I hung this wallpaper a year or two ago and was back to paper the dining room this week, so had a chance to peek into the powder room and get a “finished” photo. Here it is with lights off. With lights on. South wall. I love the window molding and vanity painted to complement the wallpaper . This is in a beautifully remodeled and enlarged bungalow in the Heights neighborhood of Houston . This lively and fun pattern is called Frutto Proibito and is in the adventurous Fornasetti collection by Cole & Son . It’s a popular pattern, and I installed it a number of times, including a few months ago in a Montrose laundry room. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2023/02/24/cole-son-monkeys-liven-up-laundry-day/ This material is a DIY -friendly non-woven / paste the wall type of wallpaper . It’s strong , durable , stain-resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate .
Even in the daytime and with good lighting in the room, it’s hard to see in this corner under a sink in a utility / laundry room. So I called into service my handy little flashlight . Got this at Sherwin Williams for about $10. It has two stages of brightness, and also a flashing red light for emergency use. It will stand up on its own (pictured) and the base is magnetic , so you can adhere it to a metal surface . Very small and light and easy to carry in my toolbox. AND, best of all, it puts out a LOT of light .
Accent wall primed and ready for wallpaper.Finished! The pattern is nicely centered on the wall, both horizontally and vertically. I love the way the colors in the wallpaper work with the moss green in the floor tile. To the left, the wall continues into the bathroom. The homeowner wanted the wallpaper in the laundry area only, and not in the bathroom. We decided it made sense to stop the pattern at the edge of the door molding, and in the short 5″ high area over the door. At first I trimmed the left edge of the strip vertically the same as the design that was running down along the side of the door molding. But I didn’t like the little triangles of background off-white against the color of the wall paint (not shown). So I got creative and cut the paper off along the zig-zag lines of the wallpaper pattern. This way, the transition looks a little more planned and logical.I told the mom that it looks like her kids took finger paints to the walls!Manufacturer is Ottoline . This non-woven material had body, but was flexible and soft. It was a delight to work with. I chose to paste the paper , but you can install this by the paste the wall method, too.
This home in Kingwood (far northeast Houston) was damaged by flooding during Hurricane Harvey, so the bottom portion of the walls had to be torn out and replaced. The repaired laundry room was functional, but not very inviting.
This cheery pattern changed all that!
The light black pen & ink-like images on a white background add whimsy and really brighten the room. I don’t think anyone would mind spending time in here on Laundry Day!
The motifs remind me of dandelions that have died and dried, that you puff on to make a wish.
The wallpaper is by York, in their Sure Strip line, which is one of my favorites. It is a pre-pasted paper, and is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate.
The doors of this laundry room open to the upstairs hallway of a busy young family in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston. The mom wanted to see something more cheery than a drab painted wall.
The butterflies and beetles on this wallpaper have an iridescence that brings an almost life-like quality to the look.
This was a thin but stiff non-woven material, and I used the paste-the-wall installation method. The stiffness made it a bit hard to work with, and it was prone to creasing, and also was difficult to fit in closely to the curves of the molding on top of the cabinets.
If it had just been a flat wall with nothing to trim around (cabinets, molding, ironing board door), the paper would have worked better. OR, the manufacturer could have just used a more flexible substrate.
This wallpaper is by Clarke & Clarke, a British company.
OK, that’s a really dumb title. 😦 But every time I look at this restless dragon surrounded by roiling foliage and water, I think about the clothing tumbling in endless summer-saults in the washing machine in this room. Yes, this fun and mystical wallpaper is enhancing a laundry room.
The home is in the Rice University / Medical Center neighborhood of Houston. The wallpaper has bright shades of green-blue on a silver metallic background. It’s a non-woven material, and could be hung by the paste the wall method. Since this room had a lot of obstacles and weird angles and obstructions like non-removable shelving, I opted to paste-the-paper instead. This also rendered the material a lot more flexible and malleable, which was much appreciated, since the room had a lot of features that made it quite difficult to hang.
Normally, I wouldn’t be too crazy about wallpaper in a humid room like a laundry – especially since the air circulation is pretty poor. Humidity can cause wallpaper seams to let loose and curl. But because these newish non-wovens are made of natural and synthetic materials (such as fiberglass), they are more breathable, and thus shouldn’t present issues of curling seams or delaminating. They are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, when it’s time to redecorate.
This wallpaper is made by York, one of my favorite companies, in their Dwell Studio Line. It was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. She is great at helping you find just the perfect paper! Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
Look closely, just to the left of center, and you will see that the strip on the left is slightly darker than the strip on the right. This is called shading, and is because, in this case, the left side of the wallpaper is a slightly darker color than the right side. Therefore, when two strips of paper are butted against each other, the difference in color can be seen.
In this powder / laundry room, with poor lighting and a busy pattern and a relatively mild case of shading, I didn’t consider it bad enough to halt the job and reorder more paper, and so I went ahead and hung the room.
Everyone loves the finished room.
I am probably the only one who can spot this minor color difference.
This powder room in a 1939 home near Rice University (Houston) also serves as the laundry. The previous owners had painted the room a grey semi-gloss. Serviceable, but lifeless. The new owners have a just-learning-to-walk little girl, and a more vibrant lifestyle. This wild and colorful floral pattern is just what was needed to wake up the room.
This pattern is reminiscent of the chintz designs that were popular in the 1990’s. But it’s updated by it’s overscale size, and the bright, edgy colors that are used.
I particularly like the way it works with the green vanity. In fact, parts of the room behind the appliances could not be papered (could not move the washer & dryer out of the way, one wall had too much weirdness going on – really bad surface, hoses and wires running through it, very large gaps) so the homeowners will paint that wall with a semi-gloss paint, which will be resistant to splashes from laundry day. They were thinking of white, but I suggested using the same green as on the vanity. It’s a lot more fun than plain old white, and it will tie the room together.
This room was difficult to paper, because of the wonky walls, unfortuitous placement of windows, doors, bump-outs, etc., none of which synced with the width of the wallpaper, hoses and pipes I had to trim around (sorry, no photo 😦 ), and lots more. Take a look at the soffit – easy to look at, but difficult to get paper on – luckily the pattern is wild enough that unavoidable mismatches are not noticeable.
This “Portofino” wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was very nice to work with. It was bought at below retail price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. She is great at helping you find just the perfect paper! Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.
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