Popular ” Raphael ” in Heights Mud Room

This nicely renovated bungalow in the Houston Heights had a 3-room suite in the rear of the house. Included were a mud room, a walk-in pantry, and a vestibule leading to the kitchen. This photo shows the mud room before wallpaper. The paper will be installed above the wainscoting.

The mud room finished. I plotted so the trees would land evenly balanced (centered) on the wall.

Pantry before

Pantry after

From kitchen looking through vestibule into mud room, before.

Same area finished. A very, very cool 3-dimensional affect!

Another view of the mud room. The blue colorway of the wallpaper works beautifully with the khaki color of the woodwork.

The vestibule had four doors, and thus four areas in between the doors. In the two larger spaces, which flanked the pantry door, I futzed with the width of the strips so that I could place the trunk of the tree down the center of each space. I didn’t want all four areas to have the tree down the center, so in the third I let the pattern fall as it would, which placed the tree trunk to the left of center. This was a softer look. Sorry – no photo. The fourth space was only about 6″ wide, and the tree trunk would be much too distracting here. So I again manipulated the width of the strips so that only foliage showed between the door moldings in that last space. Sorry – no photo.

Close up

This very popular pattern is called Raphael and is by Sandberg, a Swedish company. Their papers are quite nice. They are on a non-woven material. There are quite a few advantages to these non-wovens, both while working with them and after they are up on your wall.

A Sweet Laundry Room in the Heights

Before: Drab, lifeless khaki paint.

After: Bright and cheerful, and definitely unexpected.

Wallpaper coordinates nicely with the stained glass window.

Fun surprise – Are they pineapples or flower bouquets?

The pattern is “Ludic” by Woodchip & Magnolia.

The home is a nicely renovated bungalow in the Houston Heights. The only place to tuck in a laundry room was in an alcove off the master bedroom. Not only does the wallpaper brighten the space, but it looks pretty when viewed from the bedroom.

The material is “non-woven” and can be hung by pasting the back of the paper, or by pasting the wall. I usually choose to paste the paper.

From Drab to Spa-Like

Before: Semi-gloss paint on bad texture job.

Virtually the same color, but texture and pattern add a warm and calm feel.

Before: Khaki paint

After: Serene, even Zen-like.

Close-up shows pattern that can be matched so seams are disguised, as well as string fibers that add texture and dimension.

Nearly a full 100 years old, this cottage in the Norhill neighborhood of the Houston Heights has seen many updates and treatments. The master bath suffered from various dubious renovation attempts, as well as the aftermath of acts of nature, such as shifting foundation, leaky windows, humidity. The whole room just had a sort of “last chance” look about it.

Most of the room’s ails could be solved by ripping everything out down to the studs and then starting anew. But on most budgets – that ain’t agonna happen!

So I skim-floated the walls and sanded smooth. Just having smooth walls free of the drab khaki paint color helped left the pervasive glum feeling.

The homeowner chose this faux grasscloth, which is a stringcloth product made by Walquest, in their EcoChic line. I like this because, being a man-made material, the pattern can be matched from strip to strip, so you do not notice the seams like you do with a natural fiber material like real grasscloth. Also, the vertical strings on the wallpaper give texture and dimension, which is a look that many homeowners are craving these days.

The label insert tells you straight off that this material is not washable (they say you can gently vacuum it occasionally). Yet it is still more resistant to stains than true grasscloth.

This wallpaper was purchased from Ted at the Shade & Drape Shop on Kirby at Richmond. (They have another location on Voss near San Felipe.)

Trees Brighten and Lighten a West U Powder Room

Plain paint in a khaki color is just drab.

A white background and “movement” from the tree forms brightens and energizes the space.

Almost looks hand-painted.

Most wallpapers by Exclusive Wallcoverings are traditional un-pasted paper, so I was surprised to find that this one was a paper-backed vinyl, and pre-pasted, too.

I am usually not a fan of the lower-priced pre-pasted, paper-backed solid vinyl (read my page to the right). But this brand has figured out how to make a quality product, and I was pleased with it.

Best of all is how the white background lightens up the space, and the intertwined branches bring a lively feel to the room.

The home is in the West University Place neighborhood of Houston.