The homeowner wanted a tropical , jungle , palm , sorta wild look for her powder room . She unfortunately had not read my link (to the right) about the perils and misleading claims re peel & stick “wallpaper.” So she bought some and attempted to cover the walls in her powder room. First mistake was purchasing this stuff in the first place. Second was trying to hang over textured walls . Third was not having a properly smoothed , sealed and cured surface. Beyond that, just the concept of peel and stick material is a project doomed to fail. IMO Note wrinkles and warps in the material. Paper not adhering .More wrinkles and warps. Gap at seam over door .Paper looked good when she put it up, but seam split / opened within a short time . This is characteristic of P&S wallpaper , especially if the walls have not been prepped as spec’ed.So now the P&S has been removed , I’ll step in and skim-float the textured wall to smooth it , prime, and then we’ll be ready for wallpaper . REAL wallpaper !Done. No wrinkles , no warps , good adherence . She found a pattern that was very similar to her original choice , but more visually pleasing , I think, because it’s less “spiky.” A good idea of hers was to paint the sink / mirror wall , as this pattern on all four walls could have been overwhelming . This is a traditional wallpaper , install ed by pasting the paper . It’s good quality , seams were flat and invisible , and it was nice to work with. Close up. Closer-up.Just tossing in this photo of how I use a baby’s T-shirt to protect the toilet seat cover . I guess I forgot to take a photo of the label, but this is made by Designer Wallpaper . Pattern number is TA20004 . Oddly, when I Google this, I get pattern names of Jamaica and Tortuga . And also get the brand name Seabrook . Wallquest took over Seabrook, but leaving the old brand name on older patterns . My best suggestion here is, if you want this wallpaper pattern, contact Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams in the Rice Village of Houston (713) 529-6515 . She is the master at tracking down patterns and all things wallpaper. The home is in the Timbergrove / Heights neighborhood of Houston . installer
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 .
Before. Good colors. But nothing inspiring. Done. Boy, this paper really visually pushed the walls away and made the room look larger ! Easy on the eye tone-on-tone pattern , lighter colors , and a teeny bit of gold sparkle .
Note the 5/8″ high strip of wallpaper under the medicine cabinet on the left.
Because those faucet handles sit up so high above the backsplash , it’s likely that when people reach for the handles, water will get splashed onto the wallpaper . To prevent splashed water from wicking up under the wallpaper – which could cause the paper to expand and curl away from the wall – I ran a bead of clear siliconized caulk along the top of the backsplash . The color is skewed in this shot, but you get an idea of the tropical foliage and pattern scale . Toile is a French word for a sort of pen and ink drawing in one color on a background that may be colored or may not be.Close-up , showing a truer color . Note the palm trees and the monkey . This material has a woven -look textured surface , and it mimics fabric . I almost felt like I was install ing linen , instead of wallpaper . The brand is Rasch , a company out of Germany . Their papers are consistently nice to work with. This one was unexpectedly thin and flexible . It’s textured vinyl on a non-woven substrate . The vinyl makes it durable and stain-resistant , and the NW makes it easy to remove later when you’re ready to redecorate . The seams are positively invisible. This powder room on the first floor just off the home office / study comes complete with a shower . Just for fun – one of the obstacles in this room was this rain shower head – sticking out right where I need to be on my ladder , and keeping me from reaching those walls . On top of that, the faucet handles also stuck out much further from the wall than most do. While priming the walls, as I was climbing down from the ladder , my clothing actually got entangled in the handles and – turned on the water ! Yes, I got a shower at work today ! The home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston .
Yesterday’s install was quite fun, but there were some unusual or challenging features to the room. Here are some of them. First, in most areas, the chair rail had a sort of gap between it and the wall, probably then filled in with caulk. I used some craft paint from Texas Art Supply to color that in, so there wouldn’t be white showing between the dark green paint and the black wallpaper. My usual trim guide (not pictured) is thin, designed to allow you to cut very close and tight to the edge. But in this case, I was afraid it might leave some of that gapped area showing between the paper and the wood trim. So I used this steel plate tool, which is thicker and would allow me to get a fat cut – just enough paper left to wrap a teeny bit onto that gap area. Note that before I trim, I’m going to press that edge into the corner. I couldn’t hold the camera and hold it in proper position at the same time. Also, you’ll notice the rolled edge at the top of the tool. That’s thicker, and allows for getting an even fatter cut, for instance, when you want just a tad of paper to wrap around a corner . Do a Search to see my previous post about this technique. Here I’ve made the trim cut and am peeling away the excess that was trimmed off at the bottom. See how the bottom edge of the wallpaper now wraps a tiny bit and fills the gap neatly?Next issue – wall height. On this wall, the height is 3′ + 30.5″But on the opposite wall, the height is 3′ + 29.75″. This means that you can expect the ceiling to move up or down, which means that a pattern motif – let’s say one of those cute chameleons – could get his head chopped off by the descending ceiling. Next issue – bowed wall. Here my yardstick is sitting pretty squarely against this wall, in a corner . But as I move it up the wall a little further – wow! – that wall takes a dip to the left. And it’s quite a dip! The wall has a bow in it. I can get my next strip of wallpaper to cover that space. But the fallout will be that pattern motifs will hit the wall at different points, which means that the next piece to be placed after that, the pattern will not match perfectly at all points. All right. So that previous corner had a bow. This one is out of plumb. Here you see my laser level showing that my wallpaper strip is hanging nice and plumb.But move the laser to the corner and you see that it’s out of plumb .Here’s a better example. Again, this causes the pattern to not match perfectly in the corners. Another shot of the bowed wall, which, for various tech reasons, due to Word Press ‘s crappy New Editor , this shot got out of order and I was not able to place it with the others under the topic. Papering around the electrical outlet , I had to unplug my light source. There was light coming in from the hall. But this paper, as well as the paint, were so dark that I couldn’t see well to work. Enter my Big Larry flashlight .Small enough to fit in my toolbox , but really bright and dependable for when you need it. The pattern is called Fantasy Tree and is by Breeze and was purchased through one of the showrooms in one of Houston’s decorative / design center s. It’s a nice non-woven material , easy to hang , easy to remove , durable and stain-resistant .
