Animal Menagerie in Baby’s Nursery

What a cute pattern! Suited for a boy or girl, and will “grow” with the child for several years.

Before. The parents had this block paneling wainscoting added before the wallpaper went up. It keeps the wallpaper pattern from being overwhelming, and the green color really sets off the colors in the wallpaper.

Trees , flowers , forest animals , deer , leopards , peacocks , birds .

Made by Rifle Paper by York , one of my favorite brands.

Rifle Paper is a non-woven material , DIY – friendly , and designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate .

Sweet Classic Toile in Katy Powder Room

A toile is a sort of pen-and-ink drawing in one color. It’s a very classic look, and usually includes depictions of life in a by-gone era -although you can find toiles with nautical, fairy tale, animal, and many other themes.

This toile is from the Waverly line. I hung lots and lots of Waverly back in the ’90’s. Today, virtually none of it is available. This particular design has been discontinued.

The homeowners had this exact same wallpaper pattern in three of their former homes. They wanted it in their current home, too. Through thorough sleuthing, the homeowner was able to track down a stash of this pattern. He was able to access it through Sarah at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby.

The toile is by York, in their SureStrip line, one of my favorites. It is pre-pasted, and is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.

The powder room was more than a little wonky, with a wavy ceiling line and un-plumb corners. A pattern like this is forgiving, because its so busy and “scratchy” that you don’t notice if some of the motifs are going a little off-track as they move around the room.

The home is in the Cinco Ranch subdivision of Katy in far west Houston.

Invisible Kill Point

When you hang wallpaper around a room, the point where your last strip meets up with your first strip virtually always results in a patter mis-match, because that last strip is going to have to be cut vertically where it meets up with the first strip – and that means that pattern motifs are going to be sliced in half, leaving you with an abrupt break in the design.

This could mean a 9′ or more length of cut-off design elements. Not very cool, but often it is unavoidable.

But … sometimes it is possible to “kill” the pattern in a less noticeable place. The 1′ or so height over a door is a good option. That’s what I did today.

Bringing the strip on the right to meet with the existing strip on the left was going to leave me with an animal getting chopped in half vertically.

Instead, I cut a wavy vertical line following some of the vine foliage in the pattern. Then I overlapped this onto the existing strip. Once it was all smoothed into place, everything just looked like leaves, and no suspicions that the pattern wasn’t how the artist had originally plotted it out.

Playful Jungle Animals for Baby Girl’s Nursery Accent Wall

No pink flowers or butterflies for this baby girl… Her parents chose a jungle-themed wallpaper pattern with cartoon-like animals and plants, in a predominately green colorway.

The pattern is called “Animal Kingdom” and is by Milton & King. It is a non-woven material, and I hung it by the paste-the-wall method.

Original painted wall
My preferred wallpaper primer
Fan to dry the primer faster
Initial strip hung alongside red line from laser level
Finished wall
Detail
Label

Cole & Son Woods in a Powder Room

This powder room in a newish townhome in the Rice Military area of Houston was originally papered in a darkish jungle/ethnic/animal-themed wallpaper. It was a good look, but the new homeowners wanted something brighter and fresher. Plus, the original paper had been hung over the textured walls, and the bumps were showing through.

It would have taken me two long days to strip the original paper, smooth the walls, and hang the paper. So the homeowner tackled the removal of the original paper (following instructions on my blog (see page on the right side) plus info she found on the internet), which saved her the price of a day’s labor. It also made my job a bit easier.

But this job still required a lot of prep, which took a lot of time. The homeowners were out of town (they let me into the house via remote access), and it was nice because I could work in peace and quiet, and I could stay as late as I needed.

I skimmed on smoothing compound, waited while it dried, sanded smooth, wiped off the dust, primed, and then finally hung the paper.

The pedestal sink was tricky to get around, as they always are. And the bull-nosed / rounded edges of two outside corners in the room were a challenge. Additional hurdles were crooked walls, un-plumb walls, and a ridged non-woven wallpaper material that would not bend or yield to crooked, un-plumb walls. 🙂 The pattern itself was a bit forgiving of these imperfections, and I used a few tricks to make things look straight and true.

This wallpaper design is quite popular, and I have hung it a bunch of times. It is called “Woods,” and is by Cole & Son, a British company. It is printed on a non-woven substrate, and is designed to be a paste-the-wall installation – but I find that paste-the-paper is a superior method.

Best of all, the homeowner loved what the pattern and light color did for the room. The powder room is instantly brightened, and the images of tree trunks give the room a whole lot of dimension and draw you in, as if you were actually walking in a forest.

The strong diagonal repetitiveness of the tree branches usually bothers me a bit. But in this room, with each wall holding only two or three strips, the pattern is dispersed nicely and the diagonal effect is minimized. So, what you see is the forest, and not so much the trees. 🙂

It was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

Boldly Whimsical

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“Bold” and “whimsical” don’t typically go together, but that’s what this homeowner wanted for her large powder room in the Briarpark neighborhood of Houston. I’d say that this animal-filled, fun foresty pattern in a smudgy charcoal colorway fills the bill! Look close to see the stylized animals frolicking across the paper!

The second photo shows the first strip going up. I love the stripe of dark, bold color against the boring white walls.

The pattern is called “Wonderland,” and it is by Boras Tapeter, a Scandinavian company. It is on a non-woven substrate, and I hung it using both the paste-the-paper and the paste-the-wall methods.