Shimmery Dragon Glass Bead Wallpaper on Bedroom Accent Wall

Just about everything in this gal’s new home is glimmer, mirror, crystal, and sheen. So no question that the accent wall in the master bedroom should be the same.

This design is printed on a pearlescent silver background, and features swirling dragon motifs made of tiny real glass beads. Viewed with light coming from an angle (window on the south wall, for instance, or a bedside table lamp), the wallpaper has a real glitter effect.

The wallpaper is by Osborn & Little, and is in the line by designer Matthew Williamson. It is a vinyl-covered non-woven material, and can be hung by either the paste-the-wall method or the paste-the-paper method (which is what I opted for).

The home is in the Braeswood / Meyerland / Braes Heights / Willowbend / Willow Meadows neighborhood of south west Houston. This area was heavily devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The home sits right on the Buffalo Bayou, and was built after that disaster, and situated quite high up.

Sparkly Damask Pattern in a Powder Rooom

A gal with a big personality and a love of glam needs a wallpaper that follows suit. This one does the trick!

This large damask pattern has a traditional feel, but the sparkly accents bring it into the new millennium. I like the glittery look on this paper much better than the glass bead products that have had some popularity recently… The real glass beads – which are fairly pricy – simply don’t sparkle unless the light is hitting them just the right way. And they make the wall bulky, especially in corners, they fall off and create bumps behind the paper, and clog drains and get into the waterways.

This paper has much more sparkle, no matter where the light is coming from, and it’s much more economical, too. And it was a dream to work with. All good things.

The photos don’t show the sparkle very well, but trust me, the room looks glittery, glitzy, shimmery, glamorous, and fab!

This wallpaper pattern is by Exclusive Wallcoverings. It is a non-woven material, and can be hung by either the paste-the-product or paste-the-wall method. I hung it in a powder room in a brand new home in central Houston.

It 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.

Glass Bead Wallpaper in a Powder Room

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So, O.K., it’s a hard room to photograph. All I can show you is the papered wall behind the beautiful light fixture and the really cool mirror.

This wallpaper is embedded with tiny glass beads, which give it dimension, texture and sparkle. In the 2nd photo, you can see how the beads shimmer when the light hits them.

This wallpaper is by Antonia Vella, for York Wallcoverings. It is a non-woven material and is a paste-the-wall product. It is very thick and stiff, and difficult to manipulate, and very hard to cut through, especially the beads. Used lots of razor blades today.

I hung it in a powder room in the Rice Military neighborhood of Houston. The interior designer is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope designs.

Ogee Petals Wallpaper Pattern in a Powder Room

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“Ogee” means double continuous “S” pattern. This wallpaper pattern sure has them! It is also reminiscent of flower petals, and so has been called “Petals” in some of its incarnations. I hung the glass bead version a few months ago. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/swoopy-trellis-of-glass-beads-brightens-a-powder-room/ This no-bead paper was not as difficult, but it still was a tedious install.

My before shot disappeared, and so did my prep shot, so please just enjoy the pics of the finished project. Note the careful centering of the pattern on both the sink faucet. This was very time consuming, because I had to start with the strip to the left of the one over the sink, and carefully plot the width of the pattern and the rate of expansion of the wet paper; I won’t go into explaining it here, but I think it was well worth the 45 minutes it took to accomplish. The pattern is also centered nicely over the toilet.

The strip to the right of the mirror also took about 45 minutes, thanks to un-plumb walls, bowed walls, stiff unyielding paper, and more, in order to get the pattern to match at points both above and below the mirror, all the while keeping the right edge plumb, and straight enough for the next trip to be able to butt up against.

In the close-up shot, you see a slight pattern mis-match at the seams. The manufacturer had a mis-print issue, which was more noticeable in some rolls than others. I followed paperhanger protocol, and matched the pattern where it would be seen at eye-level, and I let points above and below fall out of match as they happened. Once the job was finished, I took some brown craft paint and a VERY tiny paint brush, and colored some of the mis-matched areas, to make them less noticeable to the human eye. It looked great.

I also ran a bead of clear caulk around the top of the backsplash, to prevent splashed water from being wicked up under the paper (which could cause curling).

This wallpaper pattern is by A-Street Prints, which is made by Brewster. I hung it in the powder room of a new home in the Meyerland neighborhood of Houston. It is a non-woven material, and it is meant that you paste the wall, rather than pasting the wallpaper.

Swoopy Trellis of Glass Beads Brightens a Powder Room

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This powder room in a new home by Ridgewater Builders in the Houston Heights neighborhood is large, but still it felt a little claustrophobic, not to mention completely personality-less.

This fluid lattice design adds pattern and movement, and the glass beads embedded into the surface are a glittery touch of glamor.

But, if you are seeking glitter and shimmer, these tiny round beads made from real glass are not all they’re cracked up to be. Look at the third photo. Only the glass beads that are hit by light at a certain angle and a certain intensity will shine. The others simply lie dormant and dark.

In addition, the beads detached from the wallpaper in droves, raining down and covering the floor (see photo) to the point where things were sliding along the floor as if on an air hockey table. The beads also impaled themselves onto the back of the wallpaper, creating ugly “pimples” that showed from the front.

