The accent wall in a Houston Heights master bedroom where I’m working is a little dark. Here I’ve removed the light sconces , and am getting ready to skim-float to smooth the textured wall . A little more light would be helpful! My bright 100 watt light bulb is screwed into a little gizmo that’s quite handy . It’s a socket for a light bulb that can be plugged into an electrical wall outlet . Alternately, as you can see, because there are two holes in the bottom of the metal prongs , you can slip the ends of the electrical wires into those holes . Of course, you have to be careful that the ends of those two wires ( one white and one black ) don’t touch each other . That could cause a spark and a shock , and maybe even trip the circuit breaker . Oh, and, also, be sure to turn the power off at the switch before doing this. If you want to be extra-cautious, you can kill the circuit at the breaker box – but really, turning off at the wall switch and then taking care not to let the two wires touch each other, will be pretty safe. When ready to work around this improvised lighting , especially with metal tools or wet wallpaper , I will turn off the power at the switch , remove the socket thingie from the wires in the wall , use screw cap wire nuts to cover the exposed wire ends , and tuck the wires a bit into the electrical box . Once the paper’s up in that area, I can reattach the socket and get me some light again. I stumbled upon these things at a garage sale decades ago, and got maybe 10 of them for a buck or two. But they’re still available in electrical departments of places like Home Depot and Lowe’s and our neighborhood favorite here in central Houston – Southland Hardware . They cost about a dollar or a dollar and a half each .
Bad photo, but I’m to put wallpaper in this room, including the tall and deep fir-down at the top right, which has two recessed light fixtures in it. You want the paper to go behind the light fixtures, not cut around them, if at all possible. In the photo, at the far middle left, you can see one fixture dangling by it’s wires below the fir-down.Some of these recessed fixtures are tricky to take down (many won’t come down at all), but these ones turned out to be held in place by tension springs, which fit into sideways hooks, which you can see at the left inside the hole. Here’s a closer look. These are the same type springs that hold the vent covers to exhaust fans in place. As you push them upward, they spread apart and hold the fixture securely in place. Easy-peasy! You can also squeeze the springs together and remove them from the mounting housing, which lets the fixture dangle from its electrical wires.That’s what I’ve done here. Now it’s much easier to work the wallpaper around the fixture. But it could be made even easier – by removing the light fixture all together. Most light fixtures have black and white wires coming from inside the wall that connect to black and white wires on the electrical fixture and are connected and held in place by a twist-on screw cap or wire nut. What’s very cool about this particular fixture’s electrical connections is that it’s made by this orange plug, which fits into the orange receptacle – no wires to twist or cap, and no need to cut off the power. It’s all simple and perfectly safe. Here I’ve disconnected the two orange parts. With the light fixture completely out of the way, it’s much easier to install the wallpaper, and no paste gets slopped onto the fixture.Here’s the wallpaper installed and trimmed around the inside of the opening. Oh, and don’t mind the slight pattern mis-match on the left … there were issues with un-plumb and un-level walls coming into play. And here I’ve reconnected the orange plug parts, and placed the spring back inside those hooks, then pushed the light fixture up and back into place. Look at how nicely the flange (outer ring) of the fixture covers the cut edge of the hole and the wallpaper.
This is the mounting bracket for a sconce / light fixture . The fixture itself is exactly the same size as the bracket. So it’s unfortunate that the electrician used an electrical box that is too large . As you can see, the blue box shows on both the left and right sides of the light fixture. (I will also add that I think this light fixture is narrower than most – I suspect it was made overseas where boxes and codes are different from here.) In addition, the blue box juts out from the wall and will create a bump under the wallpaper , plus prevent the paper from adhering tightly to the wall . The jaggedly cut drywall will leave impressions under the paper, too. Here the plastic electrical box is recessed better into the wall. But there are still gaps on the left and right sides of the bracket. To get the wallpaper around the brackets without gaps showing , I removed the brackets, and then brought the wallpaper in to cover the electrical junction boxes by about 1.” (no photo) If the electrician needs more space for his wires , he can always trim the wallpaper back a little. In the instance of the box in the top photo, there will still be wallpaper that can’t sit tight to the drywall , but once the sconce is replaced you really won’t notice. I also had the option of leaving the mounting brackets in place and then placing the wallpaper over the metal plates. But first of all, I think this is against building Codes. And second, if the sconces are changed out later, or if someone needs to access the electrical connections, removing the mounting plates would most surely tear the wallpaper in the process. So, best to have the wallpaper behind the plates, rather than pasted on top of them.
