Waiting To Trim The Skinny Strip

Here I am, hanging wallpaper from left to right . I’ve just placed the narrow strip on the left – but have not trimmed it against the door molding all the way down. This is because skinny strips like this are often unstable and can twist to the right or left, or fall with an edge that’s not straight . This makes it difficult for the subsequent strip to butt up against it perfectly .
The strip on the right is still folded and booked , and I’ll release it and position it in a minute .

So I’m going to hang that next, full-width strip now. Because it’s wider, it’s more dimensionally-stable , and will fall ceiling-to-floor without warping or twisting . Especially true since this is a non-woven material, which are quite strong and stable .
Note I’ve striped a little thinned pink paint under where the seams will fall, to prevent the white wallpaper primer from showing, in case there are tiny gaps at the seams (which can be common).

Here you see that there is, indeed, a gap between the full-width strip on the right and the narrow one on the left. Because I have not yet trimmed that narrow strip on its left edge against the door molding, I’m able to move that narrow strip a teeny bit to the right, to eliminate that gap.

Here it is with the gap closed.
Note, that little bump on top the baseboard on the left is caused by caulk or debris or something – it’s a near-100 year old house with decades of build up of paint and whatnot. Not a biggie. The homeowners love their historic home !

Here’re both strips trimmed and smoothed into place.
Oh, and also my standard go-to tools .

The pattern is called Indienne , in the Amaranth colorway .

Manufacturer is House of Hackney . Good quality paper , and innovative patterns and colors .
wallpaper installer houston wallpaper lady

Muddy, Moody Accent Wall for Guest Bedroom

The homeowners of this 1936 bungalow in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston are artists and maximalists , and their home home is filled with lots of funky , colorful , and unexpected items. This poor bedroom needed something to help it fit in with the rest of the house .

Solution! This shot pretty much depicts the correct colors in this wallpaper pattern .

the colors are actually darker and murkier than this.

Mysterious looking flowers and foliage , and deep , rich jewel-tone colors .

This wallpaper is called Opia and is by House of Hackney . Hackney makes lovely non-woven / paste-the-wall goods, along with innovative patterns , many of which are sort of murals . I like this brand a lot , for fun patterns and also for excellent quality , durability , ease of installation , ease of removal , and affordable price .
Each of their ” rolls ” contains four panels , which are meant to be hung in sequence , left to right . Put together, the four panels measure about 6′ wide by 10.5′ high . If you have 8′ ceilings , yes, you will be throwing away 2.5′ of length for each strip . Likewise, for the space over a door , which is usually about 1′ – 2′ high, you will use a full 10.5′ strip, throwing away up to 9′ of it .
It’s important to know this when calculating how much to purchase , because if you figure by square footage, you’re gonna come up way short. You’ve got to count how many panels you will need. Or, better yet – let the installer calculate how much to buy .

Subtle Colors , Gentle Movement in Dining Room

Kinda bland, huh?

Well, let me fix that for you!
With just two colors and a simple, yet flowing design, this wallpaper pattern breathes life into this room – but doesn’t overwhelm.
Pattern is nicely centered between the windows.

This is another wall that also has two windows . I was able to center the pattern between these windows, too. Centering on two different walls in the same room is actually something of a feat – but that’s a story for another time.

From a distance .

This home has bull-nosed / rounded outside corners and edges, as well as the arch . Very tricky to get wallpaper trimmed to these areas neatly and evenly . See other posts for more info on this.

Close up. The design has a weathered fabric texture sort of background . The copper colored foliage is lightly metallic , so has a slight shine – but only when viewed from certain angles , so it’s a subdued luster that’s added to the room .
Note how the coppery color coordinates with the light fixtures / chandeliers .

The wallpaper is by Graham & Brown , a good manufacturer with quality papers. The pattern is called Twining . This company makes nice non-woven papers , which have a polyester content which makes them stain-resistant and durable . They are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece and with no damage to your walls when it’s time to redecorate . G&B ‘s materials are usually flexible and nice to work with – although this particular one did tend to drag and tear when being trimmed – even with a new blade. I usually paste the paper , but non-woven materials can also be installed by paste the wall .
The home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks / Heights neighborhood of Houston .
This project took me three days, to smooth the textured walls , and then hang the paper around four walls , and trim around those pesky rounded edges and the arch .

