Kinda bland, huh?Well, let me fix that for you! With just two colors and a simple, yet flowing design, this wallpaper pattern breathes life into this room – but doesn’t overwhelm. Pattern is nicely centered between the windows.This is another wall that also has two windows . I was able to center the pattern between these windows, too. Centering on two different walls in the same room is actually something of a feat – but that’s a story for another time. From a distance .This home has bull-nosed / rounded outside corners and edges, as well as the arch . Very tricky to get wallpaper trimmed to these areas neatly and evenly . See other posts for more info on this.Close up. The design has a weathered fabric texture sort of background . The copper colored foliage is lightly metallic , so has a slight shine – but only when viewed from certain angles , so it’s a subdued luster that’s added to the room . Note how the coppery color coordinates with the light fixtures / chandeliers . The wallpaper is by Graham & Brown , a good manufacturer with quality papers. The pattern is called Twining . This company makes nice non-woven papers , which have a polyester content which makes them stain-resistant and durable . They are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece and with no damage to your walls when it’s time to redecorate . G&B ‘s materials are usually flexible and nice to work with – although this particular one did tend to drag and tear when being trimmed – even with a new blade. I usually paste the paper , but non-woven materials can also be installed by paste the wall . The home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks / Heights neighborhood of Houston . This project took me three days, to smooth the textured walls , and then hang the paper around four walls , and trim around those pesky rounded edges and the arch .
The same pattern is used in both the sink room and the commode area of this powder room. I positioned the pattern so that it would continue in the toilet room moving from left to right the same as in the sink space. Hard to explain, but it means that you’re looking at the same pattern repeated behind itself. Well – that was even more confusing! Well – just look at the picture and you’ll see what I mean. The inner face of the entry arch and of the window return will be painted . It’s undetermined as of yet just what color will be used, but it will be a hue pulled from the flowers in the wallpaper. Options in the running include the murky red, the murky blue, a murky grey (will match the vanity color), or, my favorite – a murky dusky gold. The paint will have a slight gloss, to coordinate with the sheen of the wallpaper. These bands of strong color will really pump up an already very powerful look!This mural came as a 4-panel set . Murals provide a scene, with less of a repetitive pattern . This design and dramatic colorway are very popular right now. Manufacturer is House of Hackney and the design is Artemis Block . It’s a very good quality , non-woven , paste the wall material , durable , and designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to your walls when it’s time to redecorate .
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 .
The bull-nosed edges / rounded corners that have been popular for the last 10 years or more are a snafu for wallpaper. But when you add an arch, it gets much more complicated.
Wallpaper won’t wrap around and then under these arched areas smoothly and seamlessly, because you need to make relief cuts, or cut notches. Then you end up with V-shaped gaps.
There are several approaches to dealing with these. There are issues like ridges caused by overlaps. Paper not wanting to grasp onto and hold tight to a curved edge. irregularities in the curve.
I’ve been impressed with what many of my colleagues have done. But, as for me, well, I’ll be happy when these awkward and impossible rounded edges and curved arches go the way of the dinosaur.
For this particular room, I was lucky because the pattern was wild and non-specific enough that I could get creative.
I wrapped and then trimmed the paper to about 3/4″ around and under the rounded edge.
I could have cut a long skinny piece to fit the underside of the arched area. But that would have resulted in a pattern mis-match where the skinny strip met up with the rolled edge.
I opted for a variation on this theme, and used the branches and tree limbs in the pattern to my advantage.
So I cut a long skinny strip (actually, a number of shorter strips that I would meld into one long strip). But I plotted my cuts so the edge of the strip would run along a tree branch in the design. I had to choose specific branches that didn’t have birds sitting on them, because I didn’t want to chop any birds in half. Leaves, yes. Birds, no. 🙂
The branches also had to have at least 5″ of “open” space next to them, to fill the area between the rounded edge and the window glass without cutting off any birds or important design motifs.
The next photos will show you what I did. I had to do some tweaking. In the end, the finished arch looks pretty darned natural.
So many of the new homes have these rounded corners and bull-nosed arches. It is tricky to get a neat, even trim along those edges.
I have a special tool that helps me get a straight trim line (do a Search here to see previous posts). But still, it’s not perfect.
In the last photo, the homeowners had the builder install wooden molding inside the window return, which is a much neater way to finish the window, IMO.
I tried really hard to get pics of the light glinting off the glass beads, but the photos don’t show it. 😦 What you can see, though, is the arched doorway with rounded / bull-nosed edges. It’s pretty tricky to trim wallpaper on these edges, because you have no definite edge for your trim blade to fit into, and because the wallpaper hangs over the edge and you can’t see what you are doing or where you are cutting. Cutting through those hard balls of glass made it all the more trying.
I have a special home-made tool that helps with that, as well as a laser line, straight edges, aviator’s shears, and a quiet, empty house to work in so I could concentrate and move my assortment of gear wherever I needed to.
It turned out looking great, and I was particularly pleased that the thick, stiff material molded to the rounded corners and held tightly without curling up. This is a young and active family, though, so they will need to take care not to brush against the cut edge of the wallpaper as they pass through the doorway. I can tell that this high-traffic area does take some abuse, because there are smudges and marks in certain places on the walls. If the paper should start to come loose, there are a few tricks I can pull out of my hat to fix it. 🙂
This medallion pattern is by Ronald Redding 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.
That arched alcove that the Victorian claw-foot tub sits in, and the walls around it and over it, took me about five hours to paper. ! A lot had to do with the bull nosed corners and arch, but also maneuvering my ladder so I could safely get to the walls behind and over the tub. (I didn’t take pictures of my non-OSHA approved set up. 😉 )
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