Another White House Gets Warmed With Wallpaper

This completely renovated ranch-style home in the Shepherds Park Plaza / Candelight Terrace / Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston is decorated in grey and white, with strong touches of natural weathered wood tossed in.

The homeowner wanted to warm things up in the dining room. A deep brown paint on the ceiling set the ball rolling.

The homeowner was originally considering real grasscloth, but once I explained the many problems with that product (see page at right), she took my advice and selected this faux grasscloth, from Wallquest, in their Grass Effects book, in their EcoChic line.

Ths product is made of paper, and it has a printed fiber pattern that mimics real grasscloth. But unlike grasscloth, the pattern on this stuff can be matched from strip to strip, so you don’t see abrupt lines at every seam.

In addition, fine strings are overlaid vertically on top of the material, giving the texture and depth that people are wanting right now.

My only gripe is that there were some noticeable color variations between strips. If you enlarge the photos, you can better see what I am talking about.

I have hung the tan colorway of this product several times, with no color variations.

But this is the third time that I will have hung the darker, browner version, and each time there were differences in color / shade between strips. Do a Search here to see previous posts.

This is disappointing, because I build this product up as a perfect solution to grasscloth. It turns out, particularly with this brown colorway, to share many of the woes of that natural material.

This wallpaper / faux grasscloth is by WallQuest, and was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

Mapping Out a New Look

Here is a small vestibule (the second vestibule I’ve done this week! 🙂 ), that leads from the living room past the powder room and into the kitchen / great room, in a newish “tall skinny” home in the Houston Heights.

It’s the perfect place to add a little personal flavor. This map pattern in muted colors is perfect for this space, because, in the adjoining living room, the homeowner has some framed maps that mirror the style and color of this wallpaper. The wallpaper pulls everything together.

This wallpaper is a non-woven material, and can be hung by the paste-the-wall method, or the paste-the-paper method. With the intricate door moldings requiring complicated cuts in miniscual spaces, it made more sense to paste the paper. It is by Mulberry Home (I gotta say – I think they’re knocking off the Magnolia Home brand made famous by Joanna Gaines on HGTV). It’s a British company.

The interior designer for this job is Stacie Cokinos, of Cokinos Design. She works primarily in the Heights, Garden Oaks, and Oak Forest neighborhoods. Her style is fresh and open, with attention to the homeowner’s personal taste, and a dash of fun tossed in.

Cheer in a Sphere on the Backs of Bookshelves

Again, the same home as my two previous blog posts. The homeowner is filling this lifeless all-tan house with color, movement, and fun patterns!

Take this bookcase – usually people put a textured wallpaper on the backs of their bookcases. But this homeowner went for a bit of color and pattern. You have to look close at the top photo to see, but the dotty circles are way fun! The dots even have a raised, embossed texture. They add a lot of life to the space, yet are calm enough to not conflict with the objects they will display on the shelves.

I put the same pattern in a curved art niche in a hallway close to this family room bookcase.

The homeowner has skillfully used this aqua color scheme to tie together several rooms in her home.

The home is in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston. The paper is an embossed (textured) vinyl surface on a non-woven substrate, and could be hung using the paste-the-wall method or the paste-the-material method (I prefer the latter).

This wallpaper pattern is by Exclusive Wallcoverings, and was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

Suiting a Blah Dining Room to a Young Family

This is the same house I blogged about yesterday, where everything started out a generic and lifeless tan. The homeowner is adding personality and cheer through color and pattern. Look at how well it’s working!

The area below the wainscoting in this dining room has been painted a beautiful aqua color. The faux-finish swirl-style wallpaper is hued in the exact matching tones, and looks fabulous in the room. There are two corner china cabinets painted a dark aqua, that will really set the room off!

This home is in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston. The wallpaper pattern is by Mayflower, and is a paper product. It was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

What a Sexy, Dramatic Wallpaper!

This newish home in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston was plain-Jane and generic as they come, with every surface coated in tan. The cheery mother of three kids under age five wanted the home to reflect the youth and energy of the household. I am slowly transforming several spaces in this home. Keep posted!

This is the master bedroom. I say, there are not many people who have the guts to go this daring! The wallpaper pattern scale is large, the color is bold, and the design is avant-garde… It looks fantastic!

