Before. Grey and boring . The built-in banquette seating has been removed.Finished.Closer look.Showing the pattern centered on the wall, and with the shutters. The dimensions of the paper not corresponding well with the width of the window, along with logistics of pattern placement at the ceiling line but starting my first strip under the window all created some plotting and engineering challenges. Fun, but time consuming. But it turned out great!The original idea was to just paper the nook area, ending at the vertical door molding. But it would have looked odd to stop the wallpaper above this doorway. So the homeowner and I decided to run the paper along the top of the doorway, and then down the left side (not shown), which dead-ends into some cabinets and the granite countertop. It looked good and was the right call.It tickles me that this is quite obviously a riff on the very popular Strawberry Thief wallpaper pattern by William Morris , which is quite popular right now (do a Search here to see my installations of it). When a company comes up with a hit, you can be assured that a competitor will soon be making its own version of it. The original has a lot more color, but this version is limited to just two colors. Even though there is a lot of contrast between the black and the white , the pattern doesn’t feel busy, because the design is so close and tight . There is a lot of symmetry , repetitiveness , and balance in Wm Morris and similar styles . I love the raised ink texture to this material . Whoops! A slight pattern mis-match . The overall design is busy enough that small imperfections like this (as well as some color variations / shading ) are not really noticeable . It’s odd to me that the printing defects are different in different strips / rolls of the wallpaper . You’d think that if the print roller was out of whack, it would create the same image every time it strikes the wallpaper surface. Or maybe it’s the trimmers that are off. If they had cut 1/16″ more off that left edge, we might have a perfect pattern match . The manufacturer is York , one of my favorites , in their Sure Strip line, also one of my favorites. It’s in the Magnolia Home collection , by, yes, Joanna Gaines , of HGTV fame with the show Fixer Upper . SureStrip is a pre-pasted , thin , flexible , non-woven material that is easy to hang . It’s also easy to remove when you’re ready to redecorate , because it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to your walls . installer houston birds
Before – new drywall has ben skim-floated and is clean, but, gee, it’s boring … and lends nothing to the room. After. Now the room has color, movement, and feels more spacious.This beautiful, sculpted mirror was found at Ballard Designs new brick & mortar store on W. Gray in the River Oaks Shopping Center. Ballard also has a wallpaper section, and experienced designers to help you. Call first, because they stay pretty booked.The colors in the wallpaper coordinate beautifully with the granite countertop, and the brushed copper fixtures (faucets, hand towel rings, etc.)Close-up shows the water color-y appearance of this pattern, as well as the cool shadow effect. This wallpaper is by York, one of my favorite d brands, and is in the Candice Olson (of HGTV fame) line. It was a joy to work with, and will hold up nicely in this powder room. It is made of the classic paper material, nice and thin, clings tightly to the wall, and easy enough to remove when it’s time to redecorate.
This home experienced severe damage during the February 2021 freeze here in Houston. Just about everything had to be replaced, including floors, walls, cabinets, and tons more. The homeowners took advantage of the tragedy to update as they made repairs.
You couldn’t possibly find a better wallpaper pattern for this room … the colors meld perfectly with the floor, paint, granite countertop, and metal fixtures. The limited pallet keeps the paper from being too busy. The scale covers the walls nicely without feeling crowed or too busy.
Ron Dillon of Calico (a.k.a. Calico Corners) at 1845 W. Alabama in Montrose helped these homeowners pull everything together. Calico has a good selection of wallpaper brands. Ron has been handling wallpaper for decades, so is one of the best in town to help you track down just the right pattern.
This home is in the Old Braeswood / Boulevard Oaks / Medical Center / Rice University neighborhood of Houston.
BeforeFinishedLooks super with antiqued brass faucet and handles. Notice metallic flecks of copper within the pewter surface. Looking up at corner over the toilet and under the stairs. Notice that the material is made up of 7″ squares of cork. A 3′ x 3′ swatch of ceiling was left white; the dark cork material over every square inch of space would have made the room dark and claustrophobic. When it’s got her name on it, you know it’s going to be glam and glitz! The Candice Olson line is made by York, one of my favorite brands.
At first, I didn’t think the contemporary feel of this metallic wallpaper would look good with the homeowner’s traditional style furniture, including this family heirloom console vanity base. But once the room was finished – it’s darned handsome!
Hard to see in the second photo, but there was a gap of only about 1/4″ on either side of the granite countertop. And about 1″ between the wooden cabinet and the wall. It definitely took some gymnastics and ingenuity to get the wallpaper into those spaces and smoothed against the wall.
Cork is a natural material, and you should expect some inconsistencies in color, pattern, and texture. It’s also lots thicker than most papers, so seams will be more visible.
The home is in the West University neighborhood of central Houston.
One of my pet peeves … See the little white specs on the homeowner’s new granite vanity countertop? Whoever painted the walls and ceiling didn’t bother to cover the surface with a dropcloth.
This powder room in a newly-purchased 1987 home in the West University Place neighborhood of Houston came with the black toilet, black sink, black granite, dark floor, and medium-toned wooden vanity. The homeowner wanted something dramatically dark, but didn’t want to overwhelm the room with too much deepness.
As soon as she saw this “Artemis” pattern by House of Hackney, she was smitten! Turns out it was the perfect choice.