The non-woven material that was used as a substrate was very thick and stiff and difficult to work with; it would not fit snugly against moldings or ceilings, it left gaps an overlaps in the corners, it was very difficult to cut through, it ate up my razor blades and destroyed my scissors, and the material resisted being twisted (such as when trying to work a wrinkle out of a strip of wallpaper.)

Glass bead wallpaper is trendy, and it’s also spendy. And – does it really live up to its expectations?

There are plenty of “fake” glass bead wallpapers available in stores and on-line. I would encourage you to look at some of these faux products. Many of them use glitter, which is seductively shimmery from any angle, in any light. There are no beads to fall on the floor or work their way through the storm drains and then down into Galveston Bay. And the papers are thinner and conform to the corners and angles and moldings of the room much better.

The interior designer for this project is Rachel Goetz. The wallpaper is in the A-Street Prints line, by Brewster.

Glass Beads and Glitter for New Baby Girl

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A new baby girl is on her way, and Mom thought that the nursery, with its calm, soothing brown walls, needed a little brightening, and a little spark of femininity. With its gentle color and glittery glass beads, this updated classic design fills the bill perfectly.

This is just one short recessed wall, and the crib will sit in front of it. To make the design, real glass beads are embedded into the paper – and you can see how they catch and reflect the light!

The designer is Carl Robinson, and the brand is Seabrook. It is a non-woven paper and is a paste-the-wall product. This wallpaper was bought at a discounted 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.

Circles of Orbs

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Here is a fun “balls dropping” pattern in subdued greys and tans, with tiny glittery glass beads imbedded in the circles. This went on one wall in powder room – behind the sink and toilet – in a brand new, very contemporary home near Buffalo Speedway and Braeswood (Houston).

The homeowner had the contractor remove the sink and toilet, so it was much easier for me to get the paper neatly behind those fixtures, and no cut edges along the top of the sink to worry about curling. The shot of the sink plumbing isn’t glamorous, but it shows how I plotted the layout so that the darker circle would be centered over the sink.

The colors and theme go very nicely with the sleek, modern style of the home, and are a perfect match for the marble tile in the adjoining room. With lighting coming from the right angle, the glass beads will really sparkle!

This wallpaper is by Anthology (by Harlequin), and is called “Eclipse.” It was on a non-woven substrate. Those glass beads love to fall off (the floor was covered with them), and it’s important to keep them out of the paste and off the back of the paper, or they will show as tiny pimples under the paper. I find that it’s easiest to keep the beads away from the paste and backing if you apply paste to the wall, rather than to the back of the paper. The walls were 12′ high, so I had to bring my 8′ step ladder to do this job.

Shimmery, Sparkly Glass Bead Wallpaper

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These days, for lots of people, it’s all about glitz and bling. Well, how about a little bling for your walls?! Wallpaper decorated with glass beads, which catch and reflect the light, are all the rage right now.

Yes, real glass beads, a little larger than grains of sand, are embedded onto the wallpaper substrate in this example, in a medallion motif. Many companies make shiny, glittery wallpapers, using various techniques. But this product, by Ronald Redding, of York Wallcoverings, is the real deal.

I have to admit, this wallpaper is more difficult to work with than I had expected, and it is taking an extra day to finish this relatively small, but cut-up and complicated eating area in a new home in Oak Forest, Houston.

The material is thick and stiff and unmalleable, and it’s hard to get it to fit snugly into corners, such as at the ceiling and moldings, and particularly the rounded curves around the fireplace mantel.  And cutting through those pretty glass beads with a trimming blade is the Devil!

Those beads just love to come lose and fall all over the floor, mess with the surface of my work table, contaminate my paste, and, yes, stray onto the back of the wallpaper, creating a very visible bump under the shiny paper.  Removing them is very tenuous, first because they are miniscule and difficult to track down, but also because peeling the paper away from the wall is prone to cause creases or mar the surface.

Also, because it’s a thick and stiff non-woven material, the seams are always going to show more than with a regular wallpaper (last photo).

The going may be low, but room is “waking up” more and more as each wall takes on a cloak of the shimmery wallpaper. With windows on three walls, there will always be light coming at just the right angle to illuminate those pretty glass beads!

Flaw of the Day – Ink / Glass Bead Smudges

These smudges of mis-placed ink and glass beads ruined about 8 running feet of wallpaper (at about $100 a roll!). This was in the first roll I opened, and I about freaked out, because I assumed the defect would run through all 10 rolls of paper. I feared we would have to order new paper, reschedule the job, the homeowners would not have their room done in time for the holidays, not to mention disruption to their household.

However, luckily for all parties, the defect only effected about a third of one bolt of paper, and there was enough to finish the job.

Note to self: Always suggest the client buy an extra roll of wallpaper!

Candice Olson Glams Up a Bedroom

“Before” – plain, boring, vanilla walls.

“After” – gorgeous color, texture, personality, and a little glamor, thanks to the sparkly glass beads embedded in the material. Note the homeowner’s use of orange accents, which really enliven the room. Not shown is a streamlined orange divan to the right of the bed.

I would like to say that the wallpaper makes the room, but, honestly, I think that the whole room comes together and lives large, thanks to those small pops of bright orange.

I hung this on one accent wall in a bedroom in a newish home in the Rice University / Southhampton neighborhood.

This trellis design is by Candice Olson for York Wallcoverings, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.