Very Pretty Bird Pattern in Garnet and Gray

Pretty birds , nicely spaced branches , and lovely colors for this master bedroom in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .

This accent / headboard wall is even prettier from a distance .

Here’s the wall before. The other three walls are painted a complementary grey .

From a distance. I’ve got one more strip to hang , on the far right.

Close up . The background is silver with a little gloss to it, but not so much as to be glitzy or garish . I mean, a guy sleeps here, too. So it’s gotta be a bit subdued .

This wallpaper is made by Graham & Brown.  G&B is a good quality , mid-price range company. Like most of their papers, this is a non-woven / paste the wall material .  Much of G&B’s paper is thin and flexible .  But this particular pattern came on a thick and stiff substrate .  N-W’s contain a minimum 20% polyester content, and I suspect this has a higher percentage .  The stuff is somewhat akin to fiberglass .  Look closely at the bottom of the photo, and you can see the fibers .  This makes it good, and easy for DIY ‘ers , on simple installations like accent walls / feature walls .  But it can be trickier when you have to trim around obstacles like windows , decorative moldings , vanities , toilets , and the like.  
Non-woven wallpapers are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate , with minimal or no damage to your wall (assuming proper prep was done before installation ).  A much better choice than peel & stick . 

World Map Mural – Focus on Africa

This couple in a beautifully updated 1939 home (4-plex converted to single family) in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston loves Africa and has traveled there several times. This spare bedroom on the first floor is devoted to Africa. On the walls they have hanging artifacts from their travels.

And now they have a map of the continent , front and center!
accent wall

Close up looks like old paper that has been folded and stashed and aged , then uncovered and now placed on the wall.

The mural is custom-sized to the wall. Remember to add 3″ to both width and height, to accommodate trimming and also wonky walls.
The material comes as one big roll , with six panels all in one long piece. You have to unroll the whole thing and cut the panels apart . Note that five panels are 19″ wide. But that sixth one on the far right is only 16″ wide. I have cut off the 3″ overage. So when you’re plotting your lay-out, don’t go assuming that you will have six panels of the same width. That last panel is going to be whatever it needs to be, to custom-fit the size of the wall.
Here, I’m laying the panels out to compare dimensions of width and length with those of the wall . Also checking to be sure the sequence of panels is correct. Note the diagram provided by the company on the white sheet of paper at the top of the photo.

Here’s a close-up of the diagram / install instruction sheet .

The mural is by Rebel Walls , a part of Gimmersta . I love their hundreds of selections, their material , quality , and excellent customer service.

This particular mural is called World Map . I’m not sure, but it may come in other colors .

Here’s the mock-up the company sent. The homeowner requested that Africa be placed in the center . You see what a good job Rebel Walls did with that. The mural that we received was actually a little smaller, and didn’t contain that much of America on the left, nor the far right sides of the countries on the right.
Interestingly, the mural doesn’t meet up with itself. In other words, you can’t place two murals side-by-side. Look at the left, where America is. There’s only the eastern half of America. But there is no connecting western half of America on the right side of the mural. So you couldn’t order several of these and place them next to each other, to go around a bedroom , for instance. This may be because the mural was designed to fit one wall only , and to focus on Africa . It’s possible that the same mural is available so that it will connect to itself, and so that you could use it all the way around a room.

According to the shipping box, Rebel Walls is also connected with Sandberg , another manufacturer of fine wallpapers . This stuff comes from Sweden . It is a non-woven material and can be hung using the paste the wall method . I often prefer to paste the paper , but on this simple accent wall, I did paste the wall . Saves space, because I don’t have to set up my big table .
Non-woven wallpapers don’t expand when wet with paste like traditional papers do, which is a nice advantage for many reasons. They also are durable and stain-resistant . And are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, and with no damage to your wall when you redecorate .  Non-woven is MUCH better than the false-hopes peel & stick material being pushed by some mfgrs today. Click my link to the right.