The design looks like chunks of agate that have been sliced into slivers. The color is that of malachite. It takes two strips of width for the whole pattern to play out – and that’s good, because this wall expanse is about 17′ wide.

This wallpaper pattern is by York Wall, and was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

Geometric Trellis in a Garden Oaks Attic Conversion Master Suite

I attended the Garden Oaks Home Tour yesterday, and walked up the stairs to the master suite, all the while thinking, “Something about this feels familiar.” When I got into the master bathroom, I got it – I had hung the wallpaper about two years ago!

What’s cool is, the wife had had the bathroom remodeled as a surprise gift for her hubby while he was overseas. Well, yesterday he was there, so I got to meet him. He said he positively loved the new bathroom.

Classic Damask With an Updated Look

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

These homeowners have built what I call a “Hansel & Gretel house” in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston – lots of stone and wood on the outside, peaked rooflines, reminiscent of the fairy tale, and dark stained woodwork inside, with arched windows and vaulted / domed ceilings. For the under-the-stairs powder room, they chose wallpaper that was in keeping with the feel of the style of the home.

This damask pattern is very classic. But it has been updated with a bit of sass from silvery inks. Sorry that the metallic finish and the beauty of the paper don’t show up well on my photos.

I took care to center the damask pattern on the wall behind the mirror / sink, which you can see a little in the third photo (sink has not been installed yet, so you are looking at the plumbing).

This was a non-woven substrate, and a paste-the-wall product. Anderson Prints are through the Printers Guild, a division of Seabrook Wallcoverings.

Out of the ’90’s, and Into the …. ’90’s ….

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

The owners of this newish home in Garden Oaks were updating their powder room, including a new console style vanity, a point-of-use tankless water heater, and new wallpaper. They wanted it all done before the Super Bowl game…. I am generally booked with work several weeks out, but had an unexpected opening, so was able to squeeze them in today, between Christmas and New Year’s. They were happy to let me come this holiday week!

I have hung a ton of that chintz style floral (top photo) in the ’90’s. It’s a pleasing pattern, but has become dated. Really, the homeowners’ new choice isn’t much different, but it’s an updated version, plus the red color has a lot of impact, and that helps the walls stand out against the white woodwork.

One good thing about a pattern like this is that it won’t really ever go out of style.

The paper was printed on what we call a pulp substrate. I usually like pulps, but this one was thick and stiff and brittle and it abraded easily. I had to color the edges with oil pastel, to keep the white backing from peeking out at the seams. Pasting it was a wrestling match, because it kept wanting to curl back into a roll. It didn’t want to turn corners, it bubbled, and it abraded if it was rubbed too much, especially at the seams. It will stay nice and flat to the wall over time, but has no coating, so cannot be washed, and will stain if water splashes onto it. In other words, don’t buy this brand. 🙂

All that said, the room looked great when I was finished, and the homeowners loved it. The plumber is coming tomorrow, to install the sink, and they will be all ready for Super Bowl Sunday!

This wallpaper was bought from the Sherwin-Williams on N. Shepherd in Garden Oaks. I believe it was made in England, and the brand appears to be English Florals.

“The Other Guy Was Cheaper, But Not as Good”

What’s wrong with these pictures? The previous installer did not smooth the wall before hanging this pretty floral wallpaper (by Laura Ashley). He matched the pattern well, and his seams looked great. But, with the bumpy wall texture showing through from underneath, the whole thing just looks – icky.

This wallpaper was hung a few years ago. I just hung wallpaper in two other rooms in this same house. In both rooms – one a textured, painted wall, and the other a hallway with wallpaper hung over a textured wall, I insisted on smoothing the walls first, before hanging the new paper.

The homeowner is now considering repapering the walls done by the previous installer. When she brought me into the bedroom to measure the accent wall, she said, “The other guy was cheaper, but not as good.” Then she added, “He wasn’t a perfectionist like you, and I don’t think he cared as much about what he did.”

This house is in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston.

Butterflies in a Girl’s Bedroom

This wallpaper – a riot of color and fluttery wings – really popped on an accent wall in a 12-year-old girl’s bedroom, in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston.