The wife grew up in New Orleans and these days she and her husband visit family there regularly. So the city and it’s vibe is ingrained in them.
Enter “New Orleans Toile” in a bright green on white colorway by Katie Kime wallpaper. The design features ionic images of life in that city, including the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, Mardi Gras revelers, a second line parade, a paddle-wheeler on the Missippi River, live oak trees draped with Spanish moss, and even alligators in the bayou.
Once the homogeneous sea-foam green paint gave way to this bright wallpaper, the room lightened up and felt festive. When the homeowners walked in, the first thing they did was study the line-drawing depictions. I could tell that they related to the scenes.
Katie Kime products are becoming more user-friendly. As in the past, this particular product came with a selvage edge that I had to trim off by hand. But their intel says that the company has shifted to pre-trimmed wallpapers. This makes installation much simpler and faster, and more DIY-friendly.
KK also has shifted to a non-woven substrate for their wallpaper. While I do like the traditional paper substrate, there are many advantages to the newer non-woven materials. For this room, I did use the paste-the-wall installation method.
From flat and white to textured and black, this powder room took a trip to the wild and exotic. The embossed vinyl wallpaper mimics the look of crocodile hide.
I centered the design on the sink wall, so the pattern would frame the mirror evenly. Then, since the toilet wall is the first thing you see when you enter the room, I thought it would look nice to have the pattern centered on that wall, too. Usually, you can only balance the pattern on one wall, and after that, the design has to fall sequentially as it works its way around the room. But I did some engineering, and figured a way to place the pattern in the center of the toilet wall, too.
The material is an unusually thin and flexible embossed vinyl on a thin non-woven substrate. It’s my second time in this year to hang this, and I like it a lot – much better than most non-wovens, which can be thick and stiff and can bruise easily.
Non-wovens have some fiberglass in their content and do not expand when they are wet with paste, nor do they shrink as they dry. They can be hung immediately after pasting – or you can use the paste-the-wall method. Non-wovens are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate.
This is in the SuperFresco line by Graham & Brown, one of my preferred manufacturers. You don’t need a retailer, because this can be bought directly from the G&B website.
The home is new build, contemporary in style, in the Montrose area of central Houston.
alligator installer
There is a lot going on in the second photo.
After determining the pattern match – which was no small feat on this very eye-crossing design – I am measuring and cutting my strips.
Those that have already been cut are rolled up and placed in the order they will be hung.
There is a piece of dark chalk I am using to color the edges of the paper, to prevent the white backing from peaking out at the seams.
And to keep the white primer from doing the same, you can see that I have plotted out where the seams will fall, and have striped black paint on the wall.
I don’t need my work table for this job, because it’s a paste-the-wall material, so no need for a table to paste on. And there are no corners to turn, so no need for a table to trim on.
The pattern has a crocodile hide look.
This Superfresco brand is by Graham & Brown. It is an embossed (textured) vinyl on a non-woven backing – which has a fibrous, fiber-glass composition, and is made to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate.
This material was a lot more pliable than most non-wovens, so it was quite nice to work with. Although there was some stretching and warping. On a longer wall, that could have caused some panels to develop wrinkles.
I hung this wallpaper in a recessed headboard niche / accent wall in the master bedroom of a newish home in the Rice Village area of Houston.
installer alligator
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In the powder room of this home in the Woodlands (Houston), this dark brown faux alligator textured vinyl wallcovering probably looked good with the previous homeowner’s mirror and accessories, but it made the room cave-like, and was not at all in sync with the lifestyle of the new homeowners, a young family with pre-school age children.
They chose this classic trellis design in cream on tan and, boy – did it brighten and open up the room!
I usually love this brand, but today there was a bit of shading – color was darker on one side of the strip than it was on the other, which you can see in the second-to-last photo and in the head-on shot of the sink, and also some “gaps and overlaps” at the seams. Both of these issues were relatively minor and not very noticeable.
This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was bought at below retail price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. She is great at helping you find just the perfect paper! Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
Ahhh – a couple of serene (but hard working) days in the country this week, on a wallpaper job in Fresno (south of Missouri City). This is the view to the east.
If I had been working here last week, out of the west windows, I would have seen an alligator. He had been hanging around for about a week, in the creek behind the house, just beyond the fence. The path he took in and out of the water was worn to bare dirt. No swimming or fishing or even watering the horses in the creek. The homeowner had a man come out and shoot the ‘gator – It has not been seen it since.
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