Rebel Walls also includes special paste for this non-woven paper. This is important, because some other types of paste have been known to stain N-W’s, also called blushing – paper looks wet in areas, but never dries out .
It’s believed that excess moisture is a reason for this staining / blushing . Which is the main reason why I don’t used the paste provided by RW. If the powdered substance has to be mixed with water to turn into paste , it stands to reason that it can be too liquidy and could bleed through the surface of the wallpaper, causing staining.
I prefer a pre-mixed paste made by Roman called 780 . You can also use Roman 838 . These both have lower moisture contents, and have good record of not staining wallpapers . Most Sherwin-Williams stores carry these pastes. But call first!

Calico – Source for Wallpaper in Houston

It’s been a few years since I’ve visited this place, but today I was working right around the corner, and finished early enough to stop in. And I wanted to check up on my friend Ron Dillon , who’s been selling wallpaper for about 30 years – and I’ve known him just about that long, too!

Calico (formerly Calico Corners ) sells mostly fabrics , drapes , and upholstery . But they do have wallpaper , too. OK, only a couple of books right now, but all good brands . York and A Street Prints (which is under the Brewster umbrella.) And the corporate office has plans to issue more books.
Please note that if you find something you like, even if Calico doesn’t have the selection book in-house, if it’s a brand they sell (like York ), they can most surely order it for you.

Calico has many vignettes displaying furniture with their upholstery . And racks and racks of fabrics .

There is a current trend toward grey and/or white rooms. So I was thrilled to see that Calico offers plenty of options with color , too.

As well as grey , of course. (Decorated up for Valentine’s Day in this photo.)

Area where you can sit and work with a designer for your fabric decorating. Oh – and don’t forget about wallpaper!

Faux suede fabric samples .

Photoboard display.

I love this Check List. Especially “Make an Appointment.” This ensures you’ll have the designer’s full attention. And especially “Wallpaper Guest Bedroom.” 🙂
In fact, I think you should paper every room! 🙂

Lorena Sosa is the store manager , and a skilled designer. Ron has a degree in Interior Design , as well as decades of experience selling (and installing !) wallpaper. He also has a knack for “seeing” the client’s room in his ” mind’s eye ” and knowing intuitively and immediately what fabrics and papers and paint colors will work to pull everything together. Also a kind and upbeat person. My clients who work with him always rave about their experience.

Monkey / Jungle Toile in Heights Hall Bathroom

Before. Good colors. But nothing inspiring.

Done. Boy, this paper really visually pushed the walls away and made the room look larger ! Easy on the eye tone-on-tone pattern , lighter colors , and a teeny bit of gold sparkle .

Note the 5/8″ high strip of wallpaper under the medicine cabinet on the left.

Because those faucet handles sit up so high above the backsplash , it’s likely that when people reach for the handles, water will get splashed onto the wallpaper . To prevent splashed water from wicking up under the wallpaper – which could cause the paper to expand and curl away from the wall – I ran a bead of clear siliconized caulk along the top of the backsplash .

The color is skewed in this shot, but you get an idea of the tropical foliage and pattern scale .
Toile is a French word for a sort of pen and ink drawing in one color on a background that may be colored or may not be.

Close-up , showing a truer color . Note the palm trees and the monkey . This material has a woven -look textured surface , and it mimics fabric . I almost felt like I was install ing linen , instead of wallpaper .

The brand is Rasch , a company out of Germany . Their papers are consistently nice to work with. This one was unexpectedly thin and flexible . It’s textured vinyl on a non-woven substrate . The vinyl makes it durable and stain-resistant , and the NW makes it easy to remove later when you’re ready to redecorate . The seams are positively invisible.

This powder room on the first floor just off the home office / study comes complete with a shower . Just for fun – one of the obstacles in this room was this rain shower head – sticking out right where I need to be on my ladder , and keeping me from reaching those walls . On top of that, the faucet handles also stuck out much further from the wall than most do. While priming the walls, as I was climbing down from the ladder , my clothing actually got entangled in the handles and – turned on the water !
Yes, I got a shower at work today !
The home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston .

Cool Fun Blue Flower Paper in Powder Room

Before. The homeowner wanted something much more fun than drab grey walls . Plus she need something that would coordinate with the brown tones in the vanity countertop.

Here’s the solution! The paper is actually muddier and murkier than these photos show it to be, so it melds nicely with the brown stone .

Here’s a better idea of what the true colors actually look like.

