Symmetrical Leopards on Home Office Accent Wall

Moody and dark. A great, snug place to hunker down and spend the day on the computer , working from home . But maybe a little too much dark ?

An accent wall brightens the space and adds interest .  Makes a day at work more inviting.
BTW, those windows with their bull-nosed edges / rounded corners are a bear to hang wallpaper around, requiring special techniques.  I won’t go into details, but, after applying my wallpaper primer, just this one wall took me about six hours. 

Surprise! Look closely and notice the jungle theme , with palm trees and leopards .
I centered the pattern between the windows , for a balanced look. 

Close up.

See the fibers on the torn edge of the wallpaper strip ? This is a non-woven material , also called paste the wall , and has a 20% polyester content . Thus the fibers. This stuff is simpler to hang than traditional wallpapers . Also more washable and stain-resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage to the wall when you redecorate later.

These days, most people don’t use land lines or phone jacks .  So I removed the wall plate , and stuffed the connector into the wall .  Then I hung the wallpaper over the hole / box .  It’s right above the head of the cat on the left.  If the homeowners ever want to access the phone line , they can easily cut the wallpaper to open up the box , then reconnect it and then screw the wallplate back into place. 

The wallpaper is by York , under the designer Ronald Redding .   The label says it’s a paste the paper installation method , but in actuality, the instruction leaflet enclosed inside the roll is correct – it can be hung via the paste the wall method . Usually I prefer to paste the paper . 
This is a newish townhome in the Sawyer Yards area of Houston .

Wrong Electrical Boxes for These Sconces

This is the mounting bracket for a sconce / light fixture . The fixture itself is exactly the same size as the bracket.
So it’s unfortunate that the electrician used an electrical box that is too large . As you can see, the blue box shows on both the left and right sides of the light fixture.
(I will also add that I think this light fixture is narrower than most – I suspect it was made overseas where boxes and codes are different from here.)
In addition, the blue box juts out from the wall and will create a bump under the wallpaper , plus prevent the paper from adhering tightly to the wall . The jaggedly cut drywall will leave impressions under the paper, too.

Here the plastic electrical box is recessed better into the wall. But there are still gaps on the left and right sides of the bracket.
To get the wallpaper around the brackets without gaps showing , I removed the brackets, and then brought the wallpaper in to cover the electrical junction boxes by about 1.” (no photo)
If the electrician needs more space for his wires , he can always trim the wallpaper back a little.
In the instance of the box in the top photo, there will still be wallpaper that can’t sit tight to the drywall , but once the sconce is replaced you really won’t notice.
I also had the option of leaving the mounting brackets in place and then placing the wallpaper over the metal plates. But first of all, I think this is against building Codes. And second, if the sconces are changed out later, or if someone needs to access the electrical connections, removing the mounting plates would most surely tear the wallpaper in the process.
So, best to have the wallpaper behind the plates, rather than pasted on top of them.

Don’t Do This When OSHA Is Looking

The ceilings in this powder room were about 10′ high, and it was difficult for me to reach the areas high up over the 20″ deep vanity top. So I got a little creative.

Usually, the 5 gallon bucket is high enough. But today I had to add a sturdy box on top.

There was enough room on the vanity top to hold the bucket securely, without toppling over the edge or into the sink.

Note that I used this get-up for balance only, and only placed one foot on it. The other foot stayed safely planted on the ladder. I never set my full weight on the contraption.

I like to put non-slip material under the bucket, but found that it was leaving marks on countertops, so hence the bucket on the bare granite.

Strengthening a Tenuous Seam

Most people don’t use phone or cable connections in the wall anymore, so it’s common for me to remove the cover plates, stuff the wires into the box, and cover the hole with the wallpaper.

In this case, the seam was going to fall where there really wasn’t going to be enough wall for the wallpaper to be able to grab ahold of (see top photo). I was worried about the seam coming loose and gaping open.

My solution was to tear a bit of backing from a piece of scrap paper and use it to bridge the area over the hole where the seam would fall. This way, the wallpaper would be able to grab hold of the paper, and the seam would not pop open.

I had to separate the non-woven backing from the textured vinyl surface of the wallpaper. This gave me a thin piece that was not likely to cause ridge under the new wallpaper. It also got rid of the vinyl surface – wallpaper adhesives don’t like to stick to vinyl or other slick surfaces.

I tore the strip because the edges were then slightly feathered, which makes any slight bump under the wallpaper less noticeable.

I put plenty of paste on both sides of the patch strip, so it would stick to both the wall behind it and to the new wallpaper going on top of it.

No photo of the finished area, but it worked perfectly, with the paper and the seam stuck tightly and invisibly to the wall.

Messy Workmen

Hiring an electrician?

I hope you like cleaning up after them – because they won’t!

I measured an under-construction home in the Heights for wallpaper today, and found messes like this under EVERY electrical box.

A Screwy Curiousity

Light fixtures come with the proper mounting plates / brackets, to attach them to the electrical box in the wall. The plates come with the correct fasteners to attach them to the holes in the electrical box.

So why then, when installing two wall sconces, did the electrician use FOUR DIFFERENT screws to attach the plates to the boxes?

I can only guess that he didn’t cover the drain in the sink, then dropped the screws down the drain, and then went digging for any old screw or bolt that he had lying around in the back of his pickup truck.

Disguising a Utility Box

Look closely – VERY closely, and in the upper half of the photo, you’ll see a metal utility box that has been covered with wallpaper.

This is a box for a defunct and un-used security alarm system, about 18″ square. The homeowners tried to get the box off the wall – but, despite the use of various screwdriver bits and power tools, the box would not come off.

So they were going to be stuck with a grey metal blob in the middle of their beautiful wallpaper.

Well, I thought I could do something with it. I could make it fade into the background of the wallpaper pattern.

Wallpaper won’t stick to painted metal, because it’s glossy. So I took a bit of sandpaper to knock off the gloss, and my primer Roman’s 977 Ultra Prime and coated the service box.

Then I matched the wallpaper pattern to the paper already on the wall, and covered the box with corresponding wallpaper.

This is more tricky than it sounds, because the box is 5″ deep, which created discrepancies in the pattern match, depending on from which angle you are looking. I opted to keep the pattern matched at the corner junctions rather than matching it as it would be view from a distance on the wall. That all gets too complicated to try to explain here.

The box had been primed, so it provided a good base for the wallpaper paste to stick to. But on some areas, like the edges after an outside corner, I smeared on a bit of clear adhesive caulk, to be sure the paper would hold, even under conditions of stress such as wrapping around a corner.

This whole thing took me 45-60 minutes. I am pleased with the way it turned out. From the floor, you sure would never know there is a large box sticking out of the wall.

Recycling a Huge Wallpaper Shipping Box

Empty Wall Box Covered / Disguised With Wallpaper

Digital Image

Here I have stripped off the top vinyl layer of a wallpaper I hung 16 years ago. The tan colored paper backing is still left on the wall.

See the shadow of a rectangular hole in the wall, to the left of the electrical outlet? That is where a box was put in the wall but was not used – and old telephone line, perhaps, or cable or the like.

Rather than cut the wallpaper around the opening and then slap a dummy cover on it, I elected to put the wallpaper right over the hole. It looks much neater. And if anyone ever wants to access the box, it’s there, and can be opened easily.