Arrrrggggh! But Luckily, I Was Still On the Scene

Yesterday I did a very tedious 10-hour installation of Mexican Lotteria tickets – colorful and fun, but on very flimsy paper, and difficult to work with the paper and in the powder room, which was tiny and hard to maneuver in, plus had very unsquare walls and floors.

I had just finished and was packing up my tools when the homeowner came in to look. He loved it! He was so excited, he wanted to hang the mirror immediately. But it was the hooks were difficult to work with, and after several attempts, he decided it would be better to wait until later. I looked with relief to see that none of the paper under the mirror had been scuffed or damaged.

Until… the homeowner looked down to where his knees had pressed against the wall… Three areas of the wallpaper had been forced sideways across the wall, tearing, bunching up – arrrrgggh!

Luckily, it was easy to fix. I worked the mushed up parts back into place, and then cut out more Lottery rectangles (didn’t even need to match the pattern; any rectangles would do) and simply pasted them on top of the damaged areas. Absolutely invisible.

I am so glad that this happened while I was still at the home, and able to do the repairs while the paper was still wet, and without having to come back at a later time.

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wallpaper hanger houston

Wallpaper of the ’70’s

Today and yesterday I hung some very cool paper with the look of the 1970’s, in the mostly-original 1961 home of a young family.  The homeowner said she found the paper on this site…very worth taking a look!

Wallpaper from the 70s, retro wallpaper

www.wallpaperfromthe70s.com/

Here is the pattern I put in the downstairs powder room.  I’ll have a photo on my website Gallery soon…

http://www.grahambrown.com/us/product/30-448/Trippy%3A+Lime+%26+Chocolate+Wallpaper

http://www.wallpaperladyhouston.com/ 

Getting the Mural to Stick

My last couple of posts have been about hanging this mural in a garage.

http://muralsuperstore.com/catalog/tobago_sunset_pr98097_5221594.htm

Before I could hang the new mural, I had to remove the old one.

Photo murals are generally hung with a cellulose paste, which is about the lightest paste you can get. And with the hot humid conditions of a west-facing garage in Houston, you could assume there would be some interaction between the paste and the climate, over time. Indeed, the 8 panels of the old mural came off easily, by simply pulling up one corner and then the whole thing came off in one sheet.

This left behind a loose, gritty, sandy substance that was probably paste residue. BAD, because the new mural would never stick to an unstable surface like that. The loose sandy parts would simply seperate from the wall and the new mural would fall to the floor.

So I sanded the wall to remove all the loose old adhesive. Then I went back and wiped it with a damp sponge, to be sure there was no sand or powdery residue left. Once that was dry, I primed the wall, to further ensure a stable surface, and to seal any paste residue that could bleed through the new mural.

Then I was finally able to hang the new mural!

Sunset Mural – Size Matters

Yesterday I hung a photo mural depicting a Caribbean sunset
http://muralsuperstore.com/catalog/tobago_sunset_pr98097_5221594.htm

The owner had had another mural in the same place, and this was to replace it. The size of the original mural was 12′, 6.5″ wide, and that is the width listed on the package of the new mural. Perfect, because there was moulding on either side where the mural was to be placed, and so the new one had to be the exact same size.

Only – it wasn’t! The new mural measured only 12′ in width. Luckily, I had checked measurements before starting to hang it, so I was able to bring the homeowner in to make a decision about where to place the mural on the wall – or even not to hang it.

She elected to center the mural in the space, and would find some 4″ wooden trim to fill in on either side.

Interestingly, when I look at the pic of the mural on the Mural Superstore website, the width is listed as 12′, 1″, which is about what it actually was. But the box it came in clearly said 12′, 6.5″

Papering a Man Cave

Well, not exactly a “man cave”…. It was more of the woman’s realm. But it WAS a garage.

Today I installed a mural – photo of a red and yellow sunset over the Caribbean island of Tobaggo http://muralsuperstore.com/catalog/tobago_sunset_pr98097_5221594.htm on one wall of a garage.

