This young family has lived happily in their new Oak Forest ( Houston ) home for a couple of years. But they never loved the expanse of white walls and lack of character . They knew they wanted wallpaper at some point.
All settled in and two kids later, now the time is right!Entry hall before
Two walls done. The ” French Linen ” pattern is quiet, with subdued hues , but does much to bring in warmth . The room also looks brighter .
I centered the pattern / stripes on the front door, because it is in the widest section of the entry hall , and most likely to be seen by people walking in and out of the home.
Door leading to the powder room. It was tricky working with a striped pattern in this home, because some of the walls and corners were very out of plumb , which could cause the stripes to go off-kilter , which would not look good against all these vertical door moldings (five doors like the one you see above). I won’t bore you with details, but it took a lot of measuring , plotting , and trimming to get the stripes to fall straight alongside the door moldings . It took me two days to hang / install this hallway . The finished room was worth it!
One reason these stripes look so warm, is the linen-like texture of the print . They look crisp and clean , but still inviting . Yes, like newly-ironed French linen .
This wallpaper is by SureStrip , made by York . It’s not a traditional non-woven material , but still, it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece , with no damage to the wall when you redecorate . Sure Strip is thin and flexible and hugs the wall tightly. It comes pre-pasted , so all you really need to do is wet the back to activate the paste . I do also roll on some augmentive adhesive . And then sprinkle water on the back and use a paint roller to spread it around. Fold and book and let rest for a few minutes before taking it to the wall. I like this brand and material a lot.
Moody and dark. A great, snug place to hunker down and spend the day on the computer , working from home . But maybe a little too much dark ? An accent wall brightens the space and adds interest . Makes a day at work more inviting. BTW, those windows with their bull-nosed edges / rounded corners are a bear to hang wallpaper around, requiring special techniques. I won’t go into details, but, after applying my wallpaper primer, just this one wall took me about six hours. Surprise! Look closely and notice the jungle theme , with palm trees and leopards . I centered the pattern between the windows , for a balanced look. Close up. See the fibers on the torn edge of the wallpaper strip ? This is a non-woven material , also called paste the wall , and has a 20% polyester content . Thus the fibers. This stuff is simpler to hang than traditional wallpapers . Also more washable and stain-resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage to the wall when you redecorate later. These days, most people don’t use land lines or phone jacks . So I removed the wall plate , and stuffed the connector into the wall . Then I hung the wallpaper over the hole / box . It’s right above the head of the cat on the left. If the homeowners ever want to access the phone line , they can easily cut the wallpaper to open up the box , then reconnect it and then screw the wallplate back into place. The wallpaper is by York , under the designer Ronald Redding . The label says it’s a paste the paper installation method , but in actuality, the instruction leaflet enclosed inside the roll is correct – it can be hung via the paste the wall method . Usually I prefer to paste the paper . This is a newish townhome in the Sawyer Yards area of Houston .
This is a closet tucked under the stairs off the main living area of a nicely renovated and enlarged 1920’s home in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. Nice and bright, but a little claustrophobic. (That brown vertical thing is my yardstick.) This two-toned wallpaper with pencil-like sketches immediately visually opens up the room and creates an inviting work space .
The pattern is called Florida Toile . The manufacturer / vendor is Katie Kime , also known for stationary , home décor , phone cases – and very cute , comfy pajamas !Their ” City Toile ” wallpaper collection is quite popular , with more than a dozen locales to choose from . It’s a heavy , smooth vinyl on a non-woven / paste-the-wall backing. A little too heavy , a little too stretchy , and too easily wrinkled or creased for my taste , but all in all, a nice enough material . With so many people working from home these days, or just needing space to handle family business or homework , these cloffices have become popular.
So I’m always happy when clients take my advice to consider other options. These homeowners chose a faux grasscloth with an embossed texture (that mimics the tactile appeal of the real stuff), a pattern that can be matched (eliminating jarringly visible seams), on a non-woven substrate (easier install / easier removal when it’s time to redecorate), with a surface that is resistant to stains (as opposed to real grass, which can be stained easily by toiletries, cleaning agents, or even plain water), and, because it’s man-made, greater assurance of homogeneous color – effectively eliminating the woes of paneling and shading and other color variations between and even within strips.
I was pleased with most aspects of this product. For some reason, my camera made the texture look zig-zaggy, but in real life, it really did mimic real grasscloth. The close-up photo gives you a good idea.
One thing that surprised me – and disappointed me – is that, even though this is a man-made material controlled by factory standards, there ended up being a slight color difference between the right and left side of each strip. Look at the fifth photo, particularly the top, and you will see what I’m talking about.
