Dwunk Cwitters Wid’ Booze and Hookah in Garden Oaks Powder Room

Walls have been skim-floated and sanded smooth, primed, and are ready for wallpaper.

Done. The dark woodwork really accentuates the wallpaper; the room would not be nearly as dramatic and fun without the dark woodwork.

Eeek! Another console sink to squeeze under and behind. Just this area took more than an hour.
Some tricks I’ve learned is that you don’t have to wrestle full-length and -width strips. Here I cut the two strips behind the sink horizontally at the point where the vanity hits the wall. I hung the upper strips. Then, moving to the right, I hung the strips to the right. After I ended in the corner to the right (not pictured), I came back and hung the two short strips under the sink. So I was only wielding strips 2′ high, instead of 9′.
I also sliced one strip vertically at the point where it intersected the drain pipe under the sink. This was much easier than trying to wrangle an 18″ wide strip around the drain, two faucets, and the metal support pipes.

What are these cwitters up to??!

Close-up. The homeowner said that the family has a sense of humor , and wanted something wild and fun .

Detail.

Many House of Hackney wallpapers come as a mural , or 4-roll set. This diagram shows the layout of the four panels. You can take a second set of four panels and place it to the right (or to the left – just keep track of the sequence order of the panels) and the pattern will continue.
Each panel is about 18″ wide, so a 4-panel set gives you about 6′ of width. Panels are about 9.5′ high.

This is called Hackney Empire and is in the Midnight colorway. This is a non-woven material , also called paste the wall . I did paste the material rather than the wall, though, as it makes the paper more supple, and enables me to get paste into difficult-to-access areas – such as under and behind that console sink! Non-wovens are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece without damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate. This HofH material was lovely to work with.

installer, houston, under the stairs

Whoops – Somebody Painted Over Old Wallpaper – And It’s Peeling Up

This wallpaper is in the potty room of a Hollywood bathroom in a newish home in Bellaire (Houston). Instead of stripping off the original wallpaper, someone decided to just paint over it.

It’s not clear if they painted over the inked, vinyl / acrylic – coated surface, or if they peeled off that surface coat and then painted over the remaining paper backing.

Not that it would make a lot of difference, but they probably did not prime or seal the surface, either.

Either way, as you can see, the various layers failed, and the wallpaper seam let go of the underlying surface, resulting in the “popped” seam you see in the photo.

This probably has to do with a lot of factors, including an improperly prepped surface (read above), latex paint adding moisture that could cause the underlying surface to expand and swell, and humidity from the shower and the window allowing moisture to enter the edges of the wallpaper.

Once humidity enters the edges of wallpaper, it can cause the paper to expand and then pull away from the underlying surface. This can result in curled seams.

This is what you see in the photo above.

A Welcome Note to Find on My Windshield

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Today I was working in a powder room in Fleetwood (far west Houston) and went out to get something out of my van and spied a note stuck to my windshield. Oh no, I thought, another mail carried p!ssed off because I’m blocking the mailbox.

But – No! It was the homeowner next door, who had seen my truck, and who was wanting wallpaper in her own powder room.

It pays to have your business name & info on your vehicle!

Sleek, Upscale, French, Elegance, Shimmer – All This In One Tiny Room!

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Please pardon the crummy pictures, due to poor lighting, a cheap camera, and why the heck did I move after I clicked the button?! Anyway, you get the idea.

This young family lives in a home in Bellaire (Houston) that is large and open and somewhat contemporary, yet has formal elements, like intricate moldings – plus a whole lot of WHITE. They wanted something to warm up the space, while being sleek and French-chic. This pattern is not by Candice Olson, but it could be – it has sass, glamor, glimmer, movement, and style, plus it coordinates nicely with the marble countertop in this under-the-stairs powder room. It added just the touch the homeowners were looking for.

This is a thick vinyl in a dark color on a white paper backing. I colored the edges of the paper with grey pastel chalk, but the third photo shows that you can still “kind of” see the seams. This is typical, and not a defect. Depending on where you’re standing and where the light is coming from, most of the seams are invisible. When the paper is good and dry, the seams will be even less noticeable.  And, really, it’s the kind of thing that I see, but homeowners don’t even know what I’m talking about.  🙂  The dark lines in the top photo are shadows from the lighting.

A wallpaper facelift is addictive … When I left, the homeowners were saying, “We’ll have you back soon, to do something with the living room!”

This swirly wallpaper pattern is by York Wallcoverings, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. Tell her what you are yearning for, and she knows exactly where to find it. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.