The homeowner says she won’t allow herself to smoke in the house, so she sits out in the garage to smoke. She loves tropical islands, and used to have a typical beach scene mural – blue sky and water, palm trees, white sand on the wall. After 15 years, she updated to the sunset mural.

Besides the mural, the garage has wood paneled walls, brown carpeting, and a new nicely textured ceiling. I like the red and yellow mural better with the brown paneling.

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Skulls in Interior Design

Skulls have been all the rage for a while – skull-shaped charms are big in jewelry design, you see them in tattoos and on biker wear, and artists seem obsessed with them.    But how about hot pink skull-themed WALLPAPER?!  Check this out:

 

http://designerwallcoverings.com/WallpaperStore/wallpaper-book-collections-summer-sensation-7-11-c-1604_770_1697/senor-skullingwell-flock-velvet-rose-pink-p-26212

 

It’s even got that velvety flocked texture, à la 1970’s.  By Designer Wallcoverings and Fabrics

 

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Wallpapered Furniture

I’ve put wallpaper on furniture before, but this takes it to new levels!

http://artpratique.com.au/

Art Pratique

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Needing Some Knee-way

Uh-oh. I just got a call to go back to a home where I did the wallpaper in a large master bathroom just a few weeks ago.

It seems I forgot to paper the litte knee-area beneath the vanity. 😦

Actually, this is a spot that’s easy to overlook, and I’ve done it many times. My little trick is to put my keys down on the floor beneath the vanity, so I can’t get in my van and head home until I’ve remembered to paper that little spot.

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wallpaper installer houston

Wallpaper Repairs – Double Up When You Can

Wallpaper repairs are usually small, and don’t take a full day. Couple of strips damaged by a water leak. Cat clawed and tore some grasscloth. Kids banged into a corner. Lamp fell over and gouged a hole in the wall.

I like to help people who need repairs to their wallpaper, but it’s tricky finding a day when I can do a small job, and not loose a full day when I could be papering a whole bathroom for another family.

So I often will try to do repairs on a Sunday, when I’m finished visiting clients and giving estimates on new jobs.

Or, like today, if it’s workable for the homeowners, I can try to do two or even three repairs on the same day.

Today I did the shorter, easier repair first. That way I was better able to predict what time I would be finished and on to the next house. I was lucky today, because the second homeowner wasn’t home and had given me a key, so I didn’t have to be there at any exact time. This second job involved three short strips and a bit of floating, and took 3 hours.

So, with drive time, working, loading and unloading the van, and a trip to Southwestern Paint http://southwesternpaint.com/, it ended up being a little short of a full 8 hour day.

I was able to help two families, look at new wallpaper books, hit PetSmart for parakeet seed and cat litter, pick up a few groceries, and still get home before rush hour traffic!

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wallpaper hanger houston

Metallics are Hot!

Metallic papers are all the rage right now. I’ve done a hot pink damask (see the Gallery on my website http://www.wallpaperladyhouston.com/ ) on a silver background, and then two months later the same paper in a black on gold. I did a silver metalic cork in a powder room, and then a month later did the same paper with a gold metalic damask overlay in a River Oaks dining room.

 

In April in the mirrored area surrounding a bar’s glass shelves I put up York #670103 from their Bling collection – black metalic background with gold and hot pink balloons  http://interiorandgarden.com/bling-32.aspx –

More:

Earlier in the year, in a young familie’s dining room, one wall in York Como Circle glass beaded paper swirly circles by York:    http://www.yorkwall.com/CGI-BIN/lansaweb?webapp=WPRDDET1+webrtn=LWBOE07D1+ml=LANSA:XHTML+partition=YWP+language=ENG

Last week, for a young couple in the Heights, their newly-renovated bathroom, an Art Deco style suited to their older cottage home:  Graham and Brown’s Cinema  http://www.grahambrown.com/us/product/31-253/Cinema+-+Midnight

Two weeks ago in a young single guy’s bedroom just east of downtown, an accent wall in the bedroom in charcoal, taupe, and silver:  Graham and Brown Hicks  http://www.grahambrown.com/us/product/30-161/Hicks%3A+Taupe-Charcoal-Silver