More Blue Heron Flight Mural

This is the kind of a room that you don’t just look at the walls – you have to stand in the room and feel it. Dusk settling into night , swooping birds , stormy clouds .

This looks a little like hand-stitched embroidery .

This textured natural material is a fine sisal , which is similar to grasscloth . The color between panels was pretty uniform , as you see at the seam toward the right of the photo .

These panels came 33″ wide . But for this last strip on the right, I only needed 23″ width. That means I would have 10″ of width , the length of the strip, to cut off and discard . If I had used the left side of the strip, which is logical installation sequence , we would have had birds’ butts sticking out from the side of the window molding . So I decided to trim off that left side and instead use the right side which, as you see, has a more pleasing bird’s face and wing .

The brand is Phillip Jeffries , a high-end company . The material comes as a 6-panel set . You have to purchase six panels, but after that, you can buy individual panels in sequence, so you’ll have enough to do your room , without having to purchase a full 6-panel set. Like I said – this stuff is pricey!
This dining room is in a renovated 1925 home in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .
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Phillip Jeffries Flight in Blue Heron in Heights Dining Room

Before shot of dining room in a beautifully restored and enlarged 1925 bungalow in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.
Just below dead center of photo, under the stairs – my helper couldn’t be less interested!

Swooping heron , and powerful , roiling, turbulent clouds .

This is a manila hemp product , which is similar to grasscloth , and has a texture d surface . As with most natural materials , the seams are always a bit visible .

The walls in this home were smooth , so no call for skim-floating or sanding … Just a primer was needed . My favorite primer for wallpaper is Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime .

This wallpaper comes in panels , and is custom made to order . All of the panels are rolled up into one long bolt , and you have to separate them, as you see here. AND keep them in the correct order / sequence ,

I was lucky that this house had a lot of open floor space , where I could roll out the panels to verify pattern match, panel sequence , and get accurate measurements.
Note that, like many high-end brands, this wallpaper comes with an unprinted selvedge edge , that has to be trimmed off by hand . Once I get the edges trimmed off , the birds you see in the photo above will match perfectly .

I trim against this Big Blue straightedge , and hold a single edge razor blade in my hand .

Sorry, I don’t know how to flip this photo. WordPress used to be easy to work … but some years back they came up with this ” New Editor ” which is, to be honest, a nightmare, and costs me a lot of time every evening.
End of rant. Here is a mock-up provided by the manufacturer , that shows the mural as a six- panel set , including pattern layout and dimensions of each panel .

Here are my drawings from when I first consult ed with the homeowner and we plotted out how the paper was to be install ed. Phillip Jeffries is expensive stuff!
Normally, with a mural , a full-height panel is required for even the 6″ high areas over the door ways. See photo below. This means that you’re paying for a lot – a LOT – of wallpaper that gets cut off and thrown into the trash.
But, since the panels are about 2′ taller than the walls , we figured that the part cut off the bottom of each strip could be used for the areas over the doorways (see next photo) , as well as above and below the windows (see last photo).
This will take no small amount of math and engineering , and the couple will have to live with some paneling / shading , and color variations between strips . But that’s typical of grasscloth type products , anyway. Accepting a few color differences will save this couple a few – thousand – dollars. Yes, I told you that PJ was expensive stuff!
And I’m up for the challenge !

Here’s the one area I’ve done so far, using scraps discarded from the bottoms to piece in over the top of the entryway . This area is only 6″ high , so color variations won’t be very noticeable . Still, it really turned out well.

Getting a similarly pleasing look on this wall , with heights over and under the windows being much higher than 6″ , will be tomorrow’s challenge. Stay tuned!

