Paste, paperbacking, and keeping adhesive off the face of a natural weave
The single most common way to ruin a grasscloth install is adhesive on the face, and the material's own construction dictates how to avoid it.
Natural-fiber wallcovering is hung on the strength of its paper backing, and that backing shapes how it is pasted. Most grasscloth and its relatives are paste-the-back or, increasingly, paste-the-wall materials, and the manufacturer's instruction on which method to use is followed exactly, because the fragile natural face will not tolerate being reworked the way a washable vinyl will.
The defining hazard is adhesive on the face. Once paste soaks into the woven natural fibers on the front, it dries as a shiny or discolored stain that cannot be washed out, because the fiber is porous and unfinished and there is no wipe-clean surface to protect it. This is why installers keep the face scrupulously clean: hands and tools are kept free of paste, any squeeze-out at the seams is lifted immediately with a clean, barely damp cloth rather than smeared, and paste is never allowed to sit on the surface. A single careless smear can mark a strip permanently.
The paperbacking earns its keep here too. It gives the delicate face enough dimensional stability to be pasted and positioned without the weave distorting, and it is the layer the adhesive actually bonds to. Because natural fiber and its backing can be sensitive to over-wetting, excess paste and long soaking are avoided; the backing is wetted enough to bond and no more, following the maker's soak guidance.
Edges and pressure round out the care. Seams are butted and set with light pressure using a clean tool, since a seam roller pressed hard into a natural weave can crush the fibers and leave a polished line along the join. Handled this way, respecting the backing, protecting the face, and controlling the paste, the material goes up clean; handled carelessly, the damage shows the moment the paste dries and cannot be undone.