Here I am, hanging wallpaper from left to right . I’ve just placed the narrow strip on the left – but have not trimmed it against the door molding all the way down. This is because skinny strips like this are often unstable and can twist to the right or left, or fall with an edge that’s not straight . This makes it difficult for the subsequent strip to butt up against it perfectly . The strip on the right is still folded and booked , and I’ll release it and position it in a minute . So I’m going to hang that next, full-width strip now. Because it’s wider, it’s more dimensionally-stable , and will fall ceiling-to-floor without warping or twisting . Especially true since this is a non-woven material, which are quite strong and stable . Note I’ve striped a little thinned pink paint under where the seams will fall, to prevent the white wallpaper primer from showing, in case there are tiny gaps at the seams (which can be common). Here you see that there is, indeed, a gap between the full-width strip on the right and the narrow one on the left. Because I have not yet trimmed that narrow strip on its left edge against the door molding, I’m able to move that narrow strip a teeny bit to the right, to eliminate that gap. Here it is with the gap closed. Note, that little bump on top the baseboard on the left is caused by caulk or debris or something – it’s a near-100 year old house with decades of build up of paint and whatnot. Not a biggie. The homeowners love their historic home !Here’re both strips trimmed and smoothed into place. Oh, and also my standard go-to tools . The pattern is called Indienne , in the Amaranth colorway . Manufacturer is House of Hackney . Good quality paper , and innovative patterns and colors . wallpaper installer houston wallpaper lady
About all this powder room has going for it is its size – it’s LARGE . But it’s also BORING . Wallpaper adds personality and visual interest , and keeps the room from feeling too massive . In addition, the Brooklyn icons hold sentimental value to the homeowner . Here is the opposite corner of the vanity . AND the short space between the ” floating vanity ” and the baseboard. I was able to do this space fairly easily because, first of all, I’m small and can pretty much fit under there. But what really made this possible is that, once I knew what the pattern match could be to the adjoining wallpaper strip , I was able to pre-trim these six short strips horizontally at the point where they would sit above the baseboard . Then I trimmed their height to 4 1/2″ – the exact height of the wall space way under that cabinet . From there, after pasting , it was a (sorta) easy task to squirm under there and put the strips into place. Yeah – nobody’s going to see it. But the husband wanted the wallpaper to be under there. And you know what? Even if the homeowners had not requested the paper go down there, I would have done it, anyway. Because leaving that bit of wall uncovered would have bugged the heck out of me.
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Corner opposite toilet .IIconic scenes from life in Brooklyn , New York . The pattern is called Brooklyn Toile , and is by Flavor Paper – they are known for some unique and wacky designs . Some Flavor Papers can be very difficult to install . I pretty much won’t work with their vinyl , and definitely not their (or anybody’s ) peel & stick . But I do very much like their EZ Papes option . This is a thin , pre-pasted material that goes up beautifully , seams are invisible , not affected by humidity , it adheres nice and tight for decades , and will strip off the wall easily when you redecorate – as long as you use water and follow the directions . This brand doesn’t have a strong protective coating , and the mom has concerns about the three young kids touching or splashing the paper as they reach for towels or soap or toilet paper . So she’s exploring various alternative options for towel racks and TP holders . Like laying a hand towel on the counter top , and a stand for the TP, or placing the rolls in a decorative basket . Their wallpaper is packaged differently from other companies . Panels are 24″ wide x 10′ 4″ high, with two strips in a pack , or ” roll .” So the total width of a “roll” is 48″ (4′), and then 10′ 4″ high. So if you have 8′ high ceilings , you’re going to be throwing away 2′ or so with each strip. And for the areas over doors , same thing … a full 10′ 4″ strip will be needed, even if the space above the door is only 12″ high. There are a couple other companies that package similar to this, with Spoonflower , House of Hackney , and Mind the Gap being good examples. Fkavor Paper is also a pricey brand . But very worth it, if you want something fun and unique . I mean, these guys even offer scratch-and-sniff wallpaper!