Questionable Rolls From Flavor Paper Today

It’s important that all your rolls of wallpaper be of the same run , or batch number , also called dye lot . This ensures that the rolls were printed at the same time with the same batch of ink . Rolls printed from different batches or runs could be a very slight different color or shade – and that can result in a striped effect on your walls .
The run number is usually printed on the label of the wallpaper. But since Flavor Paper doesn’t use traditional labels, they put a tiny sticker with the run number onto the outside of the plastic bag that each roll is slipped into. These stickers aren’t particularly secure, IMO.
On this job with the Brooklyn Toile pattern from Flavor Paper , we needed eight of their “rolls.” Each roll contains two strips , printed in one long sheet that you cut apart in the middle to separate the two strips .
Flavor Paper comes with a header at the top of the roll, that includes the pattern name and other information from the manufacturer . In this photo, I’ve cut off that top portion.
We had six rolls that came like this.

But then two rolls came like this, with that top part removed.
In addition, this paper has been damaged and soiled . Not smudges around the birds near the center .
I suspect it was purchased by another homeowner, the installer removed the top header , then didn’t need the roll, and it was returned to the manufacturer . In the process, it got beaten up and dirtied.

Here’s another shot of the header missing. If the previous installer had a pasting machine, he could have used its built-in cutter to make a perfectly straight and 90* angled cut like you see here. That’s another reason I think it was opened, not used, and returned to the company.

This is the second roll. Look at how it’s been wrinkled and damaged . Paper doesn’t come from the factory like this. It had to have been unrolled, re-rolled, and put back into the plastic wrapper.

Even worse, a couple of feet into the second roll I came upon this badly creased wallpaper . This crease was probably caused by the factory . But it could also have happened at the hands of the other (alleged) installer .
Because of the way this material is printed and packaged , not in continuous rolls like most brands , but in panels or strips that are 24″ wide x 10′ 4″ long , with a somewhat long pattern repeat , I was not able to simply roll off a pattern repeat or two and still get a strip long enough to fit the wall. In other words, this damaged strip cut me short of what I needed to wallpaper this powder room .

Here’s another reason why I think these two rolls were opened and then sent back to the manufacturer . That one on the right looks like it’s been opened , unrolled , and then re-rolled – and when you do that, you can never get the roll to be as tight as it was when it came off the factory line.
I think these two odd rolls were purchased, not used, sent back to the company, and then simply stuck on a shelf to be resold – without anyone ever checking to see if they were in good condition.
Or what the proper run number is.
In addition, I don’t have confidence that the run number that was on that little sticker on the outside of the bag (see caption to top photo) is actually the right number.
In the end, I was able to futz and fiddle and engineer – and get the room done with the paper that was useable.
In the meantime, the homeowner is communicating with the manufacturer. Flavor Paper has good customer service . Additionally, they are members of the Wallcovering Installers Association / WIA (as am I).
This pre-pasted material is in their EZ Papes line, which I like a lot. I am not fond of their vinyl or peel & stick materials , and some of their papers can be darned tricky to install. I ask my clients to stick with the EZ Papes.

Very Pretty Bird Pattern in Garnet and Gray

Pretty birds , nicely spaced branches , and lovely colors for this master bedroom in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .

This accent / headboard wall is even prettier from a distance .

Here’s the wall before. The other three walls are painted a complementary grey .

From a distance. I’ve got one more strip to hang , on the far right.

Close up . The background is silver with a little gloss to it, but not so much as to be glitzy or garish . I mean, a guy sleeps here, too. So it’s gotta be a bit subdued .

This wallpaper is made by Graham & Brown.  G&B is a good quality , mid-price range company. Like most of their papers, this is a non-woven / paste the wall material .  Much of G&B’s paper is thin and flexible .  But this particular pattern came on a thick and stiff substrate .  N-W’s contain a minimum 20% polyester content, and I suspect this has a higher percentage .  The stuff is somewhat akin to fiberglass .  Look closely at the bottom of the photo, and you can see the fibers .  This makes it good, and easy for DIY ‘ers , on simple installations like accent walls / feature walls .  But it can be trickier when you have to trim around obstacles like windows , decorative moldings , vanities , toilets , and the like.  
Non-woven wallpapers are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate , with minimal or no damage to your wall (assuming proper prep was done before installation ).  A much better choice than peel & stick . 

