Before. Way too much white! A handsome new look. The homeowners are going to paint the bottom area below the chair rail a softer white. They were waiting for the wallpaper to be in place before making a decision on a coordinating paint color . Looking toward dining room and family room . Coat closet and hall leading to bath s and bedroom s. I like to say that a texture like this is reminiscent of a man’s tweed suit . The material itself is an embossed vinyl , so has actual texture to it. It’s color is pretty consistant . This is a great alternative to real grasscloth – a product that presents many disappointing variations in color . Close up of texture and color . Note the bits of gold that reflect light . The homeowners hung a large mirror with a dark gold frame , which really set off against the wallpaper. (dumb me didn’t think to take a picture!) The wallpaper is by A Street Prints , under the Brewster umbrella. It’s a non-woven / paste the wall product , and was easy to install . Because NW contains 20% polyester , it is strong and durable . The vinyl surface is resistant to stains . It’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece and with no damage to the walls when it’s time to redecorate . A very good alternative to real grasscloth or other natural materials . This purchased through Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams in the Rice Village. Wed – Sat , call first, please. (713) 529-6515 The homeowners made an appointment and then brought Dorota photos of their room, the floor , the mirror , along with their vision for the space. Dorota immediately went to the shelf and pulled out the selection book and opened it to this option. The couple loved it immediately! They did look at and consider other patterns and also ordered samples , but ultimately went with their first choice – this one. The home is in the Tanglewood / Galleria area of Houston . installer
Before. Most of this home is in the white / beige / neutral decorating scheme. The homeowner wanted something with pizzazz to snazz up the powder room. Textured walls have been smoothed, primed, and are ready for wallpaper.Definite WOW! factor!Toilet corner before.Toilet corner done.Another viewClose up.Closer up. The textured background you see is the non-woven material this is printed on. It has a 20% polyester content, and is thus somewhat similar to fiberglass. Very hard to tear, resistant to stains , and designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece , with no damage to the wall , when you redecorate . It can be hung by pasting the wall , or by pasting the paper . I generally prefer to paste the paper . Rolling it out on the floor , to see the overall pattern , and to decide what element I want to place at the center of the focal wall as well as at the top of the wall . This pattern is so wild and crazy and over-all, that it ultimately doesn’t matter about pattern placement . That’s pretty rare . The pattern is called Central Park and is made by Thibaut . The home is in the Galleria / Tanglewood area of Houston . What’s very cool is that the homeowner had ordered large samples of three colorways , but couldn’t decide which she wanted to go with. So she taped them to the wall, threw a dinner party , and asked her guests to vote for their favorite. This bright and colorful one won, hands down! Now she’ll have to invite them all back again, to see the finished room! I think the color and the design go super nicely with the weathered-white , deeply carved front of the vanity . installer installation
Powder room before. Note the blue ceiling . I applied a white pigmented wallpaper primer ( Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime ) to the walls . Done! So cheery and fun and lively! These flowers just make you smile when you walk in here!Toilet corner before. I’m grateful to the husband for removing the toilet tank, as well as the sink / vanity. This sure saved me a lot of time and squeezing into tight spots. The red square in the back is wall area that was blocked by the toilet tank, so previous painters were not able to reach that area. It had a heavy sand texture on it, which I took a little extra time to skim-float and then sand smooth. Nobody’s going to see it, but it will help the wallpaper adhere better . Toilet corner after. The corner you’re looking at was off-plumb by about 1/2″ from top to bottom, so there is a bit of a pattern mis-match as you get closer to the floor. Not a biggie with this wild pattern, plus it’s mostly hidden behind the toilet.Hard to see, but the focus of the photo is an angled wall under the stairs . The blue ceiling coordinates perfectly with the colors in the wallpaper . This is by Rifle Paper , and is called Garden Party . Every Rifle Paper I’ve hung previously has been on a non-woven substrate , and could be installed by the paste-the-wall method. The label said this was a PTW (see diagram of brush putting paste on the wall) … but it surprised me, because it was NOT! It was on a regular paper stock, and I’m betting it’s the same material that York prints its SureStrip line as well as the Spoonflower brand. I assumed the directions and diagram were correct, so first I pasted the paper and then took it immediately to the wall, with no booking time. Lo and behold, I got bubbles on the wall. This happens because the paper is absorbing moisture from the paste and expanding. With no way to escape being trapped between the paper and the wall, the moisture ” off gas es” and pushes away from the wall ,,, resulting in those bubbles. My solution was to treat the material as a traditional pasted wallpaper. So I pasted the back, folded pasted-side-to-pasted-side (called booking ), and then placed it into a black plastic trash bag for a few minutes. This allows the paper to absorb moisture from the paste, expand, and relax , all before it goes onto the wall. This is a pretty sure way to prevent the appearance of bubbles or blisters or wrinkles. The townhome is in the Highland Village / Galleria area of Houston .