Before. The adjoining walls have been painted a complimentary blue. The mom-to-be and I talked about whether or not to paper the sloped area. To me, since the sloped area goes up as high as the blue painted walls on either side, it looks more cohesive to run the paper up to the same height as the painted walls. Note that the sloped areas is a flat surface. The appearance of an upward bend on the right side is an optical illusion. The wall to the right is folding in, and is creating a false image. Horses done! The ceiling in this room was really off-level , and so you see some of the horses’ heads getting cut off as the eye moves to the right. The horses do run straight along under the sloped area, and along the top of the baseboard (not pictured). Close-up shows a linen – like appearance . Note that the seams on Spoonflower are intended to be overlapped, by about 1/2″. The ridges will be visible – more or less, depending on the angle the light is coming from. In the photo above, the sheen on the seam on the right is over-exaggerated due to light hitting it from the side. In real life, once the paste dries and the wallpaper shrinks tight to the wall, you won’t notice the overlaped areas. And one very good thing about overlapped seams – they are stronger, won’t shrink and gap and show white ate the seams , and put less stress on walls with unstable sub-surfaces . This material comes in panels 24″ wide x 12′ long / high. Don’t think that you can use every square inch of that strip. Here you can see that the mfgr cut off the horses’ heads at the top of the strip. So, if I want to place a particular horse at the top of the wall, I will have to roll out the paper and then cut off and discard parts of the pattern that I can’t use. This can be up to a full pattern repeat – which, in this case, was close to 1.5′. That’s 1.5′ wide x 2′ wide, which comes out to about 3 square feet of wallpaper that goes into the trash. Not a big deal. I factor all this in, and have my clients purchase enough paper to accommodate this. Just wanted to emphasize how you can’t plan to use every square inch of wallpaper, and to have the installer measure and calculate how much is needed before you purchase . The manufacturer is Spoonflower , who seems to be having a burst of exposure and popularity right now. They make a few types of wallpaper. I like this one very much, but do not like their other options. So, if you are considering Spoonflower , please buy their ” Prepasted Removable Smooth ” option. Do NOT get their ” Traditional Pebble ” or the ” Peel & Stick .” Both are extremely problematic , and may be short-lived on your walls.
This is baseboard in a corner of a room where I will be installing wallpaper . The blue is my dropcloth .Wow. Look at the paint splatters on the baseboard . Maybe the paint was thin , or the painter was working too fast, causing paint to fly off the roller cover . This could have been prevented by placing wide blue painters tape above the molding , or by covering the baseboards with strips of dropcloth or plastic . Do a search here to see my previous posts about my technique .Later, the room décor changed, and the grey paint was covered with pink paint. Here you see where the painter let his brush swipe paint onto the top surface of the baseboard. He did the same thing with the underside of the crown molding at the ceiling , too. This is one of my pet peeves. Looks so bad. They do it because it’s easier than “ cutting a clean line .” To do it right, all it takes is a good angled trim brush and a steady hand , and patience . Or, use blue tape or even a trim guide to keep paint off the woodwork . I’ll probably take some white craft paint to color over this, before hanging the wallpaper .
The walls in this powder room have a sort of sad and even hopeless feel about them. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why.The bottom edge where the wall meets the baseboard looks uneven and unstable, with and odd lip running along the top of the baseboard. And a lot of it has to do with the dull color, and the thick layer of gummy latex paint. The gloss finish adds to the tacky look. It also doesn’t help that there is a lot of lint and other stuff stuck in the paint, creating a gritty and uneven wall surface. Oh, and the texture that was rolled on is irregular and icky.There was a lot of globby stuff – caulk and some loose edges – along the edge of this vanity. I took a razor and putty knife and dug out what I could. And note the ridge along the top of the baseboard. Can’t expect wallpaper to grab ahold and adhere to that.Likewise there was a lot of caulk along the top of the vanity backsplash. I dug out what I could of that, too. And finally I figured out what was causing a large part of the problem … The room had been wallpapered previously. So when it was decided to paint the room, instead of stripping off the paper as they should have, they just painted over it. To me, it looks like there are several layers of thick latex paint on top of the wallpaper. Yep. Sure enough! Along the electrical outlet you can clearly see the old wallpaper under all this mess. As you can see, the latex paint is not adhering tightly to the old wallpaper. The wallpaper looks like it could be vinyl … and not much sticks well to vinyl. Think Colorforms. Stripping off all this paint and the wallpaper under it would make a HUGE mess. So, short of re-drywalling the whole room (and the rest of the house, which has the same treatment), there’s not much that can be done to ensure that the layers inside this wall are stable. I dug out caulk and pulled off any loose areas. Then I skim-floated the whole room to create a new, smooth layer on top. I’ll post more when that process is finished and the new wallpaper is up.
