Marfa Toile in Heights Powder Room

We considered putting the wallpaper on all four walls, but the pattern would have been overwhelming in a small under-the-stairs powder room , especially with sloped ceilings crunching down into the space.  So the homeowner opted to paper just this one accent wall over the vanity / sink . 

This family loves West Texas , and visits Marfa when they can.  I positioned so the cattle ’s feet march right above the backsplash , and the horse lines up against the right corner , and even right into the angle at the top

Here it is, with the light sconces back (shades will be added later), and the rustic mirror frame in place (mirror glass will be added later). 

Tucked some paper into the little cubbyhole on the left under the vanity . 

 Cows , cowboys , horses , teepees , mesas , cactus , booze , buffalo , pups , and Prada – that’s Marfa!
 

Marfa Toile is in the very popular City Toile line by Katie Kime .  This is a fairly heavy vinyl surface on a non-woven backing .  Not my favorite, but it was OK to work with.  I did the paste the wall installation method .

Slight Problems With Katie Kime Wallpaper

There were eight double roll bolts of this wallpaper , to cover a large powder room in Houston.
Four were rolled so the pattern came off the top of the roll, and four were rolled the opposite way, with the bottom coming off first. This Katie Kime brand is custom-printed , so you can assume that all these rolls are from the same run , or batch . But maybe not - why are some forward and some backward ? Possibly the company substituted some returned goods, or some old stock they had sitting around the warehouse, for half of this order.
I didn't want to risk putting strips of slightly different shades on the same wall. So I had to carefully plot the room so I used the "forward" rolls on some walls, and the "backward" rolls on the others. This does eat up additional paper , so good thing I always have the homeowner purchase a little extra.
Also note the crease in the roll on the right. There were a few other creases in other rolls.

I have no idea what happened to the font in the section above, nor do I know how to get it back to the original. All I know is that I HATE this “New Editor” that WordPress foisted on us a few years ago. Perfectly HORRIBLE. And their Customer Service doesn’t care. Anyway … moving on …

Note the horizontal smudge next to the top of the capitol. Since this Austin Toile pattern has a 25″ pattern repeat, discarding this piece ate up minimum of 2′ of material (x 24″ width = 4 square feet) and potentially more, to get the correct pattern match.

Usually this brand prints on a nice non-woven / paste the wall substrate. But, like other manufacturers, Katie Kime has had supply issues obtaining raw materials . During the height of the Pandemic , they resorted to printing on some positively awful stuff. Extremely heavy , thick , un- pliable , stretched to the extent that the pattern wouldn’t match properly, and more. One was completely un-hangable and had to be sent back. I can’t find all my posts re those challenges, but here is one:
https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2021/07/21/katie-kime-tough-install-today-draft-messed-up-delete/
But they’ve since gone back to printing on their usual stock, and I’ve not had problems lately. So when I first picked up this box of 8 double roll bolts, I was surprised at the weight of it. Also the paper had a shiny surface and was obviously composed of vinyl . I couldn’t tell if the substrate was non-woven or paper . I feared they had gone back to printing on that bad material , or perhaps were using up what they had in the back of the warehouse .
There were no instructions included, nor any information at all – not even a brand name! Although I could find instructions on-line, you can’t be sure these are current and applicable to the rolls in the box. KK has amazingly good customer service , and you can usually get intelligent answers via phone or on-line chat … but my call to them went to voice mail , and then we got disconnected, so I gave up.
After hanging the first few strips, I figured out that this was a flexible vinyl on a non-woven substrate, so that part was good. However, the thickness of the material interfered with getting good, tight, flat seams , as you can see somewhat in the photo. The seams aren’t horrible, but a better non-woven without the vinyl usually produces almost invisible seams.
The surface was shinier than usual. Shiny tends to show every imperfection in the wall underneath. Here the thickness was a bit of a help, as it helped cushion any slight dips or pimples on the wall.
There was also an odd orange discoloration about 1.5″ long on the edge of one strip. Very faint, but I could see it, and sometimes these things end up catching your eye. I also worry that it might be some substance that will bleed into the paper and cause a larger stain over time. Of course, this popped up after I had hung a very difficult piece in a tight spot, and then hung the subsequent strip. In other words – no way was I taking it off the wall and re-doing. I cut out a design motif and pasted it over the area.
Another thing I was unhappy with has happened a number of times with KK paper. The pattern will match perfectly at the top of the wall, but begin to slide up or down, creating a mis-match , as you move down the wall. I think that a lot of it has to do with the vinyl material, because it’s stretchy. The weight of the paste and the vinyl will cause the bottom section of the strip to sag. This simply doesn’t make sense, though, because, if the paper is going to absorb moisture from the paste and expand (which many papers do), each strip should do so at the same rate, right? But not.
I finally deduced, correctly or not, that the pattern gets distorted as it’s wound into a roll. So my theory is that if you take your 10′ strips from the same position in each roll, the pattern should match. In other words, take a 10′ strip from the top of roll #1. Take your next strip from a brand new roll #2. Third strip from roll #3. Obviously, this leaves a whole lot of unused paper. For shorter areas like over doors, where it’s harder to see, and where you can fudge the pattern a bit, I used the paper from the insides of the rolls, again, roll #1 next to roll #2, etc. But this doesn’t work on every instance, so you’re gonna be stuck with many areas where the pattern doesn’t match perfectly across the seams. The solution is to match the pattern at eye-level , and then allow it to go off as it moves toward the ceiling and floor.
There were other issues with this paper that were disappointing to me. But not overwhelmingly awful. Most homeowners would not notice. But I sure hope that this was a one-time issue, and Katie Kime will go back to its former good-quality, non-woven material.

