My favorite resource for finding your dream wallpaper is Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams store on University Blvd (contact info below). I stopped in to the store today to check out their huge selection. This is by far my favorite place to shop in Houston!
More than a hundred books, and a large table to spread them out on.York One of my favorite brands! Lots of lines and options.Thibaut Another of my all-time favorites. Just about everything they sell gets my stamp of approval!A Street Prints Wonderful quality non-woven material, lots of fun patterns.Brewster A great, dependable company that makes many lines under many names. Buy with confidence!Seabrook has long roots in the U.S. Very good brand.Rifle Paper A wonderful new line made by York, gaining popularity swiftly due to cute and innovative designs. Check out their Peacock.
No picture – Sherwin-Williams’s Easy Walls line is very good … It’s pre-pasted and a thin non-woven; easily hung and easily removed. I suspect it’s made by York, in their SureStrip line.
Essentials A compilation of other brands, most of which are good quality. A few “duds,” so consult with me or Dorota before buying. Overall, this line is the best of the lower-priced options.
Moving on to not-so-good (IMO)
Norwall Budget-priced, but long considered one of my least favored brands. Recently, though, I think they’ve improved their product. Plus, I think I have discovered a way to “tame the beast.” Still, better to avoid pre-pasted solid-vinyl products – see my page to the right.Basix Pre-pasted, paper-backed, solid-vinyl – my least preferred of all the wallpapers out there. Cheap, yes. But … ya get what ya pay for. Please click and read my page to the right.Mostly lower-end, pre-pasted paper-backed solid-vinyl materials … best to stick to brands at the top of the page.
NOTE: Avoid any and all peel & stick papers, including the S-W Easy Change line. Click and read my page to the right.
Where to Buy Wallpaper in Houston:
BEST OPTION FOR ASSISTANCE IN WALLPAPER SELECTION: Dorota Hartwig is my No. 1 go-to for personal help finding your perfect paper. At the Sherwin-Williams at 2525 University. With 20+ years selling wallpaper, she knows what’s in all the books and can quickly help you narrow down the search. Most major brands are available, with those wonderful S-W prices! There are four parking spots in front of the store, but better is the free 2-hour parking on the shopping center roof across the street. Her hours right now are Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – best to be there before 1:00 p.m. – but that can change, so call first. (713) 529-6515
In addition to the above in-store books, if you find something on-line, she may be able to get it for you. Here are some sure-bets:
No reason to search anywhere else! Plus, as I mentioned, she knows what’s in ALL the books, so can track down exactly what you’re looking for, saving you time and hassle.
This mid-1930’s home on the eastern edge of the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston has a lot of cool Art Deco features. For the powder room, the homeowners chose this intertwined diamond-and-bird pattern. I think it suits the home perfectly, and it looks great with the marble wainscoting (sorry, no pic! 😦 )
This wallpaper pattern is in the Antonia Vella line by York, and 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.
Talk about going from boring to bold! The homeowner likes geology, didn’t like the boring beige walls, and wanted to pull in some blue to this dining room, because she has dark blue accents in the adjoining living room. What a great choice this paper is!
The paper is by York, in the Antonia Vella line, and was bought through Anthropologie – but it is available via regular wallpaper retailers, too, like my favorite source (see page at right).
This homeowner purchased her paper before I came out to measure and, like many people unfamiliar with measuring for wallpaper, she ordered too little. So I had her order one more double roll… which, even though she requested the same run of #58, they sent run #88. I ended up needing that additional bolt for just the two short strips over the window, so the color difference between the two runs was not really very noticeable.
The dimensions in this room relative to the dimensions of the wallpaper were amazing. Because the two walls on either side of the window were symmetrical, and because the homeowners had a buffet and a china cabinet centered on each wall, I wanted to center the pattern in the middle of each wall. This meant that as the strips of paper met over the window, there would be a pattern mis-match. But since it was only 10″ high, and since the pattern was so wild, I figured I could disguise the mis-match fairly well.
What’s cool is, each of those wall spaces turned out to be just a tad less than the width of three strips of wallpaper (27″). So when I centered the first strip, and then hung one more on either side of it, only about 3/4″ needed to be trimmed off each side – and the pattern remained virtually intact. Meaning that none of the swoopy lines got chopped off vertically.
And then, as I was bringing the two pieces over the window together in the center of the window, it turned out that the width of the window was amazingly just a smidgen less than the width of the two strips of wallpaper. So when the two strips met in the middle, there wasn’t much of a pattern mis-match at all. Only about an inch of paper was lost, and the pattern was not disrupted visually much at all.
I don’t think I’ve ever hung wallpaper on a wall where the dimensions worked out so miraculously perfectly.
This home is in the Timbergrove neighborhood of Houston.
The walls in this newish home in the Rice Military neighborhood of Houston are painted a light brown, and someone had painted this wall in the dining area a darker brown. This made it an “accent wall” – but it wasn’t very interesting.