Before. Heavily textured wall has been skim-floated with smoothing / joint compound and then sanded smooth , and then primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer . I’ve run a narrow line of dark green craft paint along the top of the chair rail / wainscoting , due to uneven edges . More on that in a soon-future post. Sink wall is done. Pattern is centered nicely on the faucet and in between the electrical boxes for the new sconces – They haven’t arrived yet and will be installed in a few weeks . The homeowner’s carpenter created this beautiful wainscoting out of 3D block paneling , and then painted it a rich dark hunter’s green . Right now there’s some sanding dust collected on it, plus bad lighting . In person, it’s gorgeous . The same company did a fantastic paneled wall / fireplace surround in the family room (not pictured) . Back to wallpaper … This shot is pretty color-accurate. I love the way the dark wallpaper coordinates with the green paneling . The pink and orange flowers , as well as the row of purple foliage , really stand out against all the dark . Close-up looks like an artist’s painting . Besides centering the pattern on the sink wall, the dimensions worked out so that I was able to balance the chameleons between the ceiling and chair rail , one just below the ceiling and the one here just above the chair rail. So no critter got cut in half . This product comes as a 2-strip (roll) set , with an “A” strip and a “B” strip in each box. Together, the two strips equal just a hair under 6′ wide , and a little over 9′ high . Here I’m rolling out the two strips so I can gauge the pattern , measure width and height , and plot the layout on the wall. Sobering fact: Each 2-strip set (one “roll”) cost about $500. This room used four of those sets. I always try to keep that in mind when working with people’s purchased wallpaper . OK, this damned Word Press blog account has AGAIN (2nd time in two nights!) deleted paragraphs that I spent a lot of time typing. I can’t recreate all the info I put into that lost post, but below I will try to include some of the important points. First and foremost – since the switch to the New Editor back about 2015, I pretty much HATE WORDPRESS . Anyway, here the company is providing a mock-up of what the “A” and “B” strips look like. The mock-up above shows the two panels next to each other. Since this is essentially a mural and the pattern doesn’t repeat vertically as more typical wallpapers do, you can plan on getting only one strip out of each panel. These walls are 6′ high , and the panels are 9′ high. So you’re losing 3′ with every strip. Further, the area over the door needed one panel that’s 2′ high. But an entire 9′ panel was needed for this, to get the 2′ high strip. So 7′ are going into the trash. Add to that, since this product comes as a 2-panel set , the homeowner had to buy a 2-panel set (at $500), even though only part of one panel would be used. This means that 1 + 2/3 9′ long panels were purchased but not used. Also, because this comes in panels instead of traditional rolled goods, there are no “extra” strips. This means that I can’t make any mistakes. Nothing like a little pressure while trying to install wallpaper ! No fears … this pattern and material went up nicely, and we had just enough paper to git ‘er done. Manufacturer is Breeze and the pattern is called Fantasy Tree . It was purchased from one of the show rooms in one of the Design / Decorative Centers in central Houston. It’s printed on the user-friendly / DIY – friendly non-woven material , which can be hung by pasting the paper (which I prefer) or the paste-the-wall method . It’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate . Definitely better than peel & stick (click my link on the right to read more about P&S ). The home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks / Heights neighborhood of Houston .
Two walls in this bedroom to be wallpapered. Primed and ready!The colors in the wallpaper work so well with the color of the other two walls and the woodwork. This little girl sleeps with a lot of stuffed animals, so more jungle critters on the walls just makes sense! Cheetahs, tigers, jaguars, wildcats ,,, you name it! Majvillan brand from Sweden, Black Panther pattern name. This non-woven material was stiff and somewhat difficult to work with. Pasting the paper rather than pasting the wall helped tame the beast, as did rolling the paper backward and securing with an elastic hairband for an hour to get rid of the curl .