Close – So Close! – Kill Point

The kill point is your last seam in a room, where your last strip of wallpaper meets up with the first strip you hung. Because that last strip won’t be its full width, this virtually always this results in a pattern mis-match. So usually this goes in an inconspicuous corner. But this room had none, and ending / killing in a corner would have left us with a 10′ high pattern mis-match.
So I opted to put it over the door, where the pattern mis-match would be only 18″ high – and where not many people spend much time looking up there, anyway.
Today I got pretty lucky, and ended up with almost a perfect match – within 3/4″.
But I had that gap to fill, and doing so would have ended up with the pattern repeating itself inside that 3/4″ gap. This really isn’t a biggie. The pattern is accommodating and, like I said, it’s up over the door.”
But I have fun with these kill points, and had plans for a better disguise. Usually a double cut / splice is used. You take a fresh strip of paper an overlap it on top of the one below, and then splice together. My first idea was to make a swerved D/C coming from the top down along the the left of the sign post, and then moving to the right of the BBQ truck, leaving enough white space on the top strip to cover the sign post and truck on the strip underneath.

But as I studied the pattern , I realized that if I moved my splice over to the right, I would avoid making curvy cuts and come straight down between the lake and the building. Finished: You don’t notice that there is an extra sunbather and that the building has an additional column.
There are some important precautions that need to be taken in doing these double cuts to avoid damage to the wall underneath,,,, but I didn’t take photos. But you can do a Search here to see previous posts with photos that chronicle the various steps. Like here:
https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/fun-over-the-door-kill-point-with-swirled-damask/
This wallpaper pattern is the Austin Toile from Katie Kime brand.
installer houston

Like Willie Nelson? Like Tacos? Bats? Skinny Dipping?

Dang … I forgot to take a before pic. This large powder room was originally papered in Serena & Lily ‘s Feather , in green . I stripped it off and applied wallpaper primer , which took a day, and hung the paper the second day.

Larger than usual toilet alcove .

If you’re from Austin , Texas , you recognize these things.

Barton Springs , BBQ trucks , the State Capitol , cowboy boots . Hippy Hollow isn’t on there, and I’m not sure it even still exists, but the nudist colony there was definitely part of Austin’s culture!
The pattern is in the City Toile collection by Katie Kime , which is wildly popular .
I wasn’t crazy about the quality of the paper , but it install ed OK and will hold up for many years.
It sure changes the room!
iThe home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks area of Houston

Sweet Toile Trellis For Baby Girl

Baby’s coming, so the nondescript tan walls in this this home office are about to make way for a nursery.

I love how one wall done contrasted against the plain painted wall shows how much more life and brightness wallpaper adds to the space.

Sweet, but not overly gooey , this pattern and simple two-tone colorway will grow with the child and be appropriate from infant to teen years.

Opposite corner.

Window wall.

Toile is a French word that describes a sort of pen & ink line drawing of one color on a simple background . Classic toiles are cherubs floating and shepherdesses playing flutes while lambs frolic in the meadow. But these days there are lots of themes, from seaside villages to Winnie the Pooh to the Cities series by Katie Kime (do a Search here to see more of that ).

