Before … Heavy stipple / sand texture on drab sage green semi-gloss paint. I skim-floated the walls , sanded smooth , primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer and … Here’s the finished sink area of this hall bathroom . Before shot of tub and window wall .So much brighter and livelier! Close up . It’s hard to see from these photos, but the colors are pewter, silver, and metallic silver. The paper also has a lightly textured surface . The pattern is called Hedgerow and the brand name is Super Fresco. Every other SF I’ve hung has been on a non-woven / paste-the-wall substrate , so I was surprised to discover that this one was a paste-the-paper material , and that the backing is a paper / pulp material , with textured vinyl laminated to the surface. My issue with this is that, historically, these paper-backed solid vinyl wallpapers don’t hold up well in humid areas , such as bathrooms. Humidity in the air can actually be wicked up through the seams and then settle on the paper backing , which is absorbent and thirsty. Once that paper absorbs moisture, it’s going to expand . Since there is nowhere for it to go, it will push back against the wall , and that can cause the seam to curl up and pull away from the wall. Oftentimes, the paper backing actually delaminates (comes apart) from the vinyl surface. This is not a “loose seam” and cannot be repaired. You pretty much have to replace the whole strip. Or, more likely, to replace the entire wall, from one corner to the next. Proper wall prep , including a primer made for use under wallpaper , goes a long way toward avoiding these sorts of occurrences. installer houston memorial area
Incredibly boring and blah powder room in a newish townhome in the Montrose area of Houston. Wow! Now THIS makes an IMPACT!!!This is not an Andy Warhol design, but it’s exactly like what he liked to create. Shot of mirror over vanity. Pattern is perfectly centered over mirror and coming down both sides.Lips! Pic is off-hue … The background is really a vibrant yellow. Rolling out the material. Each ” roll ” contains three strips, , or panels , each of which is 20.5″ wide by 118″ (just under 10′).The manufacturer is Mind The Gap , and the pattern is called Neon Kiss . This is a strong, un-tearable, stain-resistant non-woven material. It is easy to hang on flat walls, and you can use the paste the wall installation method. I usually paste the material , though, especially in bathrooms with vanities to cut around and toilets to squeeze behind. The substrate is soft and supple and easy to trim, and the surface is quite washable.
BeforeHeadboard wallKeeping the pattern match in corners is trickyMetallic gold lines
Yhe home is a classic ’50’s / ’60’s ranch in the Spring Branch area of Houston, that has been nicely updated. It now has an open-concept living area, with contemporary finishes and fixtures (flooring, faucets, etc.). The kitchen and bathrooms have been given a sleek new look, as well.
Instead of papering just one accent wall in the master bedroom, the homeowners opted to put the wallpaper all the way around the room. The simple pattern and soft two-tone color palate make it a good choice. The contemporary design and gold metallic accents fit it in with the updates in the rest of the home.
The wallpaper is by York. It is a non-woven material, which means it can be hung via the paste-the-wall method. See next post for info on the install itself.
I love how the color and pattern play off the tiled accent wall behind the sink and mirror.
The wallpaper is by Fine Decor Wallcoverings, in their Terence Conran line. Like most modern papers from Great Britain, it is a non-woven substrate, and can be hung via the paste-the-wall method. In complicated rooms like bathrooms, I find it better to paste the paper.
This new and very contemporary home is in the Memorial / Beltway 8 area of west Houston.
Originally, the homeowner wasn’t “really” thinking about adding wallpaper to her master bedroom. But, in the back of her mind, she must have been “kinda” thinking about it, because, after I finished measuring several bathrooms in the home and was poised to leave, she hauled me into the bedroom and asked what could be done to create more of a haven.
I pulled out some samples of patterns I have hung in other homes, and she immediately zeroed in on this one. My sample was the navy blue colorway, but she grasped that wallpaper comes in different color options, and was able to envision this in a softer color to coordinate with the rest of the walls. (Note that that hot pink is a protective plastic sheet – not the color of the headboard!)
To me, the pattern looks like architectural details from old Roman ruins. The distant photos distort the design a bit, so please look at the close up to get a better idea.
Usually I will place a design like this in the middle of the wall. But in the case of this 18′ wide wall, the bed was not centered on the wall, nor was the chandelier. In addition, there curtains on either side of the wall that obscured the corners.
So I opted to center the circular design motif on the chandelier. This meant the bed had to be moved to the right … a whole 3″. This way, as you walk out of the master bathroom, you see the chandelier, the headboard, and the wallpaper design all synced up vertically.
The pattern doesn’t hit the wall uniformly on the right and left sides of the wall, but the drapes cover that. And, on a wall this wide with lots of furniture in front of it, who cares, anyway?!
The wallpaper is by Designer Wallpapers, one of my favorite companies, and was bought at Southwestern Paint. See link on the right for where to purchase wallpaper in Houston. This home is in Katy.
Just about everything in this townhome is white. The master bath has white walls and woodwork, white cabinets and countertops, a white tub, and a white marble floor with wisps of soft grey.
This wallpaper continues the crisp clean look, but adds some contrast, dimension, and movement. In addition, the swirls are composed of dots about the size of a pencil eraser, and they are slightly raised, so the wallpaper actually has a bit of texture to it.