What an ultra-cool pattern ! And jungle foliage is a popular concept right now. This one really fills the space! What’s cool is that this accent wall is covered in a mural , rather than a traditional wallpaper pattern with repeating motifs . But it’s being used like a wallpaper, by placing it on all four walls of this room . This is in a new book by York , which is one of my favorite brands. It comes in a set of six panels. I didn’t get to check if it’s a set size or if it can be custom-sized to fit different height walls. But it does continue from one mural to the next, meaning that you can place murals next to each other and have the pattern continue around the room. Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams on University in the Rice Village has this product. (713) 529-6515 wallpaper installer houston
This is a custom new-build ( Vintage Bayou City Homes ) in the Houston Heights, and the walls are smooth , so all they needed was my primer.The mural fills the wall with color and fun,,,,,, and lots of critters!It has a hand-painted watercolor look. Simply called Jungle Wallpaper Mural , it’s by Lulu & Georgia , and is made by York , in their Sure Strip line. Sure Strip is a pre-pasted product that is designed to strip off the wall easily when you redecorate. I love this stuff! It goes up like a dream, and will hold up for eons until you’re ready to redecorate. This mural comes in four panels, and the overall size is 6′ wide x 9′ high.
Let’s do some engineering so we can get this mural on the wall. The wall is a few inches less than 12′ wide, and 9′ high. The mural comes as a set of four panels, and the total width of the mural is 6′ wide x 9′ high. Therefore we need two 4-panel sets to span this wall. Here is the first set of four panels, pasted and hung. A really tricky thing with murals is that the strips / panels you place next to your first set need to match up with the existing pattern. Meaning, the panels need to be able to be hung consecutively next to each other and have the pattern continue uninterrupted. Not all murals are designed to continue from one to the next. Some will only fit a wall of certain dimensions. Still others are custom made to fit specific sizes … but that’s a topic for another blog post.You’re looking at two sets of mock-ups of the mural, side-by-side. The dotted lines show each individual panel. Toward the center, you see where Panel 4 of the mural on the right meets up with Panel 1 of the mural placed on the right. You can see that the trees and other elements from the mural on the left match up with the motifs on the mural to the right. This is good! It means that we can place murals next to each other to cover a wider wall space. Here is the finished wall with two murals placed next to each other, with the trees and animals continuing from one mural to the next. Second issue: The wall height between crown molding and baseboard was exactly 9′ high. The mural came exactly 9′ high. This might sound perfect – but it ain’t agonna work. The wallpaper / mural needs to be a few inches (preferably 3″-4″) taller than the wall itself. (Same goes for width) This little bit of wiggle room allows you to trim at the top and bottom of the wall. And it allows for walls that are not perfectly plumb and floors and ceilings that are not perfectly level. In this case, it wasn’t going to be possible to get the mural to fit inside that 9′ high space across a 12′ wide wall without going off-track a bit. We needed about 2″ of extra height at BOTH top and bottom. Well, you can’t make the wallpaper mural any taller, so we opted to make the wall shorter. The builder added an extra tall baseboard along the bottom of just this one wall. This reduced the wall height by about 3″, which gave us just enough extra paper length to split between the ceiling and baseboard. A little will be trimmed off at the ceiling line, and a little off the bottom / baseboard.If you look at the picture of the finished wall, the 4th photo, you’ll see that there are more “important” design elements at the bottom of the mural than at the top. The manufacturer does this on purpose, because they know that some of the mural will need to be cut off, in order to accommodate different wall heights, and for trimming at the ceiling and baseboard. Nearly a foot can be trimmed off the top of this mural without losing anything like an animal or a tree top. The same is not true about the bottom, though. As you can see in this photo, the designer has let elements run all the way down to the bottom of the mural … leaves, plant stems, and, as in the photo above, a bird’s feet. I tried to raise the strips up as high as possible, to avoid cutting off his feet. But I had to leave enough to accommodate trimming and wonky walls. So, as you see in the photo, the poor guy got his feet cut off. Still, all this is happening at the bottom of the wall, and no one is really paying attention to this area. Plus, there will be furniture in front. Still, all worth noting. Jungle Wallpaper Mural is by Lulu and Georgia and is in the Sure Strip line made by York . Some take-aways from this post that I hope you will keep in mind … ~Never order a mural to the exact dimensions of the wall. Add 4″ to height & width ~Consult with the paperhanger before ordering any material ~Rather than a mural that comes in one set size as this one does, consider a custom-sized mural that can be made to fit your specific wall. I like rebelwalls.com among others.
I’ve hung this one recently. It’s a Schumacher brand. A small, tight, cozy pattern. Peter Fasano is lovely paper, but a high-end price tag. As I like to say, there is always something similar made by a more standard company that is lower priced and easier to work with. I’m seeing a big uptick in interest in classic murals like this. Gucci products are pricy, but very easy to install and care for.I’m also seeing lots of homeowners interested in jungle or tropical themed patterns. LOTS of patterns out there to choose from. Another classic Chinoiserie mural.
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