This is a non-woven substrate with a lightly textured raised ink surface. It can be hung via the paste-the-wall method. But I usually prefer to paste the material , which worked nicely this time because the wallpaper was thick and stiff, and moisture from the paste softened it and made it much more pliable and workable .

This pattern is Rosalind Floral and it’s by McGee and Co. But I highly suspect that the actual manufacturer is York , one of my favorite brands.
This is a nicely renovated 1920’s home in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .
wallpaper installer

Horizontal Cut To Ease Installation in Tight Spot

This is an under-the-stairs cloffice ( closet turned home office ). Wallpaper needs to go along the wall on the right. Over the top of the shelf alcove on the right, over the top of the shelf on the left, down the center, into the niche above the desk area on the left, and then down and under into the knee / kick area under the desk on the left.
Easily accomplished with paint. But tricky with wallpaper – which can twist, crease, tear, buckle, etc. Not to mention paste getting slopped onto all that nice newly-painted woodwork.

The part above the desk is not so horribly tricky, but this portion under the desk is, mostly due to the narrow transition point.

Another issue is that the strip of wallpaper is set to extend to the right about 5″ over the shelf alcove. This means that paste will be getting onto the woodwork, as well as adding weight and stress to the whole strip.
Since the wallpaper comes in a rectangular strip, a whole lot of the top section is going to overlap onto that sloped ceiling area, getting paste on that, too.

To make all that easier and cleaner, here I have roughed in some cuts, measuring and templating ahead of time, to reduce the amount of paper that will overlap onto the shelf woodwork and the ceiling.
Once this strip is pasted, I’ll use my blue plastic tape on the pasted side of the paper, to keep paste from getting on to the navy blue paint. No photo of that, but you can Search on ” blue tape ” to see previous posts about that cool stuff.

As mentioned above, it was going to be really difficult to manipulate the wallpaper down the wall and then down and under the desk area without damaging the paper.
So I decided to eliminate stress on the paper by cutting the strip into two sections – one for above the desk and one for under it. I used my straightedge and a razor blade and cut along a horizontal element of the design.

Here I have the top section in place. No need to wrestle a 24″ wide strip down that narrow area and then down and underneath the desk.

Here I’m about to position the bottom piece.

Here it is in place.

All finished! No stress on the paper, no creases or tears. And no swearing during the installation!
This wallpaper pattern is called Florida Toile and is by Katie Kime in their very popular Cities Toile collection .

Florida Toile in Home Office / Cloffice

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.

Katie Kime Après Ski Wallpaper in Laundry Room

West wall before.

West wall after.

North wall before

North wall after.

East wall before.

East wall after.

Over counter area.

Close up.

The homeowners in this Memorial / Dairy Ashford area of Houston live to ski! When they throw parties, they set the drinks up on the counter in their laundry room, and everyone congregates there.

So this “Après Ski” pattern by Katie Kime was the perfect wallpaper pattern.

The material is a smooth vinyl on a non-woven backing. It will be somewhat more resistant to splashes and stains than a cotton or wood pulp paper. The instructions said it has a non-woven substrate and could be hung by pasting the wall, but I got bubbles doing that, so I opted to paste the paper and book it for a few minutes, as with a traditional paper, which worked better.

Katie Kime “Outside the Window” in a Heights Kid’s Bathroom

I don’t know why the yellow tint to these photographs … the wallpaper is actually a beautiful cobalt blue with bright white flowers.

No matter. You see how it brightens this hall bathroom, and livens it up for a family with two very young daughters.

The manufacturer is Katie Kime. I like their sort of ‘philosophy of life,’ in the last photo.

New York Toile in Hall Bathroom

Katie Kime makes this very popular line of city toile wallpapers. There is one for most major cities here and abroad. Not just wallcovering … pajamas, notecards, mugs, all sorts of things.

KK normally prints on a nice non-woven substrate. But these days, due to shortages tied to the COVID pandemic, they can’t the the raw materials, so have switched to a thick, stiff, heavy vinyl product.

It is difficult to work with, on many fronts, and doesn’t look as nice as their original material. IMO

Still, the room is shaping up nicely (will finish it tomorrow), and the client loves it.

My favorite motif is the scene with the lady hailing the taxi, and particularly the little old lady walking the poodle. Straight out of the ’60’s! You can just envision her blue tinted hair and tidy rent-controlled apartment in a ’30’s era building.