Versace Wallpaper Powder Room Revisited

I hung this dramatic gold-on-black wallpaper about three years ago, and am back to do two more rooms, so took the opportunity to snap a coupla photos.

Looks amazing with the black sink and toilet, and ornate gold faucet set. Plus the bamboo-look framed mirror.

Close up, this material looks like embroidered stitching on menswear textured background. The glitter and shimmer adds even more pizzazz!
This non-woven wallpaper is by Versace, and the home is in the Garden Oaks area of Houston.

Beautiful Blue Classic Trellis in Heights Butler’s Pantry

Before. Utilitarian.

After. Fun, energized, colorful, washable. As the homeowner said, the new lattice wallpaper changes the room from a pass-through to one where you love to spend time prepping meals.

Bamboo trellis patterns like this have been popular for hundreds of years. A true classic!

The wallpaper is by Exclusive Wallcoverings, a British company. The material is non-woven . It can be installed by paste-the-wall or by pasting the product . It is designed to strip off the wall easily and cleanly when you’re ready to redecorate.

The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.

Wallpaper install

Basket Weave Wallpaper Pattern on a Bedroom Accent Wall

For this accent / feature wall of Grandma’s bedroom in a very contemporary new home in the West U. area of Houston, the homeowner wanted something fun but not too edgy (Grandma’s gonna sleep in there, after all! 🙂 ). Plus she wanted to pull in colors from other rooms, particularly navy blue, as well as coordinate with the tufted headboard (grey) and upholstered bench (navy). And a little Asian flavor wouldn’t hurt.

Here’s a pattern that fills the bill! The hatch design is reminiscent of a woven bamboo mat. The navy background coordinates with the bench, as well as fabrics in other rooms of the house, and the grey and silver accents work perfectly with the tufted headboard. The design is contemporary, but not overwhelmingly so. Its surface is vinyl, but it has a velvet-like feel, and I believe it will help absorb sound, too.

The homeowner took my recommendation and visited Dorota (read below), who helped her track down this perfect fit!

The material is non-woven, and I hung it using the paste-the-wall technique. The backing and edges of this dark paper were white, so I ran a chalk pastel crayon along them to disguise the light color.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpapers, 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.

Most of the furniture and accessories are from High Fashion Home near downtown Houston.

Brilliantly Bold

Dark powder rooms are a good look. But dark paint by itself can feel uninteresting and even closed-in.

A bit of glowing aqua and green palm leaves on this black background really punch up the drama in this Montrose (Houston) area powder room! The stacked leaves add a distinct upward movement (and fun!) to this tall, narrow space.

The homeowner searched for a long time to find a pattern she liked, in a colorway that would compliment the ice-aqua color of the glass sink. (Sorry, my poor photo doesn’t do justice to the beautiful color of this unique sink.) (The wall to the right of the wallpaper and above the sink is covered with tiny squares of tile, and the lighted mirror.)

The original blue paint just blended in with the medium-toned brown bamboo free-standing console vanity sink base. But against the black wallpaper, the stained bamboo really stood out.

This tropical wallpaper pattern is called Kalani, and is in the “Fine Décor Collection” by Brewster. It is a non-woven material (which means it should strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate), and is designed for a paste-the-wall installation (but I opted to paste the paper, instead.).

The material was thin, which I like, but I wasn’t fond of the plastic-y feel to the surface, plus it creased really easily. Because the paper was black and was printed on a white substrate, I used chalk to color the edges of the paper, which prevented white from showing at the seams. Once this was done, the seams were practically invisible.

Companion Wallpapers in a Two-Room Bath

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This is a master bathroom in Bellaire that had just been completely renovated. The homeowner wanted a serene spa look. When I first consulted with her, she was pretty set on a very plain, cream colored paper that almost matched the countertops and floor. I told her I thought it was too inert. I suggested something with a soft pattern, to fill the space on her 10.5′ high walls. And I told her that a little stronger color would add definition by standing out just a little, against the tile and woodwork.

I also mentioned that it’s more interesting to use different – but complimentary – patterns in the main room and the potty room.

She considered my points, went to my suggested source for wallpaper, and came home with this. BINGO! What a wonderful choice!

The palm leaves are soft and earthy, lending to the spa feel, and are the perfect scale to fill the high walls. The color goes nicely with the stone in the room, and it stands out just enough to give the room definition. The companion bamboo pattern went in the toilet room. In the last photo, you can just barely see how the two patterns work together.

Both these papers are by Anderson Prints, by EcoChic, and were a positive delight to work with. And they are paper, not vinyl, so the homeowners do not need to worry about humidity causing the seams to curl.

This wallpaper 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.

Bamboo-Look Grasscloth Warms a Master Bedroom

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It does not take a dramatic change to make a dramatic change … In the first photo, the bedroom was painted a darkish tan, and it looked good. But, as you can see, once the one accent wall of grasscloth went up, the room had personality and warmth and character.

This grasscloth pattern is different from most, because it incorporates wide reeds, which look much like bamboo. Real bamboo is hard to cut, and hard to get to fit into corners and to cut around detailed areas like decorative moldings. So this thinner look-alike version was a good option.

In the top photo, the white area is where I have applied smoothing compound, to smooth the textured wall.  I also included photos of the seams, so viewers understand that grasscloth is a natural product, and is not expected to match across the seams.  This particular product, in fact, was very homogeneous in color (many are not), and I was very happy with the way it turned out.

I hung this on an accent / feature wall in a master bedroom in Pearland, outside Houston, Texas.

New Toy – Aviator Shears

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Industrial-ish, yes. These are for cutting thick or hard material, like some vinyls, glass bead wallpaper, embellishments on paper, and some thick grasscloth / bamboo materials.