Originally, these walls were painted white , with a light orange-peel texture . Here I’ve skim-floated the walls and sanded smooth. Vacuumed up the dust , wiped residual dust off the walls with a damp sponge , primed with Gardz – and now we’re ready for wallpaper .
Two walls done. Powder rooms can be tight spaces (especially when the door opens inward! ), and this was no exception. The homeowner was kind enough to take the sink out of the room , to make it easier for me to access the wall.
The wallpaper went only above the block and panel wainscoting / chair rail. I positioned the horizontal design so that we’d see two of the stripes , balanced between the molding and ceiling , with darker tan areas to fall at ceiling and chair rail , where they would be set off against the white wooden trim .
This look is a sort of water color , white washed , ombre ( shadow , blending / fading colors from light to dark ) . The homeowners work hard during the day, plus run after a school-aged son, and want their home to be a calm , quiet , respite . Much of the home is decorated in neutral hues and muted intensities . There are a few areas in the main living spaces that have a somewhat busy pattern , so the homeowner wanted a design for this powder room that countered that by being soft and quiet . Note: Thing 2 is the kid’s T-shirt I use to protect toilet seats .
Close up. Looks like a water color painting . What’s extra cool is that the homeowner actually met the pattern designer , Carol Benson-Cobb in person, and spent some time with her. This was some place like the artist’s studio or home. My client loved the gal’s work . Next thing you know, Ms. Benson-Cobb walked into the back room, pulled out an art print of one of her paintings, and showed it to my client. BINGO! She had to have it! Respecting privacy , I didn’t take a photo of the artwork . But bears a strong resemblance to the wallpaper , and was, to be honest , the inspiration for this whole room’s updating project .
The line is BC Benson-Cobb , and is made by York , which is one of my favorite companies. This is a thin , flexible , somewhat crispy non-woven material . Once the paper has paste on the back , it becomes more pliable . This can be installed by the paste-the-wall method , but I usually opt to paste the paper . At the beginning , I wasn’t convinced this was a non-woven wallpaper , because it’s easy to tear (one positive trait of NW materials is that they are resistant to tears , stretching , stains , and more). But after working with it a while, I realized it is a non-woven – and a very good one at that! The home is an expanded and updated classic ranch style in the Memorial / Gessner area of west Houston .
Top left: A Street Prints is the brand FAR LEFT IMAGES: Brush pasting the wall – this is a paste-the-wall product. This also tells us that it’s made of non-woven material. Which also tells us that there’s no booking time, and, if you choose to paste a strip rather than the wall (as I often do), you can paste and hang the strip immediately, with no wait period. If this particular paper did have a booking time, the label sometimes tells you how many minutes that is. Wavy lines – Means the paper is washable. Don’t take this too literally … no wallpaper will hold up to soap or cleaners or scrubbing. But these non-woven wallpapers are more easy to clean with gentle actions than plain paper wallcoverings. Sun – The paper is resistant to fading Paper being pulled off the wall – Strippable. Once the paste has dried and cured, this material is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, with no damage to the wall. The alternate to this is a peelable material, in which the top layer, usually a vinyl, peels off and leaves the paper backing on the wall. You then use a sponge to soak the backing with water and reactivate the paste, and then the paper will either pull away, or can be gently scraped away from the wall with a broad putty knife. MID LEFT WORDS: Pattern Number – The number assigned to this pattern. Some patterns also have names. Batch Number – Also called Run Number or Dye Lot. You want all your rolls to be from the same Run Number, as this means they were all printed at the same time with the same batch of ink. Paper from different runs will be ever so slightly different colors, and can give a striped appearance on your walls. Design Repeat – The image actually refers to the Pattern Match. The pic of two arrows pointing at each other means that this pattern has a straight across match. Meaning that the same design motif appears at the same point on every strip. Example … a sailboat will be at the top of the wall on every strip. Another type of pattern match is a drop match. Here the motif is at the same point on every other wallpaper strip, and drops down half a repeat on the alternate strips. So that sailboat is at the top of the wall on Strip 1, drops down a few inches on Strip 2, and then is back up at the top again on Strip 3. Another, third kind of pattern match is a random match. Which means there is no match, and you can hang any strip without regard to keeping a particular motif at the top of the wall, or matching a design element across the seams. These are usually stripes, or textured vinyls, or natural materials, like grasscloth or cork. Yet another pattern match is random-reverse. Again, textured vinyls or natural materials. To reduce the chance of color variations at the seams, you hang one strip right side up, and then the next strip gets hung upside down, and repeat. Underneath those two arrows on the label is “53CM.” This is the actual pattern repeat. It means how many centimeters go by before any given pattern motif appears on the paper again. In this case, 53 cm = 20.5″. So that sailboat will be at the top of the wall, then it will appear again 20.5″ down the wall, then again at 41″ down, etc. MOVING TO THE RIGHT: Information about emmissions / environment , manufacturer, technical specs . I honestly don’t know what those three images on the far right edge mean, but they don’t have any consequence on the installation of the paper, so off my radar. 🙂 At the very bottom we do see that this is under the Brewster umbrella, which manufacturers / sells a lot of wallpaper brands, just about all of them quite nice. Also it’s made in England. British papers are usually nice non-wovens.
