Bunting is one of the most forgiving decorations you can hang. It is light, it looks good from almost any angle, and a single string can turn a plain wall into a party. It also goes wrong in the same few ways every time: a sad droop in the middle, a knot you cannot undo, a corner that peels off the wall halfway through the afternoon. Almost all of it comes down to ten small oversights, and none of them are hard to fix once you know what you are looking at.

Mistake 1: Hanging first, measuring later

Unroll the bunting on the floor before anyone climbs a ladder. Count the flags, measure the run, and work out whether the two numbers agree.

Flags spaced roughly 15 to 18 centimetres apart, centre to centre, look full without crowding. A four-metre run therefore needs somewhere between 22 and 26 flags. If your string has 12, you either need a shorter run, a second string, or a deliberate, wider spacing that reads as airy rather than sparse. Decide which before you drill anything.

While you are at it, check what else is in the way: ceiling lights, smoke alarms, curtain rails, the swing of a door, a heat vent. Mark your intended anchor points with a scrap of painter's tape, step back, and look. Moving tape is free. Moving a hook is not.

Mistakes 2 and 3: Fighting sag with brute force, or surrendering to it

Two opposite errors, same result. Some people pull the line so tight the anchors come out of the wall. Others leave so much slack that the bunting hangs like a wet hammock.

If the line dips in the middle

Tension only cures a dip on a short run with solid anchors. Beyond about three metres, gravity wins, and tightening the line simply transfers the load to your hooks. Add support in the middle instead: a cup hook in a joist, an adhesive hook on the ceiling, or a length of clear fishing line dropped from a beam and tied around the tape.

If you would rather have a swag

A pronounced dip can look deliberate, but only when it is symmetrical and repeated. Measure from your centre point out to each end, match the two halves, and treat every 1.5 metres as its own small curve rather than one long droop. Two identical swags read as design. One lopsided sag reads as a mistake.

For the knots themselves, a taut-line hitch slides to tighten and then holds under load, and a trucker's hitch gives you a two-to-one pull. Wrap the cord twice around the anchor before tying, so the knot is not the only thing carrying the weight.

Mistake 4: Anchoring to the nearest surface instead of the right one

Masking tape on a freshly painted wall, a pin in a textured ceiling, a string tied to a chair that somebody will move by lunchtime. Match the fixing to the surface and most of these vanish.

• Painted plaster or drywall: removable adhesive hooks, or a small angled pin in a spot the first flag will cover. On new paint, wait until it has fully cured — check the tin — or choose another surface.
• Wood trim, beams, pergolas: small cup hooks or screw eyes, with a pilot hole to stop the timber splitting.
• Glass and windows: suction cups on a clean, dry surface. A touch of moisture on the cup helps it seat.
• Brick, stone and render: clips rated for rough surfaces. Tape will not hold, however good it looks for the first hour.
• Trees and posts outdoors: wide webbing or a soft strap around the trunk rather than wire or thin cord, which can cut into bark.
• Tables and chairs: acceptable as a last resort, but only if nobody will move them. Tie low and gather the excess out of the way.

Whatever you choose, test it while you still have time to change your mind. Hang the bunting, give the line a firm but gentle tug, and wait half a minute.

Mistakes 5 and 6: Spacing flags evenly, then letting them slide

Even spacing suits a straight run across a plain wall. Everywhere else — around a corner, over a doorway, along a stair rail — the flags need to gather slightly so the tape can bend without stretching.

Then there is the slow slide. Flags drift along the string during the day, bunching at the low end and leaving a gap at the top. A few small habits stop it:

1. Set the flags from the middle outward, so any spare slack ends up at the two anchor points where you can hide it.
2. Pin or stitch each flag's sleeve to the tape at one point. One small stitch per flag is enough, and it comes out with a seam ripper.
3. For ribbon-string bunting, tie a tiny overhand knot either side of each flag.
4. Use a dot of hot glue rather than a bead, and test it on a spare flag first.

Mistake 7: Storing bunting as a tangle waiting to happen

Most knot disasters happen before the bunting leaves the box. Coil it around your elbow like a garden hose and you will spend the first twenty minutes of setup undoing your own work.

Wind it in a figure of eight instead: loop around your thumb, then around your little finger, alternating, so the string crosses itself in the middle. It comes off the same way it went on. A piece of cardboard with notches cut into each end works just as well, and a labelled bag stops next year's version of you from guessing which string is which.

On the day, walk the line out between two people, one at each end. If a knot does form, do not tug it tighter. Push the loops back toward the knot to loosen

Photo: congerdesign / Pixabay