I hung this wallpaper back in 1996, and was back this week to update it with new ‘ grown-up ‘ wallpaper. You are looking at the mounting bracket for the towel bar. For some reason, I didn’t remove the bracket like I usually do today, nor did I cut around it. Instead, I cut the paper so that the towel bar would be able to grip onto the bracket, but left some of the paper intact. The cover plate is off the light switch. Here I cut the paper very tightly to the electrical switch. I didn’t cut out for the screw holes, but, when the cover plate was replaced, I let the screw drive itself right through the wallpaper.
I hung this same paper in this same kitchen not even a year ago. A few months later, the homeowners suffered “burst pipes” from the big freeze storm that hit Houston in February 2021. Consequently, their whole kitchen had to be torn out and replaced – drywall, flooring, cabinets, electrical, plumbing, and, yes – wallpaper.
They chose to go back with the exact same pattern they had used last year.
The manufacturer is Anderson Prints, it’s a traditional paste-the-paper product, and it was purchased from Stacey at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet.
Usually, according to code, a metal electrical junction box should be in or on the wall before a light fixture can go up. All wire connections should be enclosed inside this box.
In the photo, some light sconces were added to an existing wall. Maybe because of stud placement inside the wall, or maybe laziness, or maybe ingenuity, the electrician fished a wire through the wall and out a hole, and then hooked up the sconces. All without benefit of a junction box.
I do believe this is perfectly safe. The wire connections are all tight and secured with wire nuts, and enclosed inside the housing of the light sconce.
However, while I don’t know electrical codes, I doubt that this is up to code. From what I understand, most such connections should be made inside a metal junction box.
I do have to say, I have seen this sort of thing many times – including in cities like Bellaire, Texas (Houston), where the building code inspectors are really tough.
I was told this job was ready to go, but when I got on-site, look what I found. They removed a noisy and ill-placed exhaust fan and drywalled over the hole. But when they removed the electrical switch for the fan, they forgot to patch that hole.
I can put paper over small holes, but not one this large and not in such an obvious place. It will be visible, and it’s likely to get punched through.
So I had to go home, and will wait for the contractor to repair this (along with a few other dings).
Pics of some “wallpaper-ready” walls left by the contractor.
In the last photo, note joint compound jammed into the box of an electrical outlet. This water-based material resting between the connectors on the electrical outlet, could serve as a conductor – and could have easily short-circuited the circuit … which could have blow out every light and electrical appliance on that circuit. As well as potentially started an electrical fire.
I chipped the gunk out of the outlet, and then spent about fours smoothing this mess on the walls, and then priming with a wallpaper-appropriate primer.
I am working in powder room in an expensive home in a brand new subdivision in far northwest Houston, built by a big-name tract home builder. I have removed the wall-mounted light fixture and found this … The horizontal bar is the mounting bracket for the light fixture, and the round tube is the nipple that holds the fixture in place. No on to the electrical wiring …
Electrical connections are supposed to be enclosed in a plastic or metal electrical box. As you can see, there is no box in sight.
The wires were fished through the wall and pulled through a hole, sans box, and then connected to the light fixture.
The other problem is, the wires you are seeing are not the 12 or 14 ga. AWG copper wires that carry the household current that the light fixture is supposed to be hard wired to. Instead, thinner braided wire has been used to make connections somewhere inside the wall, hopefully inside a proper box, and then pulled through the wall and connected to the light fixture. You might also notice that these wires are silver (aluminum?) instead of copper.
At least there is a ground wire.
I suppose the electrician did this so he could center the light fixture over the sink. The subdivision may be outside any incorporated city limits, so possibly there are no governing building codes. Either way, I doubt this would pass code in Houston, or any city with an attnetive Building Inspector.
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