Even with high (13′) vaulted ceilings, the original medium-toned purple paint in this master bedroom in a new home in the Town Lake neighborhood of Cypress (northwest Houston) made the room look a little closed-in. And the purple didn’t coordinate with anything the young homeowners own.
So they broke out the extension ladder and painted three walls a creamy white. Then they had me install a textured vinyl wallpaper with a woven grasscloth look on the wall behind the bed.
The job too two days. One day was to apply smoothing compound to the heavyish texture which is typical of new homes in the suburbs. The next day I sanded it smooth, wiped off the dust, primed, and then hung the paper.
Daylight was fading fast, so I had to take the “after” photo when only three strips were up. But you get the idea.
In the top photo, you see I have laid my rolled-up strips against the wall in the order they came off the bolt, and in the order in which they will be hung. This helps minimize color differences
As with most solid color and textured patterns, I used the “reverse hang” procedure to minimize shading – you hang one strip right side up, and the next strip you hang upside down. This way, the same side of each strip is placed next to each other. That way, if, for example, the left side of a bolt of wallpaper is slightly darker than the right side, you won’t notice an abrupt color change between your two strips, because the two darker sides are placed next to each other. I know that sounds complicated, but it’s a common practice when hanging wallpaper, and it does reduce color variations between strips.
One strip did end up a tad darker than the one next to it. They are all from the same run, so who knows what’s going on there. It’s a minor color difference, and not nearly as bad as if they had chosen real grasscloth instead. (Real grasscloth has tons of disappointing color variances between and even within strips.)
The close-up shows the beautiful texture of this embossed vinyl material. I have no idea why it came out grey – the paper is actually navy blue.
The vinyl wallcovering has a woven fabric (scrim) back, and is way more durable and stain-resistant than real grasscloth, or any other wallpaper, for that matter.
This wallpaper pattern is called “Bankun Raffia” by Thibaut Designs, and was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – Dorota Hartwig at Sherwin-Williams in the Rice Village. (713) 529-6515. She is great at helping you find just the perfect paper! Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
Here is a paper that has been in a master bathroom in a home in River Oaks for many years. This wall faces a wall of windows.
The dark areas you see in the photo are where a piece of art was removed from the wall, and, below that, where two towels had hung on towel racks (the rods have been removed and you are looking at the support brackets).
The picture and the towels kept sunlight away from the wallpaper, while the unprotected areas faded due to exposure to sunlight from the window.
Some wallpapers are dubbed “fade-resistant.” This one was not. This particular brand is printed on what we call pulp stock, which is usually a British product, and the inked layer has no coating, so it is not likely to hold up well against light or water or abrading or the likes.
I also think that the previous installer’s methods might have influenced the fading of the paper. The paper was hung directly on Sheetrock, with no primer. The drywall could have leeched into the wallpaper, causing discoloration. A primer would have prevented this.
The installer also used clay-based paste. This stuff is really sticky, but I think it’s icky – it is slimy and hard to wipe off woodwork, and it has a tan color that I have seen work its way through wallpapers, including grasscloth, many, many times.
If paste stains are bleeding through wallpaper, perhaps they are pulled more, or perhaps less, toward a source of light -and it could differ if it’s sunlight or a light bulb, too. And an obstacle such as a framed picture or a towel hanging from a bar a half an inch away from the paper block some of that light, and that could all have an effect, too.
And remember that towels are often damp, and that dampness hanging next to, or even touching, the wall, could cause changes to the paper and the paste and the surface below.
Just musings. When I look at existing wallpaper, or strip off some other installer’s work, I always am fascinated by the surface, the methods, etc.
I hung this original paper more than 15 years ago. Some areas had become stained, so I was called to fix it. Luckily, the homeowner had saved the left over paper, so there was enough to replace the damaged strips.
You can see a slight difference in color between the strip on the left, which was hung 15 years ago and has been exposed to light all that time, and the strip on the right, which has been stored in a dark closet until I put it up today.
I hung the woven grasscloth on the left about 20 (maybe more) years ago. About two years ago, the home had some water damage, and I used left over grasscloth to repaper the section around the air duct.
This is a sun room, and receives a lot of light. You can see how the color has changed over time, by comparing the paper that has been exposed to bright sunlight to the paper that was in storage for 20 years. Grasscloth is a natural product, and so has little resistance to fading.
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