I hate seeing little speckles of paint on people’s floors or moldings . This happens when tiny splatters of paint fly off the roller cover . Sometimes the operator is just moving too fast , but some paints are thinner and prone to splatter than others. You can Search here to find pictures of what I’m talking about. To prevent my wallpaper primer from landing on the floor , baseboards , backsplash , or, as in this case, wainscoting , I first cover the floor or vanity with dropcloths . Next I use these strips of thin , flexible , plastic-backed paper dropcloth material to cover anything that the dropcloths can’t reach. I use push-pins to hold them in place. I cut these strips from larger dropcloths. 8″-9″ wide seems to be about right to protect most baseboard heights and other surfaces , such as this chair rail wainscoting in a Houston Heights dining room . Once I’ve rolled primer on the wall above, I remove the protective strips and use an angled trim brush to cut in the primer along the top edge of the molding . wallpaper installer
Window wall before. Due to the logistics of plotting and hanging grasscloth, this one wall took me six hours. More on that in a separate post.Finished wall with drapes replaced. The drapes compliment the slight sheen of the grasscloth material. How elegant ! Below the windows.Below the windows .Rounded bull-nosed edges on this entry arch . The edges are always tricky to wallpaper . Arch done. East corner. I stripe the wall with dark paint to prevent the white wall primer from showing in case of tiny gaps at the seams . The southwest corner had an odd angle in it, probably due to the powder room or stairs or maybe A/C ducts on the other side of the wall. The light hits that one angled wall differently. This photo also nicely shows the fine texture of the grass material, and the subtle sheen . Also note that the seams in grasscloth are always visible . So good installer will take care to plot so the panels are placed in the most pleasing manner – in this case, down the center of the wall to the left. This does eat up a little (or a lot) of extra paper – the rolled up scraps you see are leftovers from this process. They can’t be used anywhere else, so will be thrown away . Planning all this is another reason to have the installer figure how many rolls / bolts are needed. Purchasing based on square footage would result in an unbalanced panel layout . Northwest corner. Grasscloth often has shading or paneling ( color differences ) between strips. This particular grasscloth was amazingly homogeneous in color, and I was very pleased. In fact, over this entry to the home office was the only place where there was any noticeable color difference at all. (also visible in previous photo) Unfortunately, I don’t know the brand . But I suspect that a lot of grasscloth and other such natural materials are made by the same manufacturer – just sold under different brand names . The home is in the West University area of central Houston .
In a recent post, I mentioned how when there’s a strong contrast between the color of the woodwork and the primer, you don’t want any primer peeking out between the wallpaper and the molding. So when rolling on the primer, I cut in with an angled trim brush along the molding. But I’ll pull back just a tad, leaving a 1/16″ or 1/8″ gap or so, so the white primer doesn’t actually touch the woodwork. This prevents any of the primer from showing after the wallpaper goes up. Wallpaper paste doesn’t adhere well to glossy paint as is used on moldings, but this teeny bit of of a gap won’t be enough to cause adhesion worries.
The mortar along the top of this marble tile baseboard was light colored, and I didn’t think it would look good between the black tile and the mostly-dark wallpaper. In addition, I hate trimming wallpaper against grout, because the gritty texture makes it hard to get a neat cut. And that sandy grout sure eats up my razor blades!So I applied a thin layer of joint compound over the grout, sanded it smooth, and then sealed with a penetrating primer called Gardz. This gave me a softer surface to trim against. But I was still left with a white edge. That’s what you see in the top photo. So next I used an angled artist’s brush and some black craft paint from Texas Art Supply hobby store to change the white line to black. Here’s what it looks like finished.
Here we are, in another new tract home in inside-the-Loop Houston, with a generic look and beige-everything. The homeowners have twin daughters who are just learning to walk, and they wanted their home to reflect the fresh energy of the young family.
Here comes a fun “angled, tufted pillow” sort of design to the rescue!
This cool design looks like it was hand-drawn in watercolor paint, and has a distinct Rorschach Ink Blot Test feel to it.
“Shibori” in Indigo Blue is by Graham & Brown. It is a nice-quality non-woven material, and was nice to work with. It should hold up very nicely as this young family grows.
Non-wovens are also designed to strip off the wall easily and with little-to-no damage to the walls when it’s time to redecorate.
The painters were to paint the ceiling, and, to keep paint off the wallpaper, they put blue painter’s tape along the area they did not want to get paint on.
O.K. – that trick works with painted walls and woodwork. But it does not work with wallpaper.
Because, when the painters removed the tape, they also pulled off the top layer of wallpaper.
See the damage they did all along the top of the walls in this kitchen in the first photo, and then look at the close-up of the torn paper in the second photo.
A really good painter won’t need to use tape to protect surfaces. A really good painter will have a good quality angled trim / sash brush, and will be able to “cut a neat line” with it, spreading paint only where he wants it, and keeping it off other surfaces.
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