Fun Fuzzy Flocked Faces – No Timid Walls Here!

Originally, the powder room was moody and posh , with black lacquered walls , ceiling , and woodwork, black toilet and sink, and that gorgeous etched mirror.

But the homeowner waned it to make a statement – and this wallpaper sure does!

Corner to left of door.

Same corner primed. Wallpaper paste won’t adhere wall to the glossy paint. My preferred primer, Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime , sticks to just about anything, provides a good base for the wallpaper , dries quickly , and facilitates removal of the wallpaper when it’s time to redecorate .

Same area with wallpaper.

Close-up .

Flocked means that the wallpaper has raised , fuzzy areas, something like velvet .

Just look at my work table at the end of the day!
I sure don’t want to transfer any of this to my next jobs, so I took extra care to remove all of this dust before packing up my equipment.

The design is called Croquis and is by Jean Paul Gaultier , and the brand is Lelievre , a French company.
The material is a user-friendly non-woven or paste the wall , and was nice to work with. It will strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
The home is in the Spring Branch area of Houston .

A Dose of Light Dazzle for a Glam Bedroom

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This homeowner’s style is all about shimmer and lux and high glamour. But the bedroom felt cold, and she thought an accent wall would perk things up. We explored a number of wallpaper designs, mostly pretty dramatic. She ended up choosing this much more subtle pattern – really more of a texture than a pattern – and I think it is the perfect choice.

It has just enough design to bring life to the room, and the light flocked texture warms things up. But it is a background sort of pattern, and doesn’t overwhelm the room. This is good, because it means that the chrome-and-black headboard, the chrome end tables, and the large mirrors that hang above them (not pictured) will be the focal points of the room.

The homeowner loved the look so much that she is considering taking the paper all the way around the room, onto the three remaining walls. The pattern is soft enough, and the color light enough, and the room large enough, that I think this will work wonderfully.

This home is a new townhome with custom features, in Braes Heights, Houston.

The wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpapers, and was bought at below retail price from 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.

Overscaled Flocked Damask Wallpaper Pattern in a Living Room

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Originally, this living room accent wall in a home in the Museum District of Houston was painted a deep gold/brown, and was covered with a large number of framed art pieces. The first photo shows the wall after I have skim-floated it to smooth away the texture.

The wife wanted something updated and fun. She chose this taupe-on-silver extra large damask pattern with a flocked (raised velvet-like) surface. To top it all off, there are flecks of silver in the flocked material.

The new wallpaper really jazzed up the room. The family is very into the arts, and the wife was eager to put her paintings and photographs back up on the wall. But once the paper went up and sent waves of impact throughout the room, she hesitated.

I, personally, would rather see something large, like a huge mirror, framed in an almost-ridiculously carved and filigreed gold frame.

The paper is by Graham & Brown, and was a durable non-woven material, and entailed a paste-the-wall process; it was nice enough to work with. Seen from head-on, the wallpaper was dazzling. However, if you stood at an angle to the wall, you could see color differences between every strip.

I don’t think these are actually color differences, but rather differences in the nap of the flocked material. The look didn’t seem to bother the homeowners at all. They love the pattern, the texture, and the sassiness of the whole look.

Me, I am busy cleaning up little specks of silver dust from all my tools, drop cloths, work table – everything is permeated with them.

Wallpaper & the Old San Franscisco Steakhouse

This week I’m working on an entry way, in a ranch-style home built in the ’60’s.

Under the existing wallpaper, I discovered remnants of the original wallpaper. It was the old “flocked” style, which was popular back then. The pattern was almost always a fleur-de-lis design, and was embellished by a raised “felt” or “velvet” flocking – an actual 3-D papper.

Two drawbacks to those papers – they are the Devil to remove, and … they collect dust!

As they say, everything old is new again… I was just contacted by a gal who is going for the “loft look” and is seeking some bold patterns and colors, like a damask in a huge scale. AND she said she would even consider a flocked paper.

She will have an easy time finding one, since the manufacturers are once again putting such textural styles front and center in their offerings.