William Morris ‘ Fruit ‘ on Master Bath Accent Wall

A cozy nook. The homeowner likes to spend time here, soaking and relaxing. And recovering from supervising high school athletic activities !
This is a 1939 4-plex in the Montrose area of Houston that was beautifully renovated into a single-family home. So this entire master suite is carved out of what was originally one 1- bedroom apartment .
Note my white 2′ x 4′ sheet of plywood over the claw-foot tub , so I can safely access the wall above.

The wallpaper was placed on just one accent wall , above the tile wainscoting / chair rail . During the initial Sunday afternoon consultation , both the homeowners and I felt that this pattern on all the walls of this large master bathroom would be too overpowering . So they opted for just one accent wall .

The design doesn’t have a strongly noticeable secondary or vertical pattern , but I still took the time to center the most dominant feature (the pomegranates) on the tub faucet . The faucet guy , tub guy , and tile guy didn’t get everything perfectly lined up – but nobody’s even noticing. What matters is that the finished nook looks fantastic!
Also of note is that, in this near-100 year old home, the wall was bowed , and it wasn’t possible for the tile to lie flat against the entire surface. So there were some areas where the grout was 1/4″ wide, and some areas where the wall actually overshot the tile, leaving no visible grout at all. So at the area where the wallpaper met up with the top of the tile and the uneven grout line, I made a fat cut , to try to disguise the uneven line. Do a Search here to see previous posts on fat cuts .

This wallpaper design is by William Morris , who was a strong force during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s , in the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements . His work is having a resurgence in popularity right now. Most are more symmetrical and repetitive than this example ( Google Strawberry Thief ) , but, true to the design aesthetic , all of them involve natural elements , such as plants , flowers , fruits , birds , and animals .
In this close-up shot, you can see the raised ink of this print , which gives a slight textured feel .
The manufacturer is Morris & Co. Usually M&C prints on a user-friendly non-woven material . But in the last year or two I’ve come across more and more M&C that are printed on the old-fashioned, traditional, what we call a British pulp substrate .
Non-wovens are strong , durable , stain-resistant , humidity – resistant , easy to install , and easy to remove when you redecorate . Pulps , on the other hand , are just the opposite . Do a Search here to see my previous posts.
None of this is a deal-breaker. The installer just needs to know what he’s getting into, before taking on the project.
We hunted. This particular pattern was not available by any vendor in the NW material. Maybe it’s COVID , or supply chain issues , or maybe it’s a British thing (even though many American and Canadian companies are printing the Wm Morris designs ). Couldn’t find any outfit offering Fruit in non-woven.
At any rate, the paper went up beautifully, and the basic paper material will hold up well, even if the homeowner steams up the room on her long tub soaks , and the pattern is lovely in the vintage home with new tile , tub , and faucet .

An Amazingly Well-Balanced Room

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O.K. – this is going to be a pretty technical post, and it will probably thrill me (and other paperhangers) more than it will the typical homeowner, but I was really tickled with the way this turned out. Here goes:

This wallpaper pattern is called “A Twitter,” and is by Schumacher. It is a fun design, and has a strong vertical element, with the trunks of trees very dominant in the design. I hung it in a powder room in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. This room was a rectangle, with the front and rear walls the same width, and the two side walls the same width.

Before I start hanging paper, I plot out the room (engineering), to plan where I want to place the pattern, where seams will fall, etc. I considered running the tree trunk behind the mirror. But that would have made the pattern sit off-center on the wall. Since that wall is facing you as you enter the room, I wanted it to be more symmetrical.

So I decided to center the pattern on the wall. But if I placed the tree trunk in the middle of the wall, then there would be only one tree trunk on that wall, and the next time the tree trunk appeared, it would be on the side walls, and not visible on the main wall. I thought it would look better to have the tree trunk on the main wall. So I planned it so that branches fell down the center line of the wall, and were flanked by a pair of tree trunks on either side. See photo.

What’s cool is, by placing the pattern this way, it turned out that the tree trunk fell almost perfectly centered behind both the mirror and the toilet. See top photo.

