Flavor Paper Printed Too Close To The Top

In most rooms, when plotting where to position the motifs printed on the wallpaper, you usually consider the top of the wall just below the ceiling. (If the room has a chair rail / wainscoting , or if another feature like a vanity or countertop is dominate , you might position the motifs to fall appropriately along the top of those features.)
Back to the ceiling line … You usually want to place a motif at the top of the wall. Because ceilings are never level and walls are never plumb, it’s common for ceilings to go off-track , slanting up or down. This means that, as you hang subsequent strips and move along the wall / room, the top of your motif can move closer to or further away from the ceiling.
In this photo , the man’s crown and the top of the roller coaster are the obvious designs to place at the top of the wall. Further down in the wallpaper pattern , any other motifs you might consider are staggered in such a way that if you put one element at the top of the wall, something would be cut off in an unpleasing way. In other words, if you place the hot air balloon at the top of the wall, then the train bridge and part of the roller coaster would be cut off.
In addition to that, you need an extra inch or two at top and bottom of each strip to allow for trimming at ceiling and floor. 1″-2″ hopefully.

So, you want the crown and the roller coaster at the top of the wall. Plus, you want a little play / extra clearance to allow for those crooked ceiling lines.
But this manufacturer has printed its most important motifs just about smack at the top of the strip. There’s no extra to allow for trimming or to accommodate wonky walls and ceilings. This wallpaper comes in panels of set heights, so there is no extra pattern repeat to roll off and discard until you get the motifs you want.
As it is, if you try to place that crown at the top of the wall, as you move around the room, it’s quite likely that the crown will move upward and be cut off by the ceiling. OR that it can move down, and that some of the manufacturer’s label will be exposed under the ceiling line.
I’ve sent my comments to the company, in hopes that they will start printing to give us a little more play at the top of each strip.
This pattern is called Brooklyn Toile , and is in the EZ Papes line of pre-pasted wallpaper by Flavor Paper . I like FP’s EZ Vapes a lot. But not their heavier vinyl, and definitely not their peel & stick material .

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!

Different Rolls = Different Pattern Match

It’s important that all your wallpaper rolls have the same run number , also called batch or dye lot . This means that they were printed at the same time with the same ink . Paper printed later with another batch of ink may be every so slightly different in color / shade . Looks bad on the wall.
The same thing can happen with trimming at the factory. Different runs can be trimmed differently from each other.
With this paper that I hung in a dining room last week (see previous post), the labels on all the rolls / bolts listed the same run number . But there was one bolt that was wrapped in not one, but two plastic wrappers. This raised an alarm in my head, because this indicates that it may have been a roll sent back to the factory, for whatever reason, and then repackaged. When this happens, you cannot be absolutely sure that the run number is actually that which is printed on the label. Somebody at the factory could have just grabbed a handy label and stuck it inside the wrapper.
I tried not to use this double-wrapped bolt of wallpaper. But on the last section of wall, I got to a point where I just needed to use it, for just two 6′ strips. I was pleased that the color of both the background and the motifs matched perfectly.
But not happy with this pattern mis-match.

It was easy to see that the factory trimmers had been placed about 1/8″ to one side, from where they had been placed when trimming the previous rolls.
It’s a busy pattern, and, from a distance, this undercut wasn’t all that noticeable.

But on the other side, there was repetition of the motif , and this will really catch your eye.
Happily, this only affected one seam, and since it was a very busy pattern, from just a few feet away you couldn’t notice it. Still, it bothered me.
So I pulled this strip on the left off the wall, laid it on my table, and used my straightedge and razor blade to trim off that repetitive leaf tip – about 1/8″ from the right edge of the strip.
The second strip, since it came off the same roll and had been trimmed the same, matched perfectly . This was also my last strip, so no more drama with mis-matched designs at the seams .

What the overall pattern looks like.

