The home is in the West U area of Houston .
Posts Tagged ‘boy’
Pastel Hot Air Balloons for Toddler Girl ‘s Nursery Accent Wall
March 12, 2023The home is in the West U area of Houston .
Animal Menagerie in Baby’s Nursery
August 10, 2022
Abstract Desert Mural for Baby Boy
April 4, 2021
Original textured wall skim-floated smooth, primed, and ready to hang.
No teddy bears or rubber duckies for this baby-boy-to-be. His parents wanted a more earthy theme and color scheme, as well as a pattern that would grow with him.
This mural went on an accent wall. The crib will sit in front of it. The remaining three walls will be painted a light, earthy grey, which will make the whole room feel unified and snug.
It’s uncommon to have a door on an accent wall, and note that that 3′ wide door ate up a good chunk of the 12 1/2′ wide mural. I debated putting paper on that 1 3/4″ wide strip to the right of the door. But I’m glad I did, because it sets the door off and, most important, it provides visual continuity of the sand dunes and mesas moving across the wall.
That narrow piece took about 45 minutes. It felt really good that that was one of the first things the homeowners commented on when they came in to view the finished wall.
Anewall is the manufacturer. I really like most of their products. I had the homeowners avoid the vinyl version, in favor of this thin, pre-pasted option. You simply need to use water to activate the paste on the back, let book a few minutes, and it’s ready to hang. I always augment with a little extra paste, which this time I rolled onto the wall, especially under the seams. This will help prevent shrinking and gapping at the seams as the wallpaper dries.
The thin paper will hug the wall more tightly and be more resistant to humidity (curling seams) than the vinyl option. It’s not particularly soil-resistant, though, so the parents will have to make sure that little hands stay far away from the wall.
Although not printed on the label, I believe the actual manufacturer of this is York Wallcoverings, in their SureStrip line. I like just about everything this company makes.
The townhome is in the Rice Military area of close-in Houston.
Repairing Damage from Remodeling
March 5, 2021
I hung this paper in a little boy’s bedroom about two years ago. Now a new baby is coming, so Son #1 is moving from the nursery to his “Big Boy’s Room” next door. In the process of the shuffle, the parents had the connecting Hollywood bathroom updated, and this involved moving a door – which meant messing up the wallpaper.
As you can see in the top photo, instead of taking the time and effort to remove the wallpaper, the workmen put their patching compound right on top of it. I don’t like hanging paper on top of paper, for many reasons. There are adhesion issues. And also, for one thing, it’s not good to have seams fall on top of seams. For another, because the new paper is somewhat thick, you would have a visible ridge from top to bottom along the edge of the new strip.
So I took a razor knife and cut roughly around the workmens’ patch. Then I stripped off the paper around it, up to the edge of the adjoining strip. I did this on both sides of the corner.
This wallpaper is of a non-woven material, and is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate. I was pretty disappointed that that turned out to not be the case.
On the other hand, I was happy that it didn’t. Stripping paper that way puts a lot of stress on the wall surface, and you can end up with delamination (coming apart) of various layers under the paper (primer, skim-float, paint, drywall).
So I used a more labor-intensive, but lower-impact method. Click my page to the right for more info on the process. I first stripped off the top, inked layer of paper. That left the white backing still adhering to the wall. I used a sponge to apply plenty of water to this backing. The idea is to reactivate the paste that is holding it to the wall. Once that paste was wet enough, the backing pulled off the all cleanly and easily.
I was really pleased that my primer from the original install held up perfectly under all this soaking and tugging. I had worried that it might “rewet” and pull away from the wall, which had been my experience with it before. I had used Gardz, a penetrating product designed to seal torn drywall. It’s also good at sealing new skim-coated walls. And wallpaper sticks to it nicely, so all the better!
One photo shows you the stripped off area next to the edge of the remaining strip. You can see the thickness of this existing strip. The new wallpaper will butt up against this, and there will be no ridge because the thicknesses of both strips are the same.
Another photo shows my stripped-off area next to the contractor’s patched area. There is a difference in height between the newly revealed wall and the patched area – and that will show as a ridge or bump under the new wallpaper.
To eliminate that difference in height, I skim-floated over the area. In one photo, you can see the wet (grey) smoothing compound. I set up a strong floor fan to assist in drying. My heat gun also came in handy.
Once it was dry, I sanded it smooth. Now you don’t see any transition between the newly exposed wall and slightly higher patched area. I applied Gardz to the all the newly patched areas. Set up the fan again. And once it was dry, I put up the replacement paper.
It’s a good thing the family had paper left over from the original install. If they had had to purchase new paper, it could have come from a new Run (slight difference in color shade), and that would have meant stripping off and replacing three walls.