Then, as I progressed around the room and papered the side walls, the pattern fell symmetrically on these side walls, and mirrored itself perfectly. Meaning that the two walls that were perpendicular to the main wall, both had the same pattern as it advanced toward the back wall.

The back wall, then, also had the same pattern at the same measurements coming in from the corners as the wallpaper approached the door. See third and fourth photos.

What’s even cooler is that as the paper went around the door, the tree trunk magically “almost” perfectly centered itself over the door. It was so close that it looks like it is centered.

What’s even more cool is how the kill point in this room turned out. The “kill point” is the final corner in a room, where the first strip of wallpaper meets the last strip of wallpaper; this point is virtually always a pattern mis-match. So we try to place it over a door, or behind a door, or somewhere where it won’t be too noticeable.

But in this bathroom, as you can see in the third and fourth photos, the wall area on either side of the final wall was 9″ or more wide, and a mis-match would be very obvious. What I like to do in these cases is to keep the pattern intact by wrapping the paper from the final corner around onto the final wall where it butts up against the door. The door stops the pattern, so you don’t notice that the pattern would not match if you continued it to the opposite corner.

The thing is, there is still the area above the door that needs to be covered with wallpaper, and the design coming along the top of the door was not going to match up with the pattern I had wrapped around the corner to the left of the door. It almost lined up, but was off by about 2″ vertically, as well as about 3/4″ at the top of the wall, because un-plumb walls and un-level ceiling lines had caused the pattern to travel upwards a little.

So what I did was, referring to the last photo, as the paper above the door was moving to the left, and as the pattern on the left of the door was moving to the right and about to meet the pattern over the door, which would have resulted about 2″ of excess paper, and in tree limbs not lining up and birds being cut in half, as well as one bird’s head being at the top of the wall and another same bird’s head being 3/4″ below the top of the wall.

So what I did was, I slit the paper along the right side of the tree trunk. Then I took the right side of the strip of wallpaper that had been cut off and slid it down until the pattern matched up with the strip that was already over the door. Then I slipped the excess 2″ of paper on the left side of this piece under the cut tree trunk to its left. This effectively “swallowed up” the 2″ of excess paper. I trimmed this off so the overlap would be more like 1/2″ and could be disguised by the tree trunk.

So I had lined up the heads of the birds, and I had eliminated the 2′ excess of paper, and everything was hidden by that tree trunk.

One eye-jarring problem remained – The bird at the top of the tree trunk had been disembodied, and his head was at the top of the wall but his body was an inch or two below.

So what I did was to take a piece of left over paper that had the same bird on it and cut around the bird and the branches, and paste that over the tree trunk so the bird you see is completely intact. I needed to cut a few extra piece of brown paper and paste them over the tree trunk so your eye would not catch any incongruency, but you have to admit – that bird and the tree trunk it is sitting on looks pretty darned natural.

There was another area that had a void spot due to where the strips of paper had been moved over or to the side from one another, and I also used this appliqué method to disguise it.

Note that all of this is up 12′ off the ground, so you can’t see overlaps or appliqués or ridges. These techniques might work equally well at eye-level, or they might be more obvious. But in this room, with this pattern and this lay-out and this paper, it sure looks great.

I would challenge any homeowner – and even most any paperhanger – to stand on the floor and find where the pattern / paper was manipulated to disguise the kill point.

All this took a lot of time and math and plotting – but it sure was fun, and it sure was gratifying.

Apothecary’s Garden in Powder Room – Fairy Tale Floral

Deep green wainscoting at the bottom, and on the right is a 100 year old ” dry sink ” with coordinating colored tile backsplash turned into a vanity, with period-appropriate faucet .

Fresh and lively . But can you believe the design dates back about 100 years ? – same as the house!

Close up. Looks like watercolor paint . Birds , butterflies , plants , flowers , and grasshoppers !

