







The home is in the Memorial Villages neighborhood of Houston.
The home is in the Memorial Villages neighborhood of Houston.
I hung this mattress-ticking striped wallpaper in the tub / toity room of a Hollywood bathroom in West University 8-10 years ago. (Still in perfect condition, too, I might add. 🙂 ) The boy and girl who share the bath are older now, and the homeowner wants to update the décor.
The paper clung to the walls during all that time, yet, when I started stripping it this morning, it came off fairly easily, by simply soaking with water to reactivate the paste, and then gently scraping. What’s best is that my primer (KILZ Original) protected the walls, and the surface is perfectly intact, with no damaged areas and patching needed.
In addition, I am not going to reprime the walls, because the original primer is dependable enough to work under the new paper, which I will hang tomorrow.
The second photo shows a mosaic composed of scraps of vintage wallpaper cut into blocks and appliquéd onto a wall behind a sofa.
I’m betting this homeowner didn’t have full rolls of wallpaper, but stumbled upon an old sample book, and simply cut her pieces from its pages.
What a wonderful way to get a lot of color and retro-style!
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 dĂ©cor, 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.
I hung this wallpaper a few months ago, and am back to do another room. I couldn’t resist peeking in the living room to see how it looked furnished.
While I’d like to say that the wallpaper makes the room, really – that SOFA rocks the place! And the lamps. These homeowners have taken their time pulling their home together, and they’ve been rewarded with a unique and stunning dĂ©cor.
The wallpaper is by Thibaut, and is silver cork embellished with a white damask pattern. The bottom of the room is covered with dark brown cork wallpaper. Both were sold by Dorota (see Where To Buy Wallpaper link to the right of this page).
The home where I worked today (in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston) has very traditional dĂ©cor, with carved moldings, elegant furniture, warm colors, and classic styling. This traditional oak leaf wreath design by an established (meaning, old) British manufacturer compliments the owner’s taste beautifully.
The material is a pulp paper, an old-school sort of material that has no protective coating and is rather delicate. The manufacturer is Zoffany. The wallpaper was purchased through an interior designer, and I hung it in a powder room.
This powder room in a townhome in the Bunker Hill area of Houston was affected by flood water damage from Hurricane Harvey. Contractors replaced two walls with new Sheetrock. But the sink wall remained intact (top photo) and needed to be stripped of its original wallpaper, then skim-floated, sanded smooth, and then primed, before wallpaper could be hung. In addition, there were two other walls that needed to be smoothed and primed.
Fixing damaged walls also gives homeowners a chance to update their décor. The Chinoiserie pattern in the top photo is fine. But after the re-do, the homeowners wanted something more modern and in keeping with a more vibrant lifestyle. See the second photo for their new take on style!
This is a small under-the-stairs powder room with no window, and the ceilings are less than 7′ high. The upward movement of the wallpaper pattern, coupled with the swoopy design of the foliage, sweep your eye up, and add dimension to the walls. The pearlized color further helps visually expand the space.
This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpapers, and is a very good quality, mid-price range product. 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
It’s a popular theme in interior dĂ©cor, and I like the way it fills the wall space in this bathroom. (The shot is above the shower tile.)
The interior designer on this project is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope Designs.