We had barely enough paper. The corner was out of plumb by as much as 1/2″ from floor to wainscoting, on each side of the corner. That adds up to an inch out of whack. That one inch meant we needed a whole new strip of wallpaper, to get the paper on the wall to the left to match up with that on the wall to the right.
Long story short, the whole thing turned out great. There is a bit of a mis-match in that corner, but it’s not very noticeable at all.
The wallpaper is by the Scandinavian company Boras Tapeter.
The home is in the West University neighborhood of Houston.
Transitioning to a Big Boy’s Room
July 10, 2020
The little boy who uses this room is 2 1/2, but you’d think he was 5. He’s energetic, articulate, inquisitive, polite, outgoing – and ready to move from the nursery into his “big boy’s room.”
The room was originally all white, but the parents knew an accent wall in this “Pick Up Sticks” pattern in white on navy would add warmth and character. In addition, this is a pattern that will grow with the boy, from his tot years to his teens.
When you look at the close-up, I like the way the white lines look like they were drawn by hand, instead of being perfectly straight and regimented.
The wallpaper is by Magnolia Home (Joanna Gaines, of HGTV fame), which is made by York. It is in their SureStrip line, which is one of my favorite brands. It’s a thin, flexible non-woven material, designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
SureStrip comes pre-pasted, so all you need to do to activate the paste is to add water. I do brush and roll a little augmentive paste onto the wall before hanging the paper.
Since papers like this are known to shrink as they dry, and because the factory often fails to trim the edges absolutely straight, I striped some dark paint on the wall where the seams would fall, so in case of gapping, you wouldn’t see jarring white lines.
The material does bubble a bit as it dries (releases moisture). You have to be patient, because bubbles will eventually disappear, and waiting is better than overworking the paper. But in this case, I got some rather large bubbles, so I did spend some time after the install going over the walls and chasing out the largest of them. By the next day, everything was nice and flat.
This wallpaper 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.
Update for a Teen Aged Boy’s Bedroom
June 8, 2018
Stripes are safe, but they’re not very interesting. And the original border showed little children at play. Now that this young man is old enough to choose his own décor, he wants something that reflected his interests – boating and the ocean.
You don’t see many borders these days, but the family liked the look. Also, because the installer who hung the original border used a rubbery paste that would not come off the wall, sealing it and hanging the new border over it is much easier than retexturing the walls. The new border is wider than the original, which works nicely to cover the old residue.
This nautical look wallpaper and border are by York, in their Sure Strip line. The job site is in Baytown, a suburb of Houston.
Deer in the Homelights
March 30, 2018
For a high school boy’s bathroom, this wallpaper is a nice backdrop, without being too in-your-face. The small pattern in a two-tone color scheme with a slight pearlescence is muted, but brings a lot of warmth to a once-bland room. You barely notice the deer head motifs, but it is a quirky nod to the homeowners’ love of hunting.
This wallpaper is by Walquest, in their Ecochic line, and was bought at below retail price from 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.
UnBEARably Cute
August 31, 2017
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Here’s something cleverly fun for a little boy who’s coming in a couple of months. Bear paws and bear faces. What could be cuter?! The color coordinates beautifully with the blue paint chosen for the walls and ceiling.
This wallpaper is by Dwell Studios and is in the Sure Strip line, one of my favorite wallpaper brands. It is pre-pasted and easy to work with, thin and hugs the wall tightly, seams are invisible. And, when it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to the wall.
I hung this in a baby boy’s nursery in the Cottage Grove neighborhood of Houston.
Ostriches in a Toddler’s Room
January 22, 2017
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Mothers love this cute pattern, and I’ve hung the pink version in little girls’ rooms and bathrooms many times. This more neutral colorway went on all four walls of a toddler boy’s bedroom. I love the way the color coordinates with the rich chocolate brown woodwork and ceiling.
This This wallpaper pattern is by Cole & Son, a British company, and is called “Ostrich.” It’s on a non-woven substrate, and is a paste-the-wall product (rather than paste-the-paper), and is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
It was bought at below retail price from 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.
Camouflaging a Young Boy’s Room
January 8, 2017
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This 9 year old boy is all into camouflage. He has camouflage-colored tile in his bathroom, and just had to have this fun and quirky camouflage tree wallpaper for an accent wall in his bedroom.
That’s fine for him, but I had my work cut out for me … Turns out this paper has a multiple drop pattern match. Hard to explain, but it relates to how the design motifs repeat themselves across the wall overall. And it is a h3ll of a bugger to figure out how to cut the strips and place them on the wall. Matching the pattern can eat up a lot of paper, too.
Nevertheless, I got ‘er done, and the homeowner’s son loves it.
The paper is by Marimekko, and is a non-woven material and was installed by the paste-the-wall method. It is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
I hung it in a newly built, contemporary style home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
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