Posts Tagged ‘lively’

Wild Retro Flower Power

May 25, 2023
Hall bathroom before . The walls had this super-heavy ” Tuscan ” texture that I spend a day and a half smoothing out .
Finished
Looks so good with the orange painted cabinetry . Also note the really fun tile on the shower to the left.
Colorful and lively ! I had ’60’s & ’70’s music on all day while installing , to compliment the mood .

And poppies – well, ya know … that whole psychedelic thing from back then …

Swedish manufacturer . Lina II , Design midbec , tapeter

This is a pretty nice non-woven material, water and stain-resistant , fairly easy to install , can paste the wall or paste the paper , seams are near invisible . It will be easy to strip off the wall when you redecorate . Affordable price .

Sold by the on-line company wallpaperfromthe70s.com , based out of Germany . Really nice folks.
Here’s a picture of the brand new shower , to show the whole room is colorful and retro vibe .

Lively But Soft Swirls In Hall Bathroom

May 20, 2023
Original wallcovering was a dark , rustic , textured (and outdated) torn and overlapped paper .
Smoothed , prepped , primed , and ready for wallpaper .
Done! Bright , fresh , and with visual movement from the swirly leaf pattern .
Opposite side of vanity / countertop .
Mirror shot showing wall behind the vanity / sink .
Wall opposite the vanity / mirror .
The pattern is called Priano .

The color is called Dusty Pink – it’s a very livable pink.
This is very popular pattern , and I’ve hung it a bunch of times, in every colorway . It’s one of my favorites, too.
I love the soft swirling foliage , and the simple two-color scheme . This makes it a very easy pattern to live with , whether it be one accent wall or a whole room . In fact, the pattern is so soft and un-intrusive that it makes a wonderful choice for papering all the walls in even a large room such as a bedroom or dining room (Search here to see the dining room I did in the soft blue version .)

Made by Serena & Lily

I like the quality of just about everything from this company. This is a paper wallpaper , and goes up nicely . Like most traditional wallpapers , this is installed by pasting the paper .
The home is in the Champions Forest area of northwest Houston .
installer paperhanger

Frutto Proibito in Powder Room Revisited

April 21, 2023
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 .

Cole & Son Monkeys Liven Up Laundry Day

February 24, 2023
Look close – there are monkeys stealing fruit !
Window wall before. Here I’ve applied my wallpaper primer to the upper portion of the wall, and am working my way down.
Closer view of sink area.
The dryer and washer will be placed against this wall, and into this corner .
If there’s any words to describe this family , it’s lively and fun-loving . No wonder the mom chose this pattern !
The interior designer loved it, too. Stacie Cokinos of Cokinos Design .
The wallpaper pattern is by Cole & Son , a long-established British company , in their Fornasetti (” edgy ” ) line. Like most British papers these days, this is a non-woven material and a paste the wall installation method . Although I usually prefer to paste the paper .
The pattern is called Frutto Proibito – Forbidden Fruit . This is in a townhome in the Montrose area of central Houston .

Gold Geometric on Black Accent Wall in Kitchen Area

January 18, 2023
” Floating ” accent wall between kitchen and dining room . The homeowners originally considered a mural for this area . But with help from the wallpaper sales guy, they landed on this.
Both husband and wife love this. The black color plays beautifully off the black cabinets in the kitchen , butler’s pantry , and mud room . The gold geometric lines keep everything lively .
The specs say this is is a 25″ pattern repeat. But from looking at it, you’d think it was much shorter … the narrow lines match up with the narrow lines, and the fat sections line up with fat sections. Maybe 4″ repeat. But – not. I’ve hung this before, so I was already aware that those lines and sections are not all the same distance apart. It’s essential that you lay your strips next to each other and make sure you’ve got the pattern match correct. Because if not, you could end up with tiny 1/8″ mis-matches across the seams between some of those gold lines .
This is a Jaclyn Smith design by Trend . It’s a paste-the-wall / non-woven material , and is strong and durable , and resistant to stains and tears . Flexible and easy to install . Will strip off the wall easily and in one piece when you redecorate .
It has a raised ink / lightly textured surface .
The wallpaper was purchased from Calico / Calico Corners on W. Alabama in Houston , with the expert knowledge and interior design assistance of Ron Dillon , whom I’ve known for about 25 years .
The home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston.

Apothecary’s Garden in Powder Room – Fairy Tale Floral

November 21, 2022
Deep green wainscoting at the bottom, and on the right is a 100 year old ” dry sink ” with coordinating colored tile backsplash turned into a vanity, with period-appropriate faucet .
Fresh and lively . But can you believe the design dates back about 100 years ? – same as the house!
Close up. Looks like watercolor paint . Birds , butterflies , plants , flowers , and grasshoppers !
C.F.A. Voysey is a male designer who worked around the turn of the last century, late 1800’s through about the 1920’s , and was part of the Arts & Crafts decorating movement . Most of his patterns are somewhat symmetrical , as well as whimsical and fanciful , with heavy emphasis on nature .
This is a non-woven material , can be hung via the paste the wall method , although I prefer the paste the paper installation . It has a 20% polyester content and is thus more resistant to stains and humidity than traditional papers . And it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to your walls when you redecorate .
The brand name is Lord Twig and it comes from Finest Wallpaper , which is in Canada.
This went in the rear powder room of a beautifully renovated 1926 4-plex apartment that has been artfully converted into a single family home , in the Woodland Heights area of Houston .

