Wells. We’re looking for people who want to become exceptionally good at something.
You’ll thrive here if you:
● Notice details that other people miss.
● Take real pride in making something beautifully.
● Have patience and can maintain concentration on precise work.
● Enjoy working with your hands and have good hand-eye coordination.
● Appreciate colour, pattern, proportion and composition.
● Are willing to practise, receive feedback and keep improving.
● Stay calm and practical when things don’t go exactly to plan.
● Can follow a process precisely without losing the ability to think for yourself.
● Take ownership of your work and the standard you deliver.
● Enjoy being part of a team where everyone is working towards an exceptional
result.
At Wells, our values are Mastery & Craft, Ownership & Team, and Intentional Execution. They are particularly important in this role: the standard of our work is built through thousands of small decisions made properly, consistently and with care.
Who We’re Looking For:
You may come from art, design, textiles, fashion, theatre, set design, interiors, sculpture, printmaking, model-making or another creative discipline.
Or your background may be completely different.
Previous decorating or wallpaper installation experience is not essential. We are much more interested in your natural aptitude, how you approach learning and the standards you set for yourself.
You should, however, be comfortable with the physical and practical reality of the role. Our work takes place in exceptional finished interiors, but also on live building sites. Other trades may be working around you. Programmes change. Conditions are not always perfect.
Being able to stay calm, focused and professional — while maintaining your standards — is an important part of becoming a Wells craftsperson.
What Success Looks Like
This isn’t a role where we expect you to arrive as an expert.
Success means showing us that you can learn. At the beginning, that means following the process accurately, working cleanly,
developing your hand skills and building strong professional habits.
Your first six months are your opportunity to demonstrate that you have the aptitude, attitude and developing technical ability to build a long-term career with Wells. At the end of your training period, we’ll assess your progress against the standard required to become a permanent Wells Installer. As you progress, we’ll expect you to become increasingly independent: understanding materials, anticipating problems, selecting the right techniques and making sound decisions for yourself.
Ultimately, success means becoming someone we can trust with an extraordinary material in an extraordinary room and know that Wells have got this.
Your Career Path
We want this to be the beginning of a career, not simply a job.
Your first six months with Wells will be an intensive period of training, mentoring and practical experience, designed to give you the foundations of the craft and establish whether you have what it takes to progress.
Trainee — £32,000 per annum
You’ll join us on an initial six-month, full-time training contract. During this period, you’ll learn the fundamentals, develop your practical skills and begin building the professional standards and judgement the craft requires. At the end of the six months, we’ll assess your technical ability, progress, working standards and attitude. A permanent position is not guaranteed: you’ll need to successfully complete your training and demonstrate that you have reached the standard required to progress.
Installer — from £41,000 per annum
Those who successfully complete their training may be offered a permanent position as a Wells Installer, starting at £41,000 per annum. From there, you’ll continue developing your technical ability, material knowledge, independence and judgement through increasingly complex work.
Master Craftsperson — up to £71,000 per annum
As your experience and expertise grow, so can your career and earning potential. Our most accomplished Master Craftspeople can earn up to £71,000 per annum, reflecting the exceptional technical ability, judgement and responsibility required at this level.
Progression at Wells isn’t based simply on time served.
It’s based on capability, consistency, judgement, responsibility and the standard of work you can be trusted to deliver.
The better you become, the more valuable your skill becomes.
What We Offer
● An initial six-month, full-time training contract at £32,000 per annum.
● A dedicated specialist training programme designed to give you the
foundations of a rare and highly skilled craft.
● Practical training and mentoring from experienced specialists.
● The opportunity, on successfully completing your training and reaching the required standard, to progress into a permanent Installer role starting at £41,000 per annum.
● A long-term career path where, as your expertise, judgement and
responsibility develop, Master Craftspeople can earn up to £71,000 per
annum.
● Private medical insurance for you and your dependants, if you choose to join the scheme.
● 30 days’ holiday, including Bank Holidays.
● Work-related travel expenses, excluding your normal commute within London Zones 1–2.
● Opportunities, as your career develops, to work on exceptional projects elsewhere in the UK and internationally.
● A supportive team committed to helping you develop genuine mastery of your craft.
Why Wells?
For more than 12 years, Wells Interiors has specialised in the installation of luxury and specialist wallcoverings.
We are trusted with extraordinary materials and work alongside some of the world’s leading names in decorative interiors, including de Gournay and Fromental.
But our ambition isn’t simply to be excellent at the craft today.
We want to help protect its future.
That means finding talented people from a new generation, teaching them what we know and giving them the opportunity to develop the expertise even further.
Technology will continue to change how we plan, communicate and work. But there will always be a need for people with exceptional practical ability, creative judgement and highly developed human skill.
The better you become, the more valuable that skill becomes.
Could This Be Your Craft?
You don’t need to arrive knowing how to install an extraordinary wallcovering.
You need the eye, the hands, the patience and the determination to learn how.
If you’re an artist, maker, creator — or simply someone who gets enormous satisfaction from making things beautifully — we’d like to hear from you.
Email recruitment@wells-interiors.com and tell us a little about yourself, what you love to create and why learning a specialist craft appeals to you.