Since this is made in a factory using inks that are mixed at the same time, poured into the printer at the same time, and applied to the wallpaper at the same time, I really don’t understand how the material can have this color variation. Especially since virtually all of the products I have hung by Brewster have been very consistent in color.
In this case, the color variation was fairly minor, was less noticeable when I removed my 100 watt work light, and pretty much reflects what real grasscloth looks like, anyway. The homeowners were fine with it.
The wallpaper is by Exclusive Wallcoverings, which is made by Brewster. It is on a non-woven substrate, and can be hung via the paste-the-wall or paste-the-paper methods. The home is in the Memorial / Beltway 8 / Briarpark area of west Houston. I hung this in a guest bathroom.
I would call the home’s style as contemporary / industrial. This faux grasscloth really softened the room. The horizontal lines in the wallpaper complimented the lines in the shower’s tile. The overall look went from cold and commercial to soft, inviting, and almost spa-like.
I have worked for this couple in their charming 1929 bungalow in West University ( Houston ) several times since the 1990’s. They definitely are not people to go with the all-white or all-grey or minimalist trends that are popular today. These folks like COLOR!
The dining room walls were originally upholstered in a botanical print on blue (which the homeowner did himself, and did a mighty find job of, too). So the room never was bland white. 🙂 But now, 20 years later, they were ready for an update.
Their contractor removed the fabric and then skim-floated the walls smooth. Usually I have to go back and re-smooth the walls … but this guy did a really good job, and I was able to simply prime, and then hang the paper.
This is a vinyl product named ” Wild Silk ,” and is by Thibaut . It’s much more stain-resistant and durable than real fabric. Unlike real silk and other natural materials like grasscloth , this product has a pattern match. This means that you are not going to see each separate panel or visible seams, like you do with real silk. So the walls have a much more homogeneous and pleasing look.
The challenge lay with the old house and its un-plumb walls and un-level ceiling and window/door moldings. Since the ceiling was not level, if I hung the wallpaper true to plumb, then it would start “tracking” off-kilter at the ceiling line, and appear to be running either uphill or downhill. This effect was further complicated by the way the pattern ran along the window and door frames.
I decided to keep the pattern parallel to the ceiling molding line. This meant letting it go crooked along the door and window frames, if that’s how it turned out. The ceiling line was more visible and more important.
Since the pattern was tracking off-kilter, I used a razor blade and a straightedge to trim off a wedge-shaped chunk from one side of the wallpaper. This forced the pattern to move up (or down). After a few strips, I had tweaked it enough that the design was moving straight across under the crown molding.
Even though the strips were not hanging plumb, it looked wonderful along the ceiling line. This “silk” pattern was very accommodating of that. If it had been a design with a prominent motif that the eye wanted to see marching straight across the ceiling AND straight down along a door frame, it would have been much more difficult to pull off – maybe impossible.
Going around the window (no pic) was even more complicated. Because I was tweaking the three strips above the window to follow the crown molding, and also the three strips below the window – and you can’t guarantee that these will all adjust at the same rate. So getting the strip to the left of the window (no pic) to match up with the strips above AND below the window would be pretty impossible.
So I was extremely pleased when the pattern on all these strips did match up, within about 1/16″.
This is a vinyl material and was somewhat difficult to push tightly into edges and corners, and to cut through. I was glad that I didn’t have intricate decorative moldings to cut around. I used orange chalk to color the edges of the material, to keep the white substrate from showing at the seams.
I love the way the salmon color coordinates with the painted trim. Who paints door moldings orange??! THESE people do – and I highly applaud it! No boring all-white rooms in this house!
The look is bold, but surprisingly warm. The orange moldings against white walls would have been jolting. But with the salmon colored wallpaper, the whole effect is unified, inviting, and invigorating!
That first pattern is darned cute! It’s called Puppy Pile, and is from Chasing Paper. Unfortunately, like most of their products, it is a peel & stick material, which is extremely difficult to work with. It comes in 2′ x 4′ panels, which are some pretty odd dimensions, if you are trying to paper a wall.
I don’t work with P&S materials, and most of my colleagues won’t either. If you love the look, there are surely other companies making a similar design, printed on traditional wallpaper stock.
The second photo shows a fun design used as a backdrop to beds in a cabin guest room. This pattern would be overwhelming on all four walls, but in the bed alcove, it is snug and inviting. Sorry, I don’t know the manufacturer.
Both these photos were found in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, a current issue.
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