The pattern is by Rifle Paper , which has been finding its way into a lot of homes lately. This brand is usually a good quality non-woven material , and can be hung by pasting the paper or by paste the wall . It is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, and with minimal damage to the wall , when you’re ready to redecorate . Very cute , cheerful patterns , and good price-point .
Note that the run number is printed on the label.
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Lots of Wallpaper in Nov/Dec Issue of American Farmhouse Style Magazine

Including right here on the cover! And a real coup! … A magazine that’s pretty much dedicated to the all-white or all-grey trend in decorating, as well as minimalism … it’s so exciting to see some pattern and color in the ” farmhouse ” themed homes. Let’s take a look …

Textured grasscloth behind bookshelves in a living room .

Two-tone classic toile on one wall as a background to a stairwell . It warms up the space, without hitting you in the face.

Soft , cloud – like feel behind this credenza . Look carefully right above the baskets , and you’ll see an overlapped seam. Some commercial murals are hung like this, as well as the very popular patterns by Spoonflower , which is a budget-friendly and DIY – able , good quality material and brand . (But ONLY their ” prepasted smooth ” option. Do NOT get the ” traditional pebble ” nor their ” peel and stick . “

More of the toile pattern , in the entry , with batten board wainscoting and a chair rail , in a mud room . Also called rear back door entry . : )

Floral pattern in the laundry room . I’m getting lots of queries for wallpaper in laundries … must be trending right now!

Soft two-tone floral in small bathroom .

Textured grasscloth behind desk in home office .

Apologies for the sideways image … WordPress used to be easy to use, and I could correct this. But they “upgraded” their program and made many, many features much more difficult to work with. I tried tutorials on how to fix this, but after reading and watching tons of info and videos, I gave up. It used to be just one click !
Anyway, note the cheery breakfast room. Colorful without being overwhelming .

Closer picture.

Very innovative use of floral pattern with subdued color around the archway / entry to another breakfast nook . Note that the back of the nook also wears a textured wallpaper .

Sorry for the out-of-order picture … another frustration from the “upgraded” WordPress Editor . This gives an idea of what the afore-mentioned breakfast area looked like pre-wallpaper.

The magazine didn’t mention a brand, but this sure looks like one of Serena & Lily ‘s designs . Of course, when one company makes a popular pattern , many other companies make their own versions .

These days, usually you see pattern on the accent wall behind the headboard . So it’s a little unusual to see wallpaper on all four walls of this master bedroom . But it works, because the pattern is simple and the colors are kept to only two , so the overall feel is calming , rather than busy .

Fooled me! I thought this headboard accent wall was done in tile – but it’s wallpaper !

The same paper on a kitchen cabinet .

Falling Floral Mural in West U Dining Room

Two opposing accent walls , above the paneled wainscoting , will be papered in this dining room .

Here’s the south wall finished. Super cool how the flowers tumble from the sky downward .
This was actually two murals put together . Before you purchase , it’s important to make sure that one mural can be placed next to the other and have the pattern continue from one to the next .
Instead of starting in a corner and working across the wall , I plotted to put the fullest part of the mural in the center. This will nicely frame a buffet, or other furniture used on this wall.

Since this is a mural and each strip of wallpaper is different, and because I’m starting in the center with Strip #3, and then working left to right, and then going back to the center starting with Strip #2 and working from right to left, and because with a mural you have only one of each needed strip, so if you screw something up there is no more backup wallpaper to bail you out … So it’s important that you measure and plot and re-check everything before you cut anything and before you take any strip to the wall.
So here you see all my strips cut and positioned as they will be placed on the wall. This is a paste-the-wall non-woven material , and note that I have rolled each strip backwards with the top coming off first, and secured with an elastic hairband from the dollar store. This both gets rid of the ” memory ” of the paper wanting to stay tightly curled up , and also keeps the printed face of the wallpaper from bopping into the pasted wall .

Here’s the north wall, before.

Instead of centering the pattern on the full width of the wall, I centered it on the left section.

First strip going up butted against the vertical red line of my laser level .

Bosch brand , less than $100 at Lowe’s .

This wallpaper is called Artemis Climbing Walls and is in the Blackthorn collection .

