Clever Wine Crate Pattern for Outside a Wine Room

In the top picture, out of sight to the right is a walk-in wine room. The homeowner has loved this pattern for years, and finally found a place to put it – right adjacent to the wine room!

The wine case pattern is by Brunschwig and Fils. Unlike the other papers by B&F that I have hung, this one is a vinyl, with a slightly embossed surface (the lines between the boxes are slightly indented). It has a selvedge edge that had to be trimmed off by hand. Unlike most hand-trimmed papers, this one had no trim guide marks, so I had to wing it on where to place my straightedge.

The paper backing soaked up paste quickly, and each strip was nearly dried out by the end of the booking time, so I ended up rolling a little paste on the wall where the seams would fall, to augment. Once it was on the wall, the paper adhered nicely.

The floor was unlevel, and so the paper ran crooked along top of it, making it look like the bottom row of boxes was running downhill. To level out this bottom line, I used my straightedge and a razor blade to cut off the bottom “boards” along the black line. I trimmed the strip to 1/2″ high. See 4th photo. I used a piece of artist’s chalk to color the cut edge, so white would not show along the top.

Then I appliquéd the strip over the bottom of the paper on the wall, butting it up against the baseboard. Wallpaper paste won’t stick to vinyl (it’s too slick), so I used special adhesive on the area of the overlap.

In the bottom photo, you can see how nice and even the bottom line looks.

The interior designer for this job is Stacie Cokinos, of Cokinos Design. The home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston.

A Geometric Pattern Adds Subtle Warmth

This week I’m working in a very contemporary newish home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. Everything is straight lines and white walls. The bathrooms are getting a little warmth and personality with wallpaper.

The color scheme, pattern, and scale of this wallpaper all help it feel muted, so it doesn’t overpower the “minimalist” feel of the home. The geometric design, on the other hand, goes very nicely with the clean lines of the home, and with modern artwork collected by the homeowners.

This product is paper (not vinyl or non-woven) and is by Anderson Prints. It is not particularly easy to work with, since it tends to dry out after only a few minutes of booking time, and I had to repaste most of the edges so the seams would stay down. It also tears up my razor blades faster than most papers.

It 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.

Flaw of the Day

Printers Guild Productions #EG21406

Very porous paper, absorbed the paste during the booking time, so by the time it got to the wall there was little paste left to adhere the paper to the wall. I had to repaste most of the seams.

This is a pattern with a huge red medallian on white background. Surprisingly, the red ink was not colorfast. As I wiped the paper with my damp rag, the red color would run and streak. When I needed to wipe the paper, I had to make sure that I wiped back into the medallian, not into the white space, in order to hide any streaking of the ink.

I think many of these issues are a result of manufacturers trying to “be green.” Well, I wish they would try less to be trendy and work harder to make QUALITY products. I also wish they would TEST papers before putting them on the market.

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