William Morris Strawberry Thief in Houston Heights Powder Room

Originally, the whole room was this not-quite-milk-chocolate brown. Dark can look good in a small room like a powder room. But stark dark with no pattern is often claustrophobic.

Since this is a 100-year old bungalow with many layers of paint and potentially incompatible wall coatings, I was worried about unstable conditions inside the wall. Long story short, these conditions can lead to stress on the wall and delaminating layers, which also mean wallpaper seams that don’t stay down. Do a Search here to learn more.
So the homeowners agreed to have the walls lined, as a way to avoid these potential problems. Read previous post for more info.
The photo above shows the walls covered in the white liner.

Finished!

William Morris’s designs, and Strawberry Thief in particular, have been very popular the last two years or so.
His patterns are studies in symmetry and rhythm , and evoke the era of Art Nouveau and even Art Deco .

Last corner magically ended up with virtually no mis-match.

Morris & Co is the manufacturer. This is a nice, supple, non-woven material, and can be hung by pasting the wall , although I prefer to paste the paper. It has a vinyl coating and will be fairly washable – good for this family with a toddler. It’s also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate.
See previous post for a pic of the label of the liner paper.

Poor Photos of a Beautiful Room Trasformation

This is a handsome wallcovering, but unfortunately it’s best to see it in person, because it simply doesn’t photograph well. It’s real cork, stained a dark chocolate brown, with glittering flecks of silver in the background. The true beauty of it is revealed when light from the chandelier hits it, which is what I tried to show in the third photo.

The chandelier is stunning in itself, because it came from South America, having belonged to the homeowner’s grandfather. Sorry – that didn’t photograph well, either. 😦 I think it’s cool how the elegant, traditional light fixture works well with the modern style of the wallpaper and the rest of the house.

This natural cork wallpaper went in the powder room of a new contemporary style townhome in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. The interior designer for this job is Elizabeth Maciel.

The wallpaper is by Monarch, and 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.