Another Boring Powder Room Springs to Life

This large powder room in the home of a young family in West University Place (Houston) had been painted dark green. Before that, it was papered in a dark red print wallpaper. While I do like dark powder rooms, without any pattern on the walls, the painted room lacked personality and was claustrophobic.

With help from interior designer Sylvia Walker at Studio Bella, the homeowner chose this white-on-silver medallion pattern. It sure changed the room … The lighter color and simple pattern visually expanded the room, while adding personality and an inviting feel.

In the sink photo, I want to point out that the wallpaper pattern is perfectly centered, although the angle of the shot makes it look off a hair. The sink was recessed in an area flanked by obtuse angles, and it was extremely difficult to paper. The obtuse angle corners were neither plumb nor perpendicular, making it impossible to get an accurate measurement, and the “wiggling walls” meant that paper wrapping around the corners would twist off-plumb and also would likely have wrinkles and an uneven edge, meaning that the next strip of wallpaper would meet in some areas but gap in others.

And, to cap it off, pedestal sinks are bugger bears anyway, trying to keep the paper from tearing, while you work it around curved surfaces, and then maneuvering it under the sink and cut around the water lines and drain pipe. To complicate things more, this sink didn’t fit into the unusual corner space, so had been shored up with boards on either side.

I was very pleased, though, as I managed to get the seams to meet nicely – no gaps or overlaps, and, given enough time (like, about an hour), the paper worked nicely around and under the sink. I even put wallpaper on the boards next to the sink, which helped them fade into the background.

This wallpaper is by Thibaut, and was exceptionally nice to work with. It was malleable when I needed it to be, yet held it’s shape and didn’t shrink. Paste wiped off the surface nicely, and the metallic silver color is attractive, and the slightly raised white ink lends just a tad of texture.

Tags: pedestal sinks, powder room, studio bella, sylvia walker, Thibaut, wallpaper, west university place