Manufacturer is House of Hackney . This outfit makes some mighty nice wallpaper , and they have some very fun an innovative designs.
Most are sold as a 4-panel set mural , and can sometimes be tricky to measure for.
It’s a nice non-woven material , durable, and the seams are invisible . I used the paste the wall installation technique .
wallpaper installer houston

Floaty Palm Mural in Master Bedroom

Before. Primed and ready for wallpaper .

Done. This image could be positioned so that the palm leaves push up from the floor , or, as in the photo , they hang down from the ceiling. This is a popular look right now, and very fitting to an accent / headboard wall in a bedroom .

Done. The homeowner bought one mural from Russia before she and I consulted , so it would be difficult to get another. In addition, the mural images don’t continue from right to left, so you can’t place two murals next to each other and have palm leaves continue unbroken .
The manufacturer’s picture on-line is misleading, too, because it’s been Photoshopped to look like it fills the whole wall with tropical fronds .
As you can see, the actual mural is a lot narrower than the wall, plus shorter by about a foot and a half.
The mural is placed slightly off-center on the wall , because the homeowner wanted it centered on the bed , which sits a little to the right of center .
Plans are still incubating, but she’ll probably have wooden panels or trim placed on the wall flanking the mural as well as beneath it, to give a finished look.
All in all, I think the room looks dreamy !

Close-up .

The material is vinyl and has a woven fabric – like texture .

The mural came in four panels, each about 3′ wide by about 8.5′ high .
Here I am laying them out so I can get measurements and to be sure they go up in the right sequence.

There were a lot of these little black specks of a chalk – like substance on the back , and even some on one area of the front .

Did I tell you this came from Russia ?!
Sorry, no brand name, but this was thin and very flexible and pretty nice to work with .
This is a popular design concept , and many companies are making similar patterns . Try RebelWalls.com , which is super quality and really good customer service, plus tons of designs and images to cover your walls .

Sneaky Snaky Dining Room Accent Wall

Beautiful symmetry …

But look closer – those intertwining lines aren’t fronds of vegetation – they’re snakes !

The wall before. It’s a mid-century home, but the drywall here is new. Per my request, the contractor left it taped and floated , but not painted or covered with any coating .
I had planned to simply prime this wall. But after examining it more closely, the surface was a little grittier than I like. So I ended up applying a very light skim-coat and sanding it smooth .

Here the smoothed wall has been primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime .
I’m plotted out the center of the wall and am using my laser level to ensure that the design in my first strip falls right along the center, and also is nice and plumb .

My work table with two strips of wallpaper . Spoonflower packages its wallpaper differently from other companies. It comes in widths of 24″ and lengths of your choice of 3,’ 6,’ 9,’ or 12.’
Get their Pre-Pasted Removable Smooth option, which is water-activated , and is wonderful stuff.
Do NOT get the Peel & Stick , nor the Traditional Pebble . The P&S and the Traditional are both very difficult to work with, and can lead to bubbles and creases on your walls , plus cause damage when the wallpaper is stripped off later.
Back to the photo – the blue cube thing in front is my laser level , shooting its red line at the wall.

Close-up

I’m using this blue plastic tape on the edge of this strip of wallpaper. This will prevent paste from getting onto the wall or ceiling.

The accent wall stops in this left hand corner, so I need to trim off the excess. But I don’t want to get paste onto the un-papered wall. Paste can cause the wall paint to crackle and flake off.
So here you see how the blue tape is keeping paste off the wall. Once I finish trimming, I’ll check the back to make sure all of the blue tape has been removed. Any areas where the blue tape might be still on the back of the wallpaper , the paper won’t adhere to the wall .
This tape is available to paperhangers / installers . If you’re interested, shoot me an email wallpaperlady@att.net

Another thing about Spoonflower , the seams are meant to be overlapped, by 3/4″ . Note that this does create a ridge that runs vertically the length of each seam. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t very noticeable.
Actually, there are advantages to overlapping seams in this manner. No worries about white substrates showing at the seams, nor the paper shrinking and leaving gaps at the seams.
Also, in case of unstable walls that might come apart ( delaminate ) under the tension of the drying / shrinking wallpaper, overlapping disperses the tension and helps prevent wall failure.