Close-up.

aManufacturer is York. This was purchased from Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams in the Rice Village of Houston , for a price below retail . Call before heading over to see her selection . (713) 59-6515

The Sure Strip line by York is a thin and pliable , water-activated , pre-pasted wallpaper that is DIY -friendly. It goes up nicely, and is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece – and with no damage to the wall – when it’s time to redecorate . I like this product a lot. Although York has been prone to lots of printing defects (including today) in recent years.
The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .

Period-Correct Arts & Crafts Frieze in Dining Room

Before. Walls painted with a deep, murky teal blue. I’ve measured the width of the border and then applied my wallpaper primer 1/4″ narrower than the border. That’s the white you see around the top of the room.

I love the way the teal / blue walls coordinate with the green in the border (a tall , vintage border like this is called a frieze ). Painting the walls the same color as the border would have been too much, IMO. Plus, you can never get the color exactly perfectly the same – so it looks like what I call a “near-miss.” Better to opt for complimentary colors , as this homeowner did. The color in some of the leaf detail also coordinates with the avocado green in the adjoining living room – you can see a snatch of this color at the far left of this photo.

The camera is making this color brighter and greener than it actually is, but you get an idea of the design . Once the Victorian era faded away, the Arts & Crafts movement came to be in the very early 1900’s , with less fru-fru and more nature , clean lines , whimsy , and stylized designs .
The home also has furniture and decor that hark back to this time period .

The pattern is called Apple Tree Frieze , and comes in several colorways .

The manufacturer is Bradbury & Bradbury , in California. They are the go-to company for 19th & 20th century historic patterns . Delicious stuff on their website!
Bradbury can be tricky to install, so not for novices . Different colorways can call for different adhesives / pastes , so be sure to read the instructions before starting .
The bungalow home in the Houston Heights dates to 1920 (possibly earlier) which is just smack in the middle of the Arts & Crafts decorating style .
I hung another period-correct border in this room for this family 10 years ago. Now they’ve done some updating with new colors and, of course – a new wallpaper border frieze . It was a pleasure to be back and help bring new life to the place!

Wallpaper Inks Easily Marred

The rich colors and clay coating give this wallpaper a truly luscious , velvety look. But they’re also fragile and can be damaged easily . Here you see damage caused at the factory simply by folding back the last 2″ or so of paper, before rolling it up. The company does provide and extra foot or two to accommodate this.

You have to be extremely careful handling this stuff. Even a fingernail or your wallpaper tools can cause scratches or marring . Per the manufacturer’s suggestion, I covered my smoothing brush and plastic smoother with microfiber towels , to minimize chances of scratching the paper .
In fact, the manufacturer suggested that, during installation , that you wipe the entire surface uniformly with a damp microfiber rag , to even out any imperfections that might have resulted .
Now, just between you and me – if you know you have a product that’s likely to end up with blemished areas, why not just switch to a better , tried-and-true ink ? SMH Luckily project this is a border that will be butted up under the ceiling , so no one’s going to zero in on a few shiny areas in the matt ink. But , think of all the homes that will have this same material as a wall paper , that will be viewed close-up .

Not all colorways from Bradbury do this. I’ve hung plenty of it and not had a problem with most. In fact, the “fishnet” area you see at the bottom of this picture is not delicate at all. It’s the very matt finish green and brown colors in the center of the border that are so delicate .

The inks and clay coating the manufacturer uses on this particular colorway are very fragile and mar easily , so I’ve used ankle socks to cover the edges of my straightedge, and also a weight I’m using to prevent the paper from rolling around on my table. And that scissors is just there as demonstration for the photo … you can bet that tool was not touching the surface of the border at any other time.

This material has a selvedge edge that has to be trimmed off by hand , with a straightedge and razor blade . Normally I set my straightedge on top of the wallpaper , because it’s easier to see where I need to make my cut , and also because the weight of the straightedge helps hold the wallpaper down.
But even with cushioning socks on either edge of the 6′ long tool , and with padding on the underside, I was afraid that it might harm the inks .
So I placed it on the outside edge of the wallpaper. This left very little for the tool to grab on to, so I made sure to press it tightly against my work table , so the wallpaper strip wouldn’t slip around while I was trimming .

The manufacturer is Bradbury & Bradbury . They specialize in historic and period-correct patterns from the 19th and early 20th centuries.