Bright and Cheery Accent Wall for Toddler Girl

Just about every wall and surface in this home is white . This super fun , super colorful pattern really energizes the little girl’s room / nursery .

Before, with my tinted- blue wallpaper primer Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime applied.

I love contrasting the colorful wallpaper to the plain “before” look.

Red flowers centered under the window , so it will look nice falling around the crib .

Close-up .

The manufacturer is the popular Rifle Paper , made by York . I love this brand – but beware of printing defects , which have been popping up more and more these last few years. Also, Rifle Paper is usually a DIY-friendly non-woven or paste the wall material . So I was surprised today to find this is a traditional paste the paper product . Actually, I’ve had a good handful of RPs lately that were paste the paper .
These two materials call for completely different installation methods. The PTP takes more time and equipment , too.
The home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston .

Sweet Floral in Baby’s Nursery

Two accent walls and a bump-out ‘column’ are primed and ready for wallpaper.

Finished!

This is a little more sophisticated than many babies’ rooms. But that’s good, because this wallpaper pattern will be suitable through many stages of the little girl’s growth.
The woven rattan light fixture is the perfect complimentary accessory!

The pattern is by Lake August and is called Nasturtium . That printing you see is the selvedge edge and has to be trimmed off by hand. The material was superior quality wallpaper and was really nice to work with.

Finished Little Girl’s Room – Pink Stripe

I hung this Schumacher pink stripe on an accent wall in a little girl’s room a few weeks ago and was back yesterday to measure another room, so was able to get some “finished” shots.

I love the way the wallpaper softens the room and adds femininity. And it’s not age-specific, so it will “work” as the child grows.

Laser Level Line Up

I have engineered this first strip so that the stripe falls smack in the center of this accent wall. It will create a nice balance around the headboard of the little girl’s bed.

I am using the red light, vertical line of my laser level to ensure this first strip of wallpaper goes up nice and plumb.

Cute, Sweet Pink & Blue Hallway

This is one of those houses that has a lot of crystal and glitter. The little girl’s bedroom has a LOT of crystal, glitter – and PINK.

So this hallway, which leads to both the girl’s room and to a glitzy guest bedroom, is fittingly outfitted with a navy-floral-on-pink wallpaper pattern. The colors show up much better in real life than on my phone camera shots.

The wallpaper is by designer Caitlin Wilson, made by York, in their Sure Strip line, and is one of my favorite wallpapers. It is a pre-pasted material. It is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.

1-Year Old Finally Gets Her Room Decorated

This family has been wrapped up in building a new home, moving in, and other hectic family tasks for many months. In the midst of that, the youngest member arrived – but there was never a chance to get her room all dolled up. Today that changed!

This is a 4-panel mural by Walmur. In one photo, you see how I have laid the panels out on the floor, to check the pattern match, sequence, measurements, and, because the mural is a foot+ too high for the wall, to determine which areas to cut off. Because there wasn’t much going on at the top other than plain sky, but a lot more interesting elements along the bottom, I took about 12″ off the top, and only about 1.5″ off the bottom. To preserve the dragonfly on the right edge, I placed the mural so that the excess 5″ width was trimmed off the left side.

The panels were 39″ wide, which was a bit difficult for short stuff me to handle. It was a non-woven material, and I hung it using the paste-the-wall method. I was not real crazy about the quality of this product (see tomorrow’s post). But once it was up on the wall, it looks great.

The room is all ready for the little girl to move into.

Girl’s Nursery – Last Job Before CoronaVirus Shut Down

Most work in the Houston area shutters at midnight. I was delighted that I was able to squeeze in this one accent wall, for a baby girl who is to arrive soon.

Top pic shows the room in its original all gray state. The walls were textured, so I troweled on a layer of skim-coat to smooth them. In the second picture you see my three fans (plus the ceiling fan and the home’s A/C system cranking away), working to dry the smoothing compound.

I killed a whole Texas Highways magazine while it was drying. Once dry, I sanded the wall smooth, vacuumed up dust, wiped dust off the wall with a damp sponge, and primed.

This wallpaper was a non-woven material, and could be hung via the paste-the-wall method. I usually prefer to past the paper, for many reasons, but in the case of a simple accent wall like this (and because it was easier than lugging my 7′ long work table and trestles up the curved staircase), pasting the wall was a better option.

Once the strips are cut, I roll them up backwards and secure with an elastic hairband. See photo. This helps get rid of the “memory” of the paper, so it does not want to stay tightly curled up. It also keeps the front of the paper away from the paste on the wall, which helps keep everything clean during installation.

The walls in this room (in the whole house, the husband tells me) are pretty darned off-plumb. I used a few tricks and kept the pattern straight along the ceiling line. But, since I started by hanging my strips true to plumb, by the time the paper reached the corners and the adjoining un-plumb walls, there was no way to avoid the pattern being uneven from ceiling to floor. Kinda hard to see in the photo, but there is about 3/4″ difference in width from top to bottom.

Luckily, once you stand back, that crookedness is not all that noticeable.

Although the paper is mildly pink, the muted color and more sophisticated geometric design don’t scream “baby’s room.” This is a look that will grow with the little girl into her teen years.

This wallpaper pattern is by Engblad & Co., a Scandinavian company, and 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.

The home is in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston.

Butterflies in a Child’s Bathroom

Re my previous post, here is a bathroom in a strong black-on-white geometric that I hung just a few years ago. A new family with younger kids has moved in, and wanted something lighter and brighter.

This fluttery butterfly pattern went in the guest bathroom, which is attached to the little girl’s bathroom (Jack & Jill set-up).

The pattern is subtle; it shows up better in person than in my photos.

This wallpaper pattern is by Wallquest, in their Ecochic line, and 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.

The home is in West University Place (Houston) – and just so happens to be right down the street from Dorota!

Soft Pink Envelopes a Little Girl’s Room

I hung pink wallpaper in this little girl’s room and bathroom in the family’s Houston home a year or two ago, and they asked me to bring some more pink sweetness to the girl’s room in their country home outside of Chappell Hill, Texas.

This design is called “Yukutori” and is by Farrow & Ball. While a stronger design would work well on a single accent wall, this is a good pattern for putting on all four walls, because it’s soft and receding, and will be a good backdrop without stealing attention from furniture and artwork.

The slight orange-y tinge to the color works well with the red brick fireplace and chimney.

This paper is by Farrow & Ball, a British company.

I am disappointed in the quality of their paper, especially for the price the homeowners paid. I’ll talk more about this in later posts, which will include photos.

For now, enjoy the sweet look of this little girl’s bedroom in the country.

“Big Girl’s Room” Gets Ants from Anthropologie

Here’s a bright and cheerful, watercolor-y pattern that is popular for little girls’ rooms.

I hung it on an accent wall in a toddler’s room in a home in the Timbergrove neighborhood of Houston.

The name of the pattern is “Ants,” and it’s sold through Anthropologie. The manufacturer is York, and it’s in their Sure Strip line of pre-pasted, thin non-woven, easily removable papers, and is one of my favorite brands to hang.