Major Transformation – From Cave-Like to Bright, Warm and Tranquil

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Wow, what a change! This home office / TV room in Southside Place / West University neighborhood of Houston, was papered in a dark-navy-on-navy stripe. In my opinion, it looked great in the room, especially above the white paneled wainscoting. But it was time for a change … in fact, the husband said, “We should have gotten rid of this when we bought the house 25 years ago.”

The navy wallpaper was hung properly, but it would not come off the wall without a LOT of time and mess (and $ ). So I prepped and sealed the walls and hung over it (see other posts). I love the 2nd photo, because it shows the new, light wallpaper juxtaposed against the original dark paper.

This material is a light tan stringcloth superimposed with a barely-there white Moroccan lantern motif. I love this as an alternative to grasscloth. It is uniform in color, has a wonderful tactile texture, and has none of the shading, paneling, color variations, visible seams, or propensity to staining and bleeding that make grasscloth so disappointing.

In addition, it is a non-woven, paste-the-wall product, and was nice to work with. The design was even perfectly centered on the 27″ wide material, and could be reverse-hung (hung upside down and still match up perfectly with the previous strip).

The new, light colored wallpaper looked super against the wainscoting, and had just enough color to stand out against the white woodwork. The sofa was a tan linen fabric, and synced with the new wallpaper in color and texture. The armoire that holds the TV is a medium wood tone, and contrasts against the light walls “just enough.” The whole overall look is relaxing.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, in their EcoChic line, in a book or line called Wallpaper Effects, 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.

A Scratchy, Blurry Geometric Trellis On A Dining Room Accent Wall

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The homeowners are fairly new to this house in the Shepherd Park Plaza neighborhood of Houston, and are doing lots of updates. In this dining room, they removed the built-in cabinet that was smack in the middle of this wall, as well as the chair rail molding around the middle. In the top photo, you see new Sheetrock that has been taped and floated in areas that were damaged by removing the cabinet.

To make a perfect surface, I skim-floated the wall. This eliminates hairs and grit from the drywall, and smoothed over the patched areas. I then sanded, wiped free of dust, and primed with a penetrating sealer called Gardz. The finished wall is shown in the second photo.

The homeowners found a paper that matched the colors on their walls and in their Oriental rug, and the scratchy, vague design is visible, but not at all overwhelming. I love the way that the trellis pattern mimics the carved design on the ceiling.

This wallpaper is by Designer Wallpaper, and was a non-woven, paste-the-wall product. It was bought from Sherwin-Williams. I made sure to center the pattern on the wall, so when they place furniture against it, the pattern will be balanced on either side.

Flaw of the Day – Wrinkly Paper

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This wrinkled mess ran down the center of about 6′ of a bolt of wallpaper, definitely making it unusable. My guess is that it got caught up in the printing press somehow. Luckily, I had the homeowner buy enough that I was able to discard this messed up paper, and still have enough to finish papering the powder room.

This wallpaper is by Designer Wallpaper, by Seabrook.

Ceiling Line Doesn’t Even BEGIN to be Straight!

Look at the bubble in the window in the level – this ceiling line is nowhere near horizontal, and it’s not straight, either (see second photo). With a geometric pattern like this, it is going to be very obvious that the pattern will go crooked and parts will get chopped off. Please do not expect to see all the blocks lined up neatly along the top of the wall!

I focused more on keeping the design vertically plumb, along doorways and window frames. In the third shot, you see how it turned out along that one section of ceiling. All in all, this is not really bad, overall, and the clients just loved it.

I hung this in a master bathroom in Hunters Creek Village, in Houston. This pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, #LA32805, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.

Bull-Nosed Corners and Arches

These bull-nosed (rounded) corners and arches have been an architectural feature in new homes for several years now. Let me tell you – they are a pain in the behootus if you are trimming wallpaper around them. With a straight corner, you have something to brace your razor blade against, and can easily get a neat, accurate cut.

But these rounded babies, especially when compounded by the extra thick texture that is fashionable in certain new homes today, are very difficult to trim, because you can’t see or feel where to put your razor blade. Add to that walls that are out of plumb, and you’ve got a 30-second cut that’s gonna take you 4 minutes.

A Facebook paperhanger friend of mine invented a little gadget that helps immensely when cutting along these edges. As you can see, it works pretty darned well.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, by Seabrook, pattern # JV 80107. I hung this paper in a dining room of a young family in a new development in Katy, Texas.

Pattern Match is Off

Look closely – VERY closely (or perhaps, a quick look will show it better), and you will see that every seam is noticeable. It took me a long time to figure out what was wrong.

I knew I had matched the pattern correctly. The medallion is at the top of the wall on every strip, as it should be. What I finally figured out is that the background design, the mottled mini-print, did not correspond with the medallion. If I matched the mottly print, then the medallions would not line up properly at the top of the wall. And when I put the medallions at the top of the wall, then the background design did not match. The background had been printed out of sync with the main design element.

Maybe the manufacturer thought the mottled background was indistinct enough that it didn’t need to be matched. I beg to differ – I think it’s quite noticeable. However, the homeowners didn’t notice a thing, and totally loved the wallpaper in their new dining room.

The brand is Designer Wallpaer, by Seabrook, Pattern # JV 80107.

Balancing A Window

I centered this wallpaper pattern on the wall to the right (not pictured), because there would be a buffet table on that wall, as a focal point. But after you center the pattern once, then it pretty well falls as it will, as you go around the rest of the room.

As I came up to the windows, the medallion pattern was fairly close to falling in the center of the wall between the two windows, but not exactly. I wanted to make it fall in the center, if I possibly could.

What I did was to add about a half an inch width of paper above the window on the right. That was enough to extend the design, so the medallion fell smack down the center in between the two windows.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpaper (by Seabrook) #JV80107

Unclever Fixture Design

This fancy hand towel holder was permanently affixed to the wall, which made for a tedious job cutting around it without tearing the wallpaper.

You have to make what we call “relief cuts,” and ease your was around the thing, until you can get close enough to trim accurately, all the while making sure that nothing tears or warps.

This pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, # EH 60305, and went in a hall bathroom in West University Place

Flaw of the Day – Red Smudges

This is an expensive ($180 / single roll) designer wallpaper. It was disappointing to discover these red marks on the paper. And especially so because the paper has to be hand trimmed, and I used the double-cut-on-the-wall method, which means that if you remove one strip, you have to remove all of the strips on the wall, because they are all fit into one another individually.

Luckily, the red marks were small, and up high enough that the average person looking around the room would not notice them.

This paper is a David Hicks design, called “The Vase.”

https://www.google.com/#bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&fp=8e08830c20b37e9a&q=david+hicks+the+vase+wallpaper

Traditional Medallion in a Powder Room

This classic medallion pattern in cream on an aqua blue background is by Designer Wallpapers.

It went in a large powder room that had a dark wood console style vanity, with black granite counter top and oiled bronze faucets.

The contrast of dark against light is very stunning.

Note:  In case your eye is really good, the paper is a little blotchy because it’s still wet, and yes, the walls have curves and bulges.