Some toilets end up being jammed up right close to the wall . In such cases, it’s impossible to slip the wallpaper behind the tank . So you’ll have to trim around the tank , and cut out and discard the section that would go behind it. I can manage to tuck a little behind the tank on the sides, so you don’t notice a gap where the paper is missing. Sorry, no pic of this technique in progress.
Here it is finished. No one is the wiser. If a homeowner wants the paper to go behind the toilet tank , he/she can hire a plumber to pull the tank (or the entire toilet) and then come back and reseat it. $$ Sometimes a handy husband will do this. That way, in case they buy a new toilet down the road, the wallpaper will be intact behind it. Of course, there’s a good chance the paper will have been stained, due to moisture or cleaning chemicals , etc.
Since wallpaper has been so hot for the last 6-7 years or so, lots of vendors are jumping on the bandwagon and selling wallpaper. Previously, many / most brands would not allow their products to be sold by these second-party sellers. But, since so many outside vendors were finding ways to get their hands on and then sell these wallpaper brands, and because so many shoppers were finding work-arounds to access these companies, well, the manufacturers decided it was in their best interest to sell to these middle-man companies and open up their papers to a wider market. All of which is to say, here we have a company called Walls Republic , which is not a manufacturer. But they’re selling wallpaper that’s made by another company, which is BN Walls . All that is well and good. It’s enterprising and it’s capitalism and the American method at work. But what I find interesting is that the middle-man / jobber company has slapped its own label over the label of the actual manufacturer . They’ve even added their own SKU #. They want you to think that it’s their wallpaper. But it’s not. OK, so that’s a little deceptive. But it’s really not all that of a big deal. Like I said, it’s the American system in operation. But what it means to me, as a paperhanger / installer , is that their label is covering up important information that I need to know. Like the pattern number , so I can look it up on line and see what it looks like. The dimensions ( width and length ) of a bolt , the pattern repeat and pattern match , run number, and installation instructions . It was really frustrating to not be able to access this information. But, turns out, it was relatively easy to peel off that WP label and reveal the BN company info that I needed. Still, of the four double roll bolts that we had for this project, one roll had no label from the BN manufacturer. This means that there was no indication of run number. And I had no assurance that it was printed at the same time as the other rolls, with the same batch of ink … meaning, there was a possibility of a slight color difference between that roll and the other three rolls . Do a search in the upper right to learn why run number is important. Perhaps this roll had been purchased, not used, and then returned … a very good likelihood that it is from a different run / batch . This is a good example of why I encourage clients to steer away from these “middle-man” retailers, such as eBay , Wayfair , Amazon , Pintrest , and other companies that are not actually wallpaper specialists . If you send me an email ( to wallpaperlady@att.net ), I can forward you my Info Pack, which explains a lot of this, and includes good places to shop , both here in Houston and on-line .
Actual manufacturer . A good company and a good product . The renegade !
I positively don’t understand this. Happens often with Katie Kime brand. It’s a flexible vinyl on non-woven backing – NW is supposed to be dimensionally stable , meaning, it won’t expand or shrink . In this photo, at the top of the wall, in order to get the pattern to match down the wall at eye level, I had to pull the airplane on the left up a bit.
Second photo, as we move down the wall, I matched the pattern at eye level. Matching at eye level is the industry standard , because this kind of thing happens. (I’ll fix that slight mis-match before I finish with this strip .)
Third photo, at waist level, the plane on the left has dropped down.
4th photo, at knee level, it has dropped even more. I understand that wallpaper expands when it gets wet with paste. But what I don’t get is, if every strip is pasted and hung the same, then the expansion on each strip should be the same, and the pattern should match up. Right? Especially perplexing because the pattern matches perfectly all the way down the strip, when the material is dry and unpasted and on my table, fresh off the roll. This is common with Katie Kime papers. BUT … it didn’t happen years ago … During the Pandemic / supply shortages , they switched to this heavy vinyl material. The first stuff that came along was horrible … stretched so much that the pattern was distorted and it was unhangable. Had to send it back. I can’t find the blog post. Anyway, as better material became available, they got rid of that bad stuff. But seem to have still stayed with the heavy vinyl surface. So the new substrate is good (I think), but the vinyl surface is stretching . Interestingly, when I tried pasting differently, I got slightly better results. For instance, I usually paste the bottom section of the wallpaper strip first, book it, and then paste the upper portion, and book. When I saw this pattern dropping start to happen, I tried pasting the next strip in the opposite manner – pasting the top portion first, and then the bottom. The idea was that if the substrate backing was absorbing moisture and expanding a little (even though NW is not supposed to expand), maybe the bottom section was stretching, because it had soaked longer than the top section. So, by pasting the top first on the next strip, it gave the top a chance to stretch more. This did seem to help a bit. But the jury is still out on that, because I was only able to test it on one strip, because by then I had reached the end of the wall. This pattern is called Houston Toile and is in the City Toile line by Katie Kime
Original wallpaper was expertly installed . But totally from the ’90’s. And dark , too. The new owners of this townhome in the Museum District of Houston wanted something brighter , and reflective of their affection for their city of Houston.