This black backgrounded wallpaper with a swirling red, orange, and blue floral pattern coordinates nicely with the black fixtures, and fills the walls with color and movement – all without feeling closed in at all.
Interestingly enough, I have another couple using this same pattern and colorway, later this month.
The substrate is a non-woven material, and can be hung with the paste-the-wall method. I chose to paste the paper instead, which makes more sense in a chopped-up room like a bathroom.
The pattern is a quarter-drop match. Which is a WHOLE lot more complicated than a typical straight or half drop match. And it can eat up a lot of paper, too, in getting the pattern match correct.
This manufacturer made it much simpler, though, by providing this product as a 4-panel mural. Each 4-panel set makes up one quarter-drop pattern match.
A 4-panel set matches up to a subsequent 4-panel set, so you can place the murals side-by-side and wrap them around a whole room. This powder room took 5 sets. That fifth set was needed just for two and a half 5″ high strips up over the door. In other words, it took three 18″ wide x 10′ long strips (45 square feet) to match the pattern and cover about 20 square inches of wall space.
The tan damask wallpaper in this West U powder room is a true classic, but it doesn’t fit the homeowners’ more modern taste. This week I will replace it with a lighter colored textured material.
Today I removed the old wallpaper. What a surprise to find this underneath! At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was, and thought maybe it was some king of particleboard.
But once I got more wallpaper stripped off the wall, it was clear that this was a professionally-done faux finish job in silver and charcoal. It coordinated nicely with the black granite countertop and display cabinet.
Look closely, and you’ll see scazillions of miniscule splatters of paint on the granite vanity top, backsplash, and even on the faucet and handles. Obviously, whoever worked in this room previously did not bother to cover the area with a dropcloth.
Such a shame. A few dollars’ worth of materials, and a little bit of time would have protected the homeowner’s fixtures.
With a black granite floor, a black toilet, a dark wood vanity, and a dark granite countertop, adding black wallpaper to this under-the-stairs powder room seemed like a bold venture. But the gutsiness paid off – the finished room looks fantastic. And there is nothing dark or brooding about it.
In fact, the light color of the birds, along with the uplifiting feel of the vertical foliage in the design work together to give the room light and movement. Ditto the new paint color on the ceiling.
Sorry there is no photo, but this room, which is tucked under the stairway, has a deeply sloped ceiling. Originally, the homeowners considered papering the slope and the flat ceiling areas, too. But I told them that would make the room far too dark and closed-in. I suggested they pull a color from the wallpaper and dilute it to what I call a “whisper color” – almost white, but with just a whisper of color.
They could have gone with a light shade of tan (birds’ wings), green (plants), purple (birds), or salmon (birds, flowers). After consulting with the gal who sells the wallpaper (read below), they decided on a pale orangey-pink shade. I love the choice!
The ceiling does not look “pink.” Yet the hint of peachy pink adds warmth, while all the while pulls your eye up and adds a feeling of openness and even joy.
Fourth photo – the tan paint from the original faux finish wall treatment wrapped around onto the top of the backsplash. Once the dark paper went up, I didn’t want to have a gold stripe running around the top of the backsplash. So I used artist’s craft paint and a small brush to paint it black, to blend in with the granite backsplash. Once the wallpaper was up, to protect both the paint and the bottom edge of the wallpaer, I ran a bead of clear caulk along the top of the backsplash. This will prevent splashes of water that land on top of the backsplash from being wicked up under the paper – which could cause curling.
This historic “Lafayette” wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and dates back to the 1800’s. In fact, it is 2″ narrower than most wallpapers, and I’m told that that is because it is printed with the same engraved rollers as were used back then. It’s a raised-ink printing process, and the material is pre-pasted. I experimented with a couple of pasting techniques, and found that the old-fashioned method of pulling the strips through a water tray resulted in even saturation and activation of the paste, and the flattest seams.
This paper 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 (inner loop Houston). (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.
Originally, this home in the Bellaire neighborhood of Houston was rife with the “Tuscan” look, and this under-the-stairs powder room shows just that … The gold overlaid with a red glaze was a good look, but the new homeowners wanted a brighter, more modern look.
Just look at how the diamond pattern on a white background changed the room! The heavy darkness is gone, and the feeling is totally modern. The black and white scheme goes beautifully with the new black countertop and white sink.
One not-so-great thing is that somehow we got two different run numbers. Different run numbers were printed at different times, and can be slightly different in shade, so cannot be used on the same wall. Luckily, we had enough paper that I was able to plot out which bolts to use on which walls, and the room turned out looking great.
This paper is by A-Street Prints, which is made by Brewster, a good company. It is a non-woven product with a high fiberglass content that is designed to strip off the walls easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate. The material is dimensionally-stable and will not shrink as it dries.
It can be hung by the paste-the-wall method, but I preferred to paste the paper. In a bathroom with choppy areas, this ensures that paste will get to every surface, and it also makes the paper more pliable and malleable, which is essential in a room like this with crooked corners and a curved wall (not shown).
This wallpaper 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.
In this photo, you are looking down at a windowsill, with the black and white tile floor below that.
Workmen had painted the walls and overhead soffit. As you can see, they didn’t bother to protect the brand new granite window sill with a dropcloth. Nor did they shield the floor or bathtub, both of which were equally covered in paint speckles and splatters.
Come on, guys! All it takes is a dropcloth and a few minutes of your time.
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