C.F.A. Voysey is a male designer who worked around the turn of the last century, late 1800’s through about the 1920’s , and was part of the Arts & Crafts decorating movement . Most of his patterns are somewhat symmetrical , as well as whimsical and fanciful , with heavy emphasis on nature .
This is a non-woven material , can be hung via the paste the wall method , although I prefer the paste the paper installation . It has a 20% polyester content and is thus more resistant to stains and humidity than traditional papers . And it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to your walls when you redecorate .
The brand name is Lord Twig and it comes from Finest Wallpaper , which is in Canada.
This went in the rear powder room of a beautifully renovated 1926 4-plex apartment that has been artfully converted into a single family home , in the Woodland Heights area of Houston .

Meg Braff Bad Printing Job

The homeowner very much loves this simple, tone-on-tone shore bird pattern for her dining room – just the top , above the chair rail / wainscoting. Here I’m plotting where to best situate the pattern on the wall , between the chair rail and ceiling , while keeping the most important pattern elements and motifs intact . (no cutting off birds’ heads at the ceiling , nor at the wainscoting ) I’m also checking the pattern match .

It quickly became evident that the pattern match, as laid out by the factory, was incorrect . Match it at the bottom (by my thumb ), but as you move up , the pattern goes a little out of whack . This is actually not all that bad , and is considered acceptable – the industry standard allows for up to 1/8″ – 3/8″ mis-match .
Hand-trim screen-print materials such as this are particularly notable for pattern mis-matches .
For the record, they’re also known for curling edges , puckering , waffling , and other issues that make them difficult to hang , as well as questionability as to how long they’ll perform on your wall before wanting to resort to that curling at the seams .

More pattern mis-matching .

But the situation got worse . These high-end screen prints often come with an unprinted selvedge edge that has to be trimmed off by hand , with a straightedge (the blue metal thing ), a razor blade – and a steady hand.
If the trim guide marks printed on the material by the company are ” off ,” then you’re supposed to ” trim to the pattern .” This means that you find the design element on the left edge of the paper and then find the corresponding element on the right side, and place your straightedge so that your trim cuts will result in the two edges matching up perfectly. (Or at least within that 1/8″ -3/8″)
At this point, the white lines in the design – let’s call them ‘grapes’ – are abutting my blue straightedge , and should meet up perfectly with the corresponding white lines on the grapes on the opposite side of the subsequent strip of wallpaper.

But, unfortunately, with this material, that didn’t work. If I lined my straightedge up with the pattern design elements , as in the photo above this one, by the time I moved down a few feet , as you can see in this photo , the pattern begins moving away from the straightedge . The white grape outlines do not butt up against my straightedge.
The likely reason is that this material has been printed on the bias . That means that the artisan at the factory got his screens out of whompus , for lack of a better term.

” Trim to the pattern .” OK. So here I’m placing my straightedge at 1/8″ away from the ” hook ” in this design .

Still the same distance from the “hook.” But the white lines are starting to move away from the straightedge.

Here they’ve moved farther off. With this design, from a distance , you could maybe live with the white lines not meeting up perfectly.
But what you couldn’t find acceptable is that the tan area between these white elements would be growing wider diagonally as you move both up and down the wall. Look at the photo. You can see the tan area growing larger .
But it gets worse as it spreads farther … As that tan section grows wider like a “V” or a wedge as you move up or down the wall, it additionally pushes the design motifs at the top of the ceiling or at top of the wainscoting either up or down along the horizontal lines of the ceiling and wainscoting .
So not only do you get a widening tan line between each seam , you also get the birds’ heads moving up or down from where they’re supposed to be positioned below the ceiling or above the wainscoting .
I spent an hour and a half trying different placements and trimming methods . I knew the client loved this pattern and that she was willing to accept reasonable flaws in the pattern match and positioning.
But even given that, I wanted her to have a good looking dining room – not one with uneven spacing between strips, or grossly irregular positioning along the horizontal lines in the room.
I even consulted with several (five!) “high-end” installer buddies of mine. No one had a ” tip ” for making an improperly printed design fall correctly on the wall. In fact, all five of them said it couldn’t be done.
I determined that this material was unhangable.
As mentioned, I tried to find an installer buddy who could make this work and get this client’s dining room done in time for Thanksgiving dinner. But no one wanted to take it on.
I don’t know if the manufacturer will replace the paper or refund the $ spend. Manufacturers are usually keen on saying that “it’s the installer’s fault .” I can say that I’ve had similar issues with Meg Braff papers in the past.
The homeowner really loves this pattern. It’s possible – but not assured – that purchasing the same design but in a different run will yield a better factory printing job.
Just a note that printing defects , curling seams , wrinkling / quilting , and more, are somewhat common with hand-screened wallpapers . And here’s another reason why I’m happiest when clients stick with middle-of-the-road, or slightly upper priced , wallpaper options . Email me and request my Info Pack (or see the link on the right) for more information and brand name recommendations.
Sad to bow out and leave this client with an unpapered room, and no viable solution or direction . But better that than to take on something that I can’t assure will look good. I hope she tells me what she ends up doing and how all this turns out.