This pattern is called Serpents and Apples and is by Spoonflower . Spoonflower has a lot of cute designs , and also a good number of fun avant garde patterns like this one.
The homeowners have some other non-typical décor that will meld perfectly with this wallpaper. Think life-sized skeletons .
… Notice how that light fixture hanging in the center of the wall kinda looks like a skull ? …
The home is in the Oak Forest area of northwest Houston .

Pearland Powder Room Update and Wake Up

Originally, these walls were sorta heavily textured, and painted a drab brown-tan. Here I’ve finished skim-floating the walls to smooth them, and applied my wallpaper primer. Ready for paper!

Flowering tree branches are a popular trend right now, and many companies are making their own versions of it.

Pattern is nicely centered on the sink wall.
The white background really perks the room up, and the light touches of metallic gold in the leaves helps bounce light around this small room.

Close-up. This material has a slight raised ink texture to it. I love the look and feel.

That scribble at the top reads Florence Broadhurst . She was an Australian artist / painter. This line of wallpaper patterns are based on her art and designs.
The pattern is called Branches and the manufacturer is York Wallcoverings, one of my favorite brands.
Pearland is a southern subdivision of Houston.

Classic Chinoiserie in Heights Powder Room

Before. The previous installer did a beautiful job with this earthy grasscloth. But it didn’t suit the homeowner’s taste, nor did it fit with the feel of this 1939 cottage in the historic Norhill section of the Houston heights.

Done! The dark towel and mirror really set off the pattern and colors.

Wall behind the toilet. This Asian-influenced design, with its pagodas and minstrels, is referred to as a Chinoiserie . These designs have been popular for centuries.

Close-up. The green and blue tones coordinate beautifully with adjoining rooms in the house.

I rolled the wallpaper out on the floor, so I could see the full-size design. This one has a 46″ pattern repeat, which is awfully long, and means there can be a lot of waste. This design had a straight pattern match, and came packaged in a 24″ x 33′ bolt, like traditional wallpaper. It did not come as an A-B set, as many M&K products do.
I couldn’t find a full-size room-set photo on-line, so I availed myself of the Milton & King ‘s ” chat ” feature … I was connected with a live and knowledgeable representative in mere seconds, and he very quickly sent me a link to a picture of this pattern in a room.
In the photo, I’m using my yardstick to determine a centerline of the design motifs.

As are most of Milton & King ‘s wallpapers, this one was on a non-woven substrate. Rather than paste the wall, I chose to paste the paper, which works best in a bathroom with things to cut around and tuck paper behind. mi

The pattern is called Mulberry . Milton & King’s bolts come packed individually in protective boxes – no worries about banged edges with this outfit!

Happy Humming Birds Take the Hum-Drum Out of a Heights Powder Room

The light murky-green color of the original wallpaper pattern in this under-the-stairs powder room in the north Heights neighborhood of Houston coordinated nicely with the paint in the main rooms of the house. But the tiny fleur-de-lis pattern was way too small to do any justice to the room. The new homeowner never liked it and, after four years in the home, decided it was time for a change.

This new hummingbird pattern by Thibaut is called “Augustine.” It is one of my favorite designs, as well as one of my favorite products to work with.

As you can see, it fills the wall space much better, it is light and bright and airy, and it adds a pleasing upward movement – the whole overall effect is uplifting.

Also, the colorway is perfect with the room’s beautiful stained glass window.

When I first consulted with the homeowners, I showed them samples of more contemporary designs. They were not sold. Then I looked at their historically styled home, with it’s Victorian accents and classic furnishings. So I pulled out my more traditional file – and they zeroed in on this pattern right away.

Perfect choice! Indeed, this pattern dates back more than a hundred years. In fact, the goods come 18.5″ wide, as opposed to the typical 20.5″ wide, and I’m told that that is because it is printed on the same exact printing presses they used back in the 1800’s.

It is printed using the raised-ink process, it comes pre-pasted, it is a joy to work with, it doesn’t shrink when it dries, it hugs the wall tightly and is easy to work around corners, and should stay nice and flat under most home conditions for decades.

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, 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.