If a client doesn’t pay a consult fee at the time of our first meeting, I ask them to sent a $50 deposit later to hold an installation date for their wallpaper project . I’ve had people send sweet greeting cards before, but this very cute – and reusable – cat bookmark takes the prize! Sure made me smile when I opened my mail today.
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 .
O.K., here he’s cute. Annoying, but cute.But HERE he’s about to get his behootus beat(us). NOBODY / NOTHING touches my table! The pasting table has to stay clean and unmarred, in order to not transfer any stains to a homeowner’s wallpaper. And to ensure a straight, stable surface to cut on.
This cat hated and hissed at me for the first two days I worked in his home. But by the end of the third day, he was my buddy – my curious buddy. Here he is, laying claim to my work table – and making himself quite comfy on his owners’ new grasscloth wallcovering.
Let’s hope that his interest stays on flat surfaces, and that he (and his claws) do not discover the nice, textured, brand new, grasscloth walls in the adjoining living room.
The danger of pointing this out to a homeowner is that, once your eye learns to pick it out, from now on to forevermore, you will be seeing …
Spacemen in the wallpaper.
Look above the center diamond. There is a spaceman jumping upwards into the stratosphere. Next look to either side of the diamond. There are twin spacemen, with their helmets pointing right and left, away from the diamond.
Elsewhere on the paper, there is a distinct cat’s head.
And you thought it was just an ink blot!
This design is by Candice Olson for York Wallcoverings.