The wallpaper is on a non-woven substrate. With the characteristics of this material, you have the option of pasting the wall instead of the paper. But since bathrooms have more complicated spaces and access, it’s preferable to me to paste the paper.
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.
The home is in the Rice Village / West University Place area of Houston.
Phillip Jeffries’s “Rivets” pattern is popular and trendy. The wallpaper I hung today is Thibaut’s response to it.
Thibaut’s version offers the same texture and appeal of real natural fiber grasscloth, as well as three-dimensional squares that unite to form larger squares.
Thibaut’s version Union Square is better because:
1.) Less expensive
2.) Better color consistency (fewer paneling and shading issues)
3.) Squares form a more muted secondary pattern, so it’s much easier to live with (the pattern doesn’t hit you in the eye every time you look at a wall)
4.) Squares are positioned on the strips so the installer can easily manipulate the pattern to accommodate un-plumb walls and un-level ceilings.
5.) For similar reasons, the installer can “tweak” the design a bit to ensure favorable placement of the squares (to eliminate having to cut through any of the squares, or bend them around a corner). Read below.
6.) When it’s unavoidable to have to cut through the squares, the Thibaut 3-D material is much easier to get through with a blade or scissors than the PJ or the Schumacher products.
7.) The bolts are marked in the order they came off the printing press (see photo), so you can hang strips sequentially, to minimize shading and paneling (do a search here on those terms).
8.) Thibaut provides clear tips on how to work with natural materials and what to expect with the finished outcome.
9.) Thibaut offers to replace material lost to working around defects, and they will also reimburse an installer for (part) of his labor, if a product is defective.
10.) Other points which are escaping me right now. But suffice it to say, despite its grand reputation, Phillip Jeffries products are often extremely difficult to install, and disappointing in appearance, and customer service is basically, “We never had this problem before – it must be the installer’s fault.”
Thibaut, on the other hand, researches what it takes to make a good product, does test hangs, and, if there is a problem, Thibaut actually listens to feedback from us installers.
In the window photo, I did some tweaking to get the rivets to line up exactly over the middle of the window. It took some further tweaking to position the squares so they would march down either side of the window at the same distance from the edge.
How did I accomplish that? After much measuring and plotting and a few practice strips, I widened the distance between two sets of squares over the center of the window – by a full inch. 4.5″ instead of 3.5″ is a big difference, yet it is barely noticeable. What is more important is that the squares going down either side of the window are all 3/4″ from the edge.
This home is in the Briar Park neighborhood of Houston – interestingly enough, right next door to another home I papered a year or so ago, and a block away from another home I where I hung paper in the powder room and have more bathrooms to paper coming up … In fact, I have put wallpaper in a whole lot of homes in this one tiny neighborhood. Near Beltway 8 / Sam Houston Tollway and Briar Forest.
The interior designer is Layne Ogden of Layne Torsch Interiors.
Here is a nursery accent wall, getting ready for a baby girl in a few months.
I like Spoonflower’s paper, and it’s been a while since I’ve hung it, so today was fun.
Spoonflower is different from other papers. For starters, it comes in strips of certain lengths, so you have to figure out how many strips of each length you need. For an accent wall like this, that was easy – but it can get complicated in chopped up rooms like bathrooms. Each strip comes packaged separately, in it’s own long, skinny zip-top bag.
The paper is pre-pasted, which you don’t see much these days. I find this type much faster to hang. The paper is also designed to be overlapped at the seams (instead of butted). This means you will see a 1/2″ wide ridge from floor to ceiling down either side of each strip. (See third photo.) In the grand scheme of things, this is not very noticeable. (In the old days, all papers were hung this way, and I have some authentic 1940’s paper in my home office to prove it. 🙂 )
The material is thin paper, and it gets very wet when it is pasted, and it expands. When the paper dries, it shrinks a tad. If the seams were butted, you would end up with gaps between the strips. By overlapping the strips a tad, gaps are prevented. This method also puts less tension on the wall, so you have less chance of layers inside the wall delaminating. (Do a search here for more info.)
The composition and the thinness of the paper also make it difficult to cut, because it wants to tear. So you have to keep a supply of sharp, new blades handy.
This paper is very similar to one I blogged about on December 25, 2018. I’m betting it’s made by the same manufacturer, but sold under different brand names.
Note that Spoonflower also offers a peel & stick so-called “removable” option – do NOT go with this one – horrible stuff, that P&S.
This home is in the Heights / Timber Grove area of Houston.
It’s hard to see in this photo, but there are two water line connections and a drain that were located under a wall-mounted sink in a small powder room.
Before I got started, the homeowner called a plumber to come remove the sink. This made it a LOT easier for me to get under there, and to cut around the plumbing fixtures. There are fewer cut edges, no mis-matched seams, and, since the area under this sink is exposed, the whole space looks neat and tidy.
It also means that the wallpaper goes completely behind the sink, with no cut edge at the top of the sink. So there are no worries about water that gets splashed onto the top of the sink wicking up under the paper and causing curling edges.
Most of the time, I trim around sinks in bathrooms like this. But when it’s possible to remove the sink, boy, it’s great for everyone! It makes my job easier and faster – it probably saved me an hour’s worth of trimming in this room. And it makes the job look better and ensures there will be no curling edges along the top of the sink.
AND it minimizes stress on the paper from manipulating it around bends and turns or overworking, so eliminates the possibility of creases in the material or flaking ink.
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