Note: That is not two toilets and vanities you’re looking at … that back wall is a floor-to-ceiling mirror .
Wow, what a different look!
How do you say ” Houston ” in motifs ? Cowboy hat , Astrodome , Astros baseball , margaritas with Mexican food , the Menil Collection , oil rigs, skyscrapers over Buffalo Bayou , alligator , longhorn , NASA , the iconic River Oaks Theater , ,,, Oh, and the heartbeat of our city – Westheimer Road .
I rarely hang wallpaper over existing wallpaper , and I came to work this morning expecting to spend a few hours stripping off this old paper . But turned out it wasn’t coming off without an argument … I could only get chunks of less than 1″ square. Persisting with that would have taken a couple of full days! This was a paper , not a vinyl product (slick) , and was tightly adhered to the wall in all areas . A good prospect for hanging over.
Even if you can’t see or feel the seams on the existing paper – trust me – they’ll show up as vertical ridges under the new paper. So they have to be skim-floated over , and then sanded smooth , and then all sanding dust removed with a damp sponge. Even if you can’t see or feel the seams on the existing paper – trust me – they’ll show up as vertical ridges under the new paper. So they have to be skim-floated over , and then sanded smooth , and then all sanding dust removed with a damp sponge. Finally, you can apply a coat of wallpaper primer . The primer will adhere to the existing paper , prevent it from absorbing moisture from the paste (which could result in bubbling ), help block out the color and pattern of the existing paper , and provide an ideal surface for the new wallpaper to adhere to.
Pro 977 Ultra Prime by Roman is my favorite primer , and it works nicely in this scenario . Here’s a look at the finished room, once again.
Before. With my fan speeding up drying of the wallpaper primer . (I use Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime )Done. Note how the colors compliment the brick floor . Closer up.
Mirror wall with light on. Note cockatoo nicely centered on the wall. Light sconces will be added to the blue electrical boxes.
Mirror wall with light off. Close up of pattern .
This is made by BN Walls . I really liked the product . It’s a very thin and flexible non-woven material . No creases as are common with the thick , spongy NWs like Rifle Paper . This reminds me more of Graham & Brown or Van Gogh ; possibly made by the same factory. This hugs the wall tightly , seams are invisible , textured vinyl surface that looks like an oil painting , and that is resistant to splashes and stains . Engineered to strip off the wall easily when you redecorate. To install a non-woven , you can paste the wall , or you can paste the material (which is what I usually prefer). It has a 20% polyester content, so doesn’t expand when wet with paste , like traditional wood and cotton pulp substrates will. So you can paste a strip and take it to the wall immediately, without having to wait for a booking time . You also get accurate measurements , because it won’t expand .
The homeowner purchased this from an outfit called Walls Republic . Note that they’re not a wallpaper manufacturer , but are selling papers made by other companies . In fact, they slap their own label over the label of the actual manufacturer / brand of the wallpaper . Unfortunately, my photo of this didn’t get posted here (and the WordPress method has gotten soooo difficult to use, there is no way I can go back and add it.) So, just use your imagination to visualize the new company’s label pasted on top of the actual manufacturer’s label. I’ll have another blog post about this later, if you’re interested to see the pic or to learn more. Back to re-labeling merchandise … There’s really nothing wrong with this, because lots of companies sell material made by other companies. But I do find it a little deceptive for them to put their label on the wrapper , as if in an attempt to dupe shoppers into thinking that they are a wallpaper manufacturing outfit … when, in actuality, they’re a jobber / wholesaler . And probably not totally knowledgeable about wallpaper . Indeed, we received one double roll bolt of material that had no label at all. This makes me think that that roll was purchased, not used, and then returned . The vendor then simply put it up for sale again, mixing it in with other rolls . The problem is the run number . Getting back to labels … one thing that bothers me about putting the label on top of the actual company’s label , is that it blocks out all the important information / specs . Again, the photo is not above, so you can’t reference what I’m talking about. But it means that I can’t see the specs for the wallpaper – width, length, pattern repeat ( straight or drop ?), length of repeat, etc. All that can be looked up on-line. But what’s also very important is run number . That can’t be found on-line, because it’s specific to each bolt of printed wallpaper . Wallpaper from different runs will have been printed at different times, with different batches of ink . So there can be slight variances in shades of ink between the runs. This means that your wall can end up looking striped . You can do a Search here to see previous posts .
