Dang … I forgot to take a before pic. This large powder room was originally papered in Serena & Lily ‘s Feather , in green . I stripped it off and applied wallpaper primer , which took a day, and hung the paper the second day. Larger than usual toilet alcove .If you’re from Austin , Texas , you recognize these things. Barton Springs , BBQ trucks , the State Capitol , cowboy boots . Hippy Hollow isn’t on there, and I’m not sure it even still exists, but the nudist colony there was definitely part of Austin’s culture! The pattern is in the City Toile collection by Katie Kime , which is wildly popular . I wasn’t crazy about the quality of the paper , but it install ed OK and will hold up for many years. It sure changes the room! iThe home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks area of Houston
I wanted to position this pattern so that the stripe ran right up along the right side of the door frame. That would be more visually pleasing than having half-sections of those angular motifs. The stripe did run along the outer edge of the wallpaper strip, so I could have easily butted the edge along the door molding. But that would have put a vertical seam running right up over the corner of the door. My experience has shown that this area gets a lot of stress, especially in the case of shifting foundations and walls. So I really avoid letting a seam fall there.My solution was to take a strip and move the seam over – easy to do with this striped pattern. We had very little paper for this job, so before cutting anything I made sure that reducing the width of this strip by one section of diagonal motifs would still allow me to reach the corner on the far right (not shown). So I measured down a little more than the height of wall above the the door and kept that intact and full-width. The rest of the length of that strip I cut along the strip in the design, all the way down to the floor. Here that strip is in place. Leaving the top portion a little long ensured that I had enough to cover this area, and then all I did was trim off the extra 1″ or so, just as you normally would trim around a door frame. The best part is that we now have the paper reaching across that “danger zone” above the top right corner of the door, with no seam to split open or gap should the wall shift.Here’s a close-up of the irregular strip as it falls alongside the door molding. Here’s the left corner of that door. I did some tricks to get that strip straight along the edge of the door frame, too. No pics, but, in a nutshell, I cut vertically along the lines in the design over the door, to cut the sections apart. Then I overlapped the sections about 1/4″, with the vertical stripe disguising the overlap. This made each section of diagonal motifs narrower. Once I had narrowed the whole area by removing about an inch, I had pulled the full-height strip on the left over to the right far enough that the tan line lined up along the door frame, and above the door it butted up with the left edge of the last section of diagonal motifs. Note that this is a very easy pattern to play tricks with, because, although there is a pattern match, it really doesn’t matter much if you ignore it. Also, the lines are not perfectly straight, but a bit squiggly, and that makes it much more forgiving. In fact, because we were really short on paper, the only way to get the room done was to mis-match the design in most places. The homeowner was OK with that. In fact, she (and he) were delighted with how the room turned out. This very popular pattern is called Feather and is by Serena & Lily . Just about everything they make, I love hanging. (not so fond of their non-woven / paste-the-wall option) This comes in many colors, and you can purchase directly from them on-line. wallpaper installer houston
This project has been in the works for more than a year, and the young family was chomping at the bit to get it done! Here is the “before” pic, after I have smoothed the textured wall and primed. See other post for info on the smoothing process.Done!The homeowner had gotten some left over paper from a friend, and only had one full double roll plus 20′ on another roll. I would have liked more paper, but I was up to the challenge, and was able to pull some tricks out of my hat and get the room done with what we had – with about 13″ left over! Close-up.I love raised-ink papers like this. They add just a tad of texture to the room. The manufacturer is Serena & Lily . I love hanging most of their papers. This ” Feather ” pattern is very popular, and comes in many colors. The home is in the FM 1960 / Cypresswood area of Houston .
Peeking in from outside the room.Pattern nicely centered on vanity wall.The actual manufacturer is York. Unfortunately came with the printing defects that have been common with this brand. I had to discard one entire 9′ strip.
