Soft Textured Foliage Brightens Entry

The homeowners knew they wanted something brighter for their entryway . But their paint samples tested on the wall were falling flat.

Wallpaper was the answer! Brighter and more personality and interesting than paint of the same color .

Here’s a better shot showing the actual color .

And here it is with my 100-watt light bulb gone and the room’s chandelier providing the light .

This is a stringcloth material . Note that, just like grasscloth , another natural fiber material , you will see the seams a bit. On this one, the heavy inked areas of the white berries showed more than the background areas . From a few feet away, none of this was visible.

Close-up showing the texture of the strings and the thick ink .
I do think this will have some sound-reduction qualities ( absorb noise ).
Also a note … cats and even dogs love to scratch or chew textured fibers like this.

Rolling it out on my work table. The rolls / bolts were really heavy .

Made by Wallquest in their EcoChic line.
The home is in the Tanglewood / Galleria area of Houston .
installer

Dogs Have Their Own Room – Complete With Wallpaper!

Here’s an unusual but clever use of under-the-stairs space. It’s a series of three rooms, pretty much intended for storage / closet area. The height of the walls gets shorter / lower as you move further under the stairs.
The homeowners decided to use the outer / taller room as a lounge for their dogs.

As you can see, plain old tile floors and wall paint don’t quite cut it … These pooches get their own room, complete with wallpaper !

Looking from taller, outer room into middle and then into the inner, smallest room.

Only the outer, taller room gets wallpaper.

Lots of angles, under the stairs.

2 1/2″ wide space between door moldings.

I had fun choosing which part of the design to slip into this narrow area, to ensure we’d see the most dogs and with the least parts cut off.

Design is called Doggies and is by Milton and King . They make really nice wallpaper , although some patterns can be tricky to measure for, so consult your installer before ordering.
This is a non-woven product, and can be hung via the paste-the-wall method of by pasting the paper.

Dog Tear Repair

Textured wallcoverings are tempting to dogs and cats, and this couple’s King Charles spaniel puppy had some fun with a couple of areas of their kitchen wallpaper. It is an embossed vinyl on a paper backing, made to mimic a woven grasscloth.

An applique a half inch higher than the tear, and the full width of the wall, was the least noticeable way to repair this. The thickness of the material made it more difficult to disguise the patch, but the finished job looked very good.

The third photo shows “border paste” – also called vinyl over vinyl (VOV) – which was called for in this instance. Vinyl wallcovering is somewhat slick, and most adhesives won’t stick to it. So you need this special formula.

In addition, because the patch was exhibiting curl at the top and side edges, and because I wanted something with quick tack, I used clear caulk (not pictured) along all the edges. This sets up quickly, and holds very tightly, even on glossy surfaces.

For the Love of Dogs

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The two large dogs who live in this home in the Woodland Heights (Houston) have their own room (which is also the home’s mudroom). They may have fancy digs, but the décor was bland. See top photo.

A little wallpaper changed all that. This “Trot” pattern by Stroheim is fresh and cute, but not in a cloying way – while it’s fun, it’s actually pretty sophisticated for a rear entry. The Stone color goes amazingly well with the paint on the wainscoting and other trim in the room.

The interior designer is also the homeowner – Stacie Cokinos, of Cokinos Design, here in Houston. She works a lot in the Heights neighborhoods, and works on a lot of whole-house remodels, and new builds.