I love this! The client was away at work when I arrived to start prep for wallpaper in this powder room . So she left important info for me, easy to read and easy to understand. They had had new fixtures installed – toilet paper holder , towel rack , light sconces . Normally, I remove these fixtures, including the mounting hardware, so the wallpaper can go behind them. Then I replace everything when the wallpaper is up. But in this case, some of the mounting hardware was tricky to install , so, it might be risky to remove them. Sometimes, you can never get everything back as securely as it originally was. Best to not disturb. Here the homeowner has left notations that these brackets for the toilet paper holder should not be taken out of the wall.
Conversely, the wall anchors for the previous TP holder were not going to be needed, so I should cover them up. I’m going to skim-float to smooth this textured wall , and that skim-coat will also smooth over and hide these holes .
Mountings for hand towel holder , new and old. Two of these electrical boxes mark where the new sconces will be placed, once the wallpaper is up. This is extra nice for me, because I don’t have to dick around with removing and then replacing the light fixtures – the homeowners or their handyman will take care of all that. (Keep your fingers crossed that he doesn’t muck up the new wallpaper in the process!)Hooks for mirror .
Note: All of these marks and instructions were made with a pencil . Never use a pen or marker or ink of any kind , or crayon or oil pastel chalk … all of these substances can bleed through smoothing compound , primer , paint , etc., and leave stains on the new wallpaper .
Usually a first-floor bathroom is a powder room . But this 1920’s home in the Heights neighborhood of Houston started out as a bungalow , so a full bath was included on the first floor . The home has been updated and a second floor added, so the bedrooms and plenty of bathrooms are now located upstairs . But this bath remains downstairs . And a more than a little boring .
Walls covered with a wonderful , earthy , rustic floral on grasscloth .
Love the way this pattern coordinates in color and theme with the tile floor .
Authentic-to-period claw foot bathtub made accessing the 10′ high area over the shower tile difficult . I used a sheet of 2′ x 4′ plywood and a 5′ ladder to reach … being very mindful of my weight distribution and movements .
Got ‘er done!
Birds , flowers , foliage , printed on a textured natural grasscloth material . This turned out to be nice stuff. The printing was crisp and the colors strong, while the pattern match was spot-on. In addition, the background color was very uniform; no paneling or shading between strips … See link to page on the right explaining the frequent disappointing color differences between panels on most grasscloth projects.
O.K., well, everything was not 100% perfect … The interior of each roll (where the top of the pattern came off) was dented / damaged . I wanted to put the purple rose at the top of the wall , so it worked out O.K. to cut off and discard this broken top few inches . Note that the pattern has a very long repeat , 28″ – more than two feet. Depending on the exact height of the walls, losing a few inches from the top of each bolt could mean not having enough paper to match the pattern on enough strips to cover the walls in this room. So, believe me,,, I measured and tested and plotted before cutting into any of these rolls .
The homeowner is a designer – not interior designer , but of couture fashion , and owns a custom ladies’ clothing studio here in Houston. So she’s keen on style , pattern , and material . I’ve worked for this family many, many times over decades and homes. She’s one of those who has to explore every available option out there, and generally settles on avant garde patterns from lesser-known , ” indie ” or ” boutique ” manufacturers . Indeed, I had never heard of this company until this project. The brand is Parker & Jules and the pattern name is Eversley . Talk about class – just look at the hand-written note tucked into the shipping box ! Note that their grasscloth comes in atypical dimensions … Most grasscloth comes 36″ wide x 24′ long. This company makes theirs 33.5″ wide x 33′ long , and is pre-trimmed .
This is a close-up of a strip of wallpaper that I need to split vertically, so I can match the pattern as I turn around an inside corner . I need to mark where to make my cut. As you can see, it’s a very busy pattern and will be very difficult to see pencil marks. So I’m using a pin to make tiny holes instead.
On that busy pattern, from the front, you can’t see the pin holes. But turn the strip of wallpaper over, and there they are!
Upside down on my table, now it’s easy to see the holes (where pencil and scissors are pointing) and to place my straightedge against them.
I’ll place my razor blade against the straightedge and make my cut.
Couple is expecting second little girl . This is the crib / accent wall .
Priano pattern by Serena & Lily , in pink .
Using my laser level to get a plumb line for my first wallpaper strip .
Top of strip positioned along the plumb line . Next I’ll unfold ( unbook ) the bottom section, and smooth it against the wall .
I really love this pattern . Have hung it a bunch of times, several colorways . Checking to be sure all the double roll bolts are the same Run Number – all printed at the same time with the same batch of ink .
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