When you hang wallpaper on all four walls of a room, when your last strip meets up with the first strip you hung, you almost always end up with a mis-matched pattern. I didn’t want a 9′ long pattern mis-match in a visible corner in this powder room. So I opted to put it over the door, where the space is only 7″ high, and where people are not likely to be looking anyway. I had to bridge about 30″ of wall space.As my strips came closer together, I was left with this gap.If I put the next piece in place, I would be left with some ‘boxes’ that would be cut off, leaving a noticeable mis-match. I knew I could make it look better.First I used my straightedge to trim the top of the strips so they would fit flush at the ceiling line. That’s not usually how you work along a ceiling line, but in this case it was a good option. Then I sliced the strips apart vertically, following one edge of the dark blue stripes. Then I started putting the strips in place, overlapping each of them just a little, to make each set of boxes narrower. This made each set of boxes narrower, but it also made them equal width. Here they are, all lined up in place. You really don’t notice that the boxes above the door are narrower than those on either side of the door. And it looks a whole lot better than having boxes chopped in half. This wallpaper pattern is called Feather and is by Serena & Lily.
Disappointed to find lines like this running through several bolts of wallpaper. I had to discard two full-length strips due to these and other marks. Here we’ve got smudges on the back side … looks like someone at the factory stepped on the paper. This is the second time this winter that I’ve had printing defects from this company.
This has got to be one of the smallest powder rooms I’ve worked in. Bland and boring, too. People think that wallpaper will make a room look smaller. But in actuality, it visually pushes the walls away, making the room feel larger. The white paper also bounces light around better than dull painted walls, which brightens the room and makes it feel bigger. It has a slight raised ink texture. Feather by Serena & Lily is sure popular, and I’ve hung it many times, mostly in this navy / denim . S&L makes nice wallpaper. The home is in the Villages area of near-west Houston.
My strip is ending less than 2″ from the door molding on the right. Only problem is, the wallpaper and the door are not perfectly parallel to one another, so you have a wider space at the top and a narrower space at the bottom. Once that final narrow strip of wallpaper goes in place, the white “boxes” will be wider at the top and skinnier at the bottom, making the wall look crooked. To fool the eye and make everything look straight, I’ve cut a strip wide enough to cover the space. I’ve trimmed it with my straightedge and made sure all the boxes are the same width. Next I took a scissors and cut along the blue stripe, following the slightly wavy profile. Here I’m butting the strip into the corner at the right. It’s hanging perfectly parallel to the molding. The navy stripe overlaps the strip on the existing strip. It’s covering up a little more of the white boxes and making them narrower, especially at the bottom of the wall. But this is less noticeable than if I had let the boxes get cut diagonally on the right against the door molding. See how nice that looks, to have the boxes straight along the woodwork? And you don’t notice that the boxes to the left get consecutively narrower toward the bottom. Closer up. The camera angle is making the boxes look smaller at the bottom … trust me, they are all the same width. The angles don’t match up absolutely perfectly as you move down the wall, but it’s not anything to catch your eye. The wavy lines and irregularity of the design make this a good pattern to pull little tricks like this. The wallpaper pattern is called Feather and is by Serena & Lily , one of my preferred brands.
The original all-white walls didn’t do much to make this play room for young kids feel fun. Mom chose “Feather” by Serena & Lily to pump it up a couple of notches!
In the close-up photo, you can see the irregular lines of this design, as well as the hand-painted, watercolor-y look. The material has a slight “raised ink” texture.
You might think the pattern is a little busy now, but once the furniture is back in place and the artwork goes up, the room will feel more balanced.
The homeowners also commented that the pattern on the walls makes the room feel bigger and less “lost” than with the all-white look.
The home is in the Braes Heights neighborhood of southwest inner Loop Houston. The wallpaper is called “Feather” and is by Serena & Lily – one of my favorite brands.
thought the left edge where the wallpaper meets the molding of the bookcase was too much white-on-white.
To create some definition between the two surfaces, as well as to continue the them of the wallpaper, I took some scrap paper and custom-cut a strip of blue. I cut the right edge straight, Then I used a razor blade to trim along the irregular outline of the design.
I pasted the strip, and then appliquéd it over the wallpaper in the corner.
Now there is a visual break between the two walls. Even though the blocks on the left edge of the wallpaper are less than full width, your eye doesn’t notice it.
The eye is fooled into thinking it’s seeing a complete panel of the wallpaper pattern.
This is called “Feather” and is by Serena & Lily – one of my favorite brands.
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