Swallowtail in Heights Dining Room

This is a beautifully renovated and updated 2-story 1920’s bungalow in the Heights neighborhood of central Houston.
Unlike the trend for homes that are all white or grey , this family went for color and fun . In other rooms, the woodwork and walls are painted cheery yet soft shades of blue , orange , yellow , salmon , and green . You may be able to find some photos by doing a Search here.

The fun doesn’t stop with paint colors … Here is a colorful and visually active wallpaper pattern in the family’s dining room .

The pattern might be overwhelming floor-to-ceiling , so the board and baton wainscoting gives the eyes a resting place.

The pattern is called Swallowtail . Not sure if that refers to birds or butterflies , but either way, it’s a fitting description .

You can almost feel the swooping and swirling wings .
The homeowner chose sconces that coordinate beautifully with the theme of the wallpaper .

The manufacturer is Flat Vernacular . The material was pre-trimmed , and was printed on a non-woven substrate . It could be hung by pasting the paper or by pasting the wall (I pasted the paper, as I usually do). It was nice to work with.
Unlike most wallpapers that come in rolls of standard dimensions , this material was priced and sold by the yard , and came in bolts of continuous lengths .

Two Color Rhythmic Print for Heights Breakfast Nook

Before. Grey and boring .
The built-in banquette seating has been removed.

Finished.

Closer look.

Showing the pattern centered on the wall, and with the shutters. The dimensions of the paper not corresponding well with the width of the window, along with logistics of pattern placement at the ceiling line but starting my first strip under the window all created some plotting and engineering challenges. Fun, but time consuming. But it turned out great!

The original idea was to just paper the nook area, ending at the vertical door molding. But it would have looked odd to stop the wallpaper above this doorway. So the homeowner and I decided to run the paper along the top of the doorway, and then down the left side (not shown), which dead-ends into some cabinets and the granite countertop. It looked good and was the right call.

It tickles me that this is quite obviously a riff on the very popular Strawberry Thief wallpaper pattern by William Morris , which is quite popular right now (do a Search here to see my installations of it). When a company comes up with a hit, you can be assured that a competitor will soon be making its own version of it.
The original has a lot more color, but this version is limited to just two colors. Even though there is a lot of contrast between the black and the white , the pattern doesn’t feel busy, because the design is so close and tight .
There is a lot of symmetry , repetitiveness , and balance in Wm Morris and similar styles .

I love the raised ink texture to this material .

Whoops! A slight pattern mis-match . The overall design is busy enough that small imperfections like this (as well as some color variations / shading ) are not really noticeable .

It’s odd to me that the printing defects are different in different strips / rolls of the wallpaper . You’d think that if the print roller was out of whack, it would create the same image every time it strikes the wallpaper surface. Or maybe it’s the trimmers that are off. If they had cut 1/16″ more off that left edge, we might have a perfect pattern match .

The manufacturer is York , one of my favorites , in their Sure Strip line, also one of my favorites.
It’s in the Magnolia Home collection , by, yes, Joanna Gaines , of HGTV fame with the show Fixer Upper .
SureStrip is a pre-pasted , thin , flexible , non-woven material that is easy to hang . It’s also easy to remove when you’re ready to redecorate , because it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to your walls .
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