Primed and ready for wallpaper . The original color was a somewhat dark murky blue . The room just felt listless and small (it’s not a small powder room )Finished. Brighter and comfortable . This isn’t a statement-making wallpaper . But it’s all about lightening up the area, and making it feel welcoming at the same time. The light metallic accents in the pattern accentuate the color of the light sconces .The gold also works nicely with the oil-rubbed bronze faucet and handles . And the aqua melds nicely with the grey marble countertop . Close-up showing the printed texture . The paper also has a light raised ink texture to it. The design is called Tresco and is by Thibaut , one of my favorite brands . It’s in their Anna French line. This wallpaper is a non-woven material , and can be hung by the paste the wall method . I usually prefer to paste the paper . Non-wovens are strong and more stain resistant than other wallpapers. They are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate . Tanglewood houston installer
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
Vanity backsplash wall . Pattern nicely centered .Toilet wall. It’s usually not possible to center a second wall in most rooms, but this one “just happened” to fall almost perfectly.The homeowner wanted something fun to wake up this traditional powder room. Well, here ya go! This is a pretty popular wallpaper pattern . Do a Search to see other installations I’ve done.Close-up.Mfgr is Brunschwig & Fils . The home is in the Galleria / Tanglewood area of Houston .
What a beautiful, fresh, floaty view as you come up the stairs of this townhome. Here’s what was there before. Early ’90’s , solid vinyl that was both outdated and beginning to succumb to humidity ( curl at the seams ). The previous installers (most likely a DIY homeowner couple) had hung the vinyl over existing wallpaper. I stripped off the vinyl, but, for various reasons, I was unable to remove the bottom, original wallpaper. Here is the room after I patched areas, skim-floated over seams, and primed with 123 by Zinsser. Same view, cloaked in beautiful shimmery , pearlized floral wallpaper . Over the shower view. The homeowner was worried about using a modern wallpaper with her ’70’s tile . Replacing the tile was out of the budget . But the interior designer assured her that since the paper had a bit of yellow in it, that it would work nicely with the tile. Boy, was he right! The colors go together perfectly. Toilet alcove view. The whole re-do was started by a water leak that caused the plumbers to cut a hole in the wall to the right of the toilet.I don’t usually recommend covering switchplates and outlet covers , because they get soiled quickly. But the homeowner really liked the look of them covered, and she lives alone so promised to keep fingers off the plates . 🙂 This wallpaper is in the Canidice Olson line by York , one of my favorite companies, and was a delight to work with. It is thin and breathable, and will hold up much better in a humid bathroom than the previous vinyl option. The paper was purchased from Calico on West Alabama in central Houston . The client was assisted by Ron Dillon , who is an interior designer as well as has sold wallpaper for more than 20 years. He was an immense help to my client, who was dealing with many stressors and uncertainties during this bathroom re-do.
Powder room before.Powder room after the introduction of various bugs, insects, critters and creepy crawlers.The homeowner loves bugs. She likes this view so much that she said she might not cover it with a mirror. Who needs a mirror in a powder room, anyway?This powder room is under the stairs, hence the sloped ceiling. The wallpaper has the look of botanical identification prints, in a dreamy shade of blue. Mind the Gap is the manufacturer, and the pattern is called Entomology. The material comes as a 3- roll / strip set. It’s a non-woven product, so you can hang it by pasting the wall. Although I usually choose to paste the paper. Interestingly, this paper was lot thinner and crisper than the black Aquafleur by the same brand I hung a couple of weeks ago. In fact, it was quite translucent. I had to not make pencil marks on the walls nor on the back of the paper, for fear they would show through the front. This stuff is also very curly – meaning that it wants to stay tightly rolled up. Two days before the install, I asked the homeowner to roll the material backward and secure with an elastic hairband, to relax the curl. This worked wonderfully, and I had nice flat sheets to work with. The pattern is essentially a mural, spread across three strips that connect to the next set of three strips. The pattern does not repeat. That means that it takes one full ” roll” for each strip. Since the rolls are 10′ long and the walls in this bathroom were less than 8′, there was more than 2′ of paper cut off and thrown away, for each of 15 strips around the room. The two 8″ high strips over the door would also have each used up a full 10′ roll. But I did a little measuring and plotting and trimming and used scraps for this area. This also enabled me to put bugs that had not been seen on any of the other strips up over the door. Because this space was only 8″ high, I had to find insects that were small – didn’t want anyone to get his legs or antenna cut off! Sorry, I forgot to get a photo of that area. This room had some tricky spaces. Besides the sloped ceiling, which presented challenges of its own too complicated to delve into here, the 2″ gap you see next to the vanity in the top photo … the wide strip on the wall with the hand towel ring, plus the 2″ wide strip between the vanity and that wall probably took me a full 40 minutes to get in place. The townhome is in the Galleria / Highland Village neighborhood of Houston.
Before. The turquoise isn’t working with the new blue wall tile.Brighter, airier, and in better sync with the blue tile.There is wonderful “movement” in this design. “Priano” by Serena & Lily – one of my favorite brands.
This wallpaper was hung in the Briarpark (Galleria / Tanglewood) area of Houston.
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