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
This young couple hosts the mother / mother-in-law a few times a year, and are lucky enough to have a private spare bedroom for her. To make it special, they wanted to jazz up the area a little. Enter this fun and whimsical wallpaper pattern .The room before was a pretty shade of murky teal – but needed personality and warmth. The wall started out with a light orange peel texture . I skim-floated the wall, and then sanded it smooth . Along the baseboard at the floor , here’s the dust from sanding , along with the sanding sponge I use – this is a modern take on the idea of wrapping sandpaper around a block of wood . I tack painter’s plastic across the wall from ceiling to floor to prevent dust from getting into the room or onto the furniture . Here’s the wall smooth and primed , ready for wallpaper . Since this is a dark wallpaper and I want to be sure that the white wall does not peek out from behind the seams, I stripe dark paint along the wall under where the seams will fall. Because non-woven papers don’t expand when wet with paste , it’s simple to measure the width of your strips and plot out where each seam will fall. Use the laser level as your guide . Do a Search here (upper right hand corner) to read more about this technique. I use craft paint from Texas Art Supply (or any hobby store ), diluted with water from a Gatorade bottle cap , and applied with a scrap of sponge . Further insurance is taking a chalk pastel (never oil pastel – oil bleeds and will stain wallpaper) and running it along the edge of the wallpaper strip – from the backside to avoid staining the surface – to cover the white substrate the wallpaper is printed on. This is to prevent white from peeking out at the seams , which can happen with dark papers. Centering the first strip in the middle of the wall, and using my laser level to ensure the strip is nice and straight and plumb . Note: The strip is not centered on the wall. The dominant pattern element is. Notice that the center of the dominant pattern motif – the white circular flower – is 3.5″ to the right of the left edge. This means that I had to position the left edge of the wallpaper 3.5″ to the left of the center of the wall, in order to get the round white flower to fall down the center of the wall. When you look again at the finished photo, you’ll notice that the white flower falls down the middle of the walls, and that it also appears at equal distance from both the right and left walls. Most people wouldn’t be able to put their finger on this symmetry , but it is something they subconsciously notice , and it lends a feeling of orderliness to the room. As orderly as you can be, that is, with pigs dancing around the meadow dandelions ! Finished accent wall . The three other walls painted in blue were a bit of a surprise, because one would think the more dominant color of green would be used. But with so much green in the wallpaper, green on the walls, too, would have been too much, perhaps. I like the cool feeling that the blue creates . There is plenty of the exact same blue in the wallpaper pattern to tie the walls and wallpaper together. Close up shows the stamped printing technique . You’ve gotta love a frolicking pig in a hand-knitted sweater! This pattern is called Hoppet Folk and is in the Wonderland line by Borastapeter , a Scandinavian company . It’s a nice, sturdy but flexible non-woven material that can be hung via the paste the wall installation method . In addition, this product will strip off the wall easily and in one piece , with no damage to your walls, when it’s time to redecorate. This is a very popular pattern, and I’ve hung it more times than I can count, just in the last two or three years. It does come in other colors – but most people gravitate toward this black version. The townhome is in the Rice Military area of central Houston .
This tiny flashlight was a gimmee at a home show years ago. It’s lightweight and tucks easily into my toolbox. I don’t use it often, but when I need it, it’s so handy. Today I sought light to see behind a very low-slung toilet in order to trim wallpaper off at the baseboard.
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.
Continuing from yesterday’s post … The smoothing compound has dried and I’m ready to sand it smooth. This photo gives an idea of what needs to be sanded down. Some areas, such as around electrical outlets, are more irregular and have more raised areas to be sanded down.Before I get to the sanding, a 3″ stiff putty knife comes in handy for scraping down high areas.For decades, contractors wrapped sandpaper around a wooden block and used that to sand walls. Then, about 25 years ago, some genius invented these sanding sponges. They’re soft, flexible, easy-to-hold blocks covered with sanding fibers of various grits. They have angles that aid getting into various corners. I find that the edges can be a bit “pointy” and can gouge into the surface, so I often use a scissors to cut off the corners, as you see in all but the one on the far left. Held against the actual wall.Don’t forget a dust mask, to prevent inhaling the fine particles. And, yes, this is an N-95 … The same mask that protects us from ingesting the COVID 19 virus also protects the lungs of us home improvement contractors. Manufacturers have done a good job of creating joint compound whose dust settles to the floor, rather than going air-borne and sifting all around the room. Still, it’s best to take measures to keep dust out of the rest of the home. Here I’ve hung a sheet of painter’s plastic across the wall, to contain sanding dust. Once I’m done sanding, I’ll use my Shop Vac to clean up the mess, removing dust from both the floor and the walls. It’s crucial that all dust be removed from the wall. If not, it’s like flouring a cake pan – the wallpaper (or paint) will kinda stick – but not really stick. Vacuuming the wall will not remove all dust. The only way to remove all residual dust is to wipe it off the wall with a damp sponge.Look at how much dust has accumulated on the sponge after only a few swipes. The sponge needs to be rinsed clean frequently. Once I’m done, I’ll dump this bucket of dusty water down the toilet (not the sink). Swipes from the damp sponge will leave wet marks on the wall. These need to dry before moving to the priming step, so as not to trap moisture within the wall surface. Here I’m rolling on my favorite wallpaper primer, Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime. I have my paint store guys add just a bit of blue tint, to help me see where I’ve rolled it on. The short angled brush is for cutting the paint in around corners and edges. I’ve tacked strips of dropcloth along the top of the baseboards, to prevent splatters.Finished wall, nice and smooth, primed, and ready for wallpaper.
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