The homeowner knew that some pattern and shimmer would bring life to the room. She chose this interlocking geometric design in a shiny brassy finish on a lightly textured bronze colored background that coordinates very nicely with the painted walls.
Wow, did this change things! The fluid design interjects personality and a modern feel into the dining and living area, while the glossy lines give a jolt of excitement. You see this wall as soon as you enter the main area of the house, and it really sets a bright, lively, sophisticated feel for the home.
This wallpaper is in the Antonia Vella line by York. It is a somewhat heavy solid vinyl embossed with texture, on a non-woven backing. It was important to not let any paste touch the front of the paper, because the textured surface would grab and hold the paste, which would show and look bad for – well, for as long as the paper is up on the wall. Other than that, the paper was surprisingly lovely to work with.
Those windows with the rounded edges, however, were not so accommodating. It took me four hours to hang this wall, and most of that time was spent on the windows. Too complicated to explain the tedious and exacting process, but it was well worth it, because the finished accent wall looks fabulous.
This wallpaper pattern is by York Wall, 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.
So, O.K., it’s a hard room to photograph. All I can show you is the papered wall behind the beautiful light fixture and the really cool mirror.
This wallpaper is embedded with tiny glass beads, which give it dimension, texture and sparkle. In the 2nd photo, you can see how the beads shimmer when the light hits them.
This wallpaper is by Antonia Vella, for York Wallcoverings. It is a non-woven material and is a paste-the-wall product. It is very thick and stiff, and difficult to manipulate, and very hard to cut through, especially the beads. Used lots of razor blades today.
I hung it in a powder room in the Rice Military neighborhood of Houston. The interior designer is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope designs.
I went to this home to measure a powder room. But as I walked out of the powder room, I saw this art niche. Art niches are just made for wallpaper. So I suggested the idea to the homeowner – and she loved it.
She chose the same paper for the art niche as was used in the powder room, which helps give the home a cohesive look.
This is a textured, glass bead wallpaper in a muted color scheme. It serves as a backdrop, not a focal point, so the statue really stands out. Note that there is a tall base for the statue, that will raise it up so it fills the art niche more effectively.
The wallpaper is by Antonia Vella for York Wallcoverings. The home is a townhome in the Rice Military area of Houston. The interior designer for the job is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope designs.
I didn’t take a “before” picture, because the bathroom, clad in safe khaki paint, was depressingly boring. The new wallpaper changed all that!
Trellises are a popular pattern these days. I’ve hung this before in tan-on-white, black-on-white, and in hot-pink-on-white. This homeowner opted for a chocolate-brown-on-white. You can see that it looks fantastic in this powder room. The material was very nice to work with, too.
This wallpaper pattern is by Antonia Vella for York Wallcoverings, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
In the first photo, you see the right edge of a roll of wallpaper. Most of the time, the pattern crosses the seam, and has to be matched up with the coordinating part of the pattern on the next strip of paper.
Here, the factory has cut the paper so the seam does not bisect any part of the pattern. I LOVE this!! It gives me the flexibility to move the pattern up or down the wall, as needed.
You see, almost all ceiling lines are not level, and if you hang your paper true-to-plumb, and match the pattern horizontally from strip to strip, you could end up with a pattern motif moving up or down the wall diagonally, instead of hugging the ceiling line.
Because of that, I generally will not place a prominent design element at the top of the wall, but instead will put something that will be less noticeable, in case the ceiling starts go to crooked. However, with this particular pattern’s seams having been cut in between the striped trellis design, I was able to position every strip so that the diamond motif was at the top of the wall. See Photos 2 & 3.
This wallpaper pattern is by Antonia Vella for York Wallcoverings, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
Several years ago, I papered this young girl’s bathroom in West University Place with a sweet yellow and navy floral stripe. It served her well while she was little, but now, as a pre-teen, she needed something a little zippier. This fuchsia trellis really fills the bill.
When the gal came home from school, she loved it!
This wallpaper pattern is by Antonia Vella for York Wallcoverings, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
Some wallpaper patterns with a dominant feature look best when centered on the main wall. Some of my NGPP (National Guild of Professional Paperhangers) buddies insist that a pattern must be centered on the wall. That works well if there is going to be a bed or buffet also centered on the wall. But what do you do if you’re hanging paper in a bathroom, and the main wall is the toilet wall, and the plumber failed to get the toilet set smack-center? (It’s not necessarily his fault; sometimes the placement of the floor joists dictate where they plumbing for the toilet can go.)
In this case, I chose to center the pattern on the toilet, even though it meant that the pattern would fall unevenly in each corner. As you can see from the strong vertical line shooting from ceiling to dead-center of the toilet, this was the best option!
Or, maybe you’d rather see the pattern centered on the wall, so the “Y’s” are equal on both the right and left sides – What do you think?
This fun geometric pattern is by Antonia Vella for York Wallcoverings, and was hung in a contemporary new home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
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