REALLY Cheerful, Colorful Powder Room

November 3, 2022
Powder room before. Note the blue ceiling . I applied a white pigmented wallpaper primer ( Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime ) to the walls .
Done! So cheery and fun and lively!
These flowers just make you smile when you walk in here!
Toilet corner before.
I’m grateful to the husband for removing the toilet tank, as well as the sink / vanity. This sure saved me a lot of time and squeezing into tight spots.
The red square in the back is wall area that was blocked by the toilet tank, so previous painters were not able to reach that area. It had a heavy sand texture on it, which I took a little extra time to skim-float and then sand smooth. Nobody’s going to see it, but it will help the wallpaper adhere better .
Toilet corner after. The corner you’re looking at was off-plumb by about 1/2″ from top to bottom, so there is a bit of a pattern mis-match as you get closer to the floor. Not a biggie with this wild pattern, plus it’s mostly hidden behind the toilet.
Hard to see, but the focus of the photo is an angled wall under the stairs .
The blue ceiling coordinates perfectly with the colors in the wallpaper .
This is by Rifle Paper , and is called Garden Party .
Every Rifle Paper I’ve hung previously has been on a non-woven substrate , and could be installed by the paste-the-wall method. The label said this was a PTW (see diagram of brush putting paste on the wall) … but it surprised me, because it was NOT! It was on a regular paper stock, and I’m betting it’s the same material that York prints its SureStrip line as well as the Spoonflower brand.
I assumed the directions and diagram were correct, so first I pasted the paper and then took it immediately to the wall, with no booking time. Lo and behold, I got bubbles on the wall.
This happens because the paper is absorbing moisture from the paste and expanding. With no way to escape being trapped between the paper and the wall, the moisture ” off gas es” and pushes away from the wall ,,, resulting in those bubbles.
My solution was to treat the material as a traditional pasted wallpaper. So I pasted the back, folded pasted-side-to-pasted-side (called booking ), and then placed it into a black plastic trash bag for a few minutes. This allows the paper to absorb moisture from the paste, expand, and relax , all before it goes onto the wall.
This is a pretty sure way to prevent the appearance of bubbles or blisters or wrinkles.
The townhome is in the Highland Village / Galleria area of Houston .

Busting a Myth – Dark Wallpaper Makes Rooms Look LARGER – Not Smaller

September 3, 2022
Everyone advised this homeowner not to put black in the dining room, that it would make the room too dark. But she had a vision and went with her gut. She was right – the room looks fabulous and elegant. And the texture and sheen on the walls visually expanded the space.
There is enough white molding in the room to play against the black. And the satiny drapes, along with the slight sheen of the grasscloth wallcovering bounce light around the room.
Accent wall in dining room. White swirls (look closely – they’re snakes!) add movement that make this wall lively, not closed-in.
In this master bedroom , everything’s dark – dark green walls , black ceiling , and black floral wallpaper .
If this accent wall had been left painted green , the room would have felt dark and lifeless . But the black against the green, along with the limited color pallet and the visual movement of the wallpaper pattern visually push the wall back and add depth .
This powder room started out all black. And it was a bit oppressive .
But add wallpaper with a little color and pattern , and now the room feels larger and alive with personality .
A powder room with black moldings and black wallpaper. Nothing claustrophobic here!
Another powder room that started out with black painted walls . Yes, it has an enclosed feeling.
Wallpaper with a black background and dark flora / fauna open up the space.
wallpaper installer houston

Geometric Grasscloth in Home Gathering Area

June 29, 2022
No, this large room with sink and counters isn’t a kitchen. The family loves to entertain both family and friends, so included this “bonus” room in their new home’s plans. It’s used for both entertaining and crafting.
The wall facing you was originally painted a semi-gloss navy blue. In the photo, I’ve applied my wallpaper primer.
It will adhere to the glossy paint, and provide a matt finish for the wallpaper paste to grab ahold of.
Taking measurements and plotting the layout.
This paper has a selvedge edge , which has to be trimmed off by hand with a straightedge and razor blade. The manufacturer has not provided trim guide marks , so I am using a ruler and my eye.
The new look is so dramatically different I couldn’t resist taking a photo mid-hang. As you can see, I’ve used dark paint to stripe under where the seams will fall, to prevent any of my primer from showing through at the seams.
You can see the ceiling line starting to track upward on the right portion. More on that below.
Finished. Perfectly centered.
This is the mounting hardware for the big screen TV . I asked them to remove the TV, but we left the mounts in place. In order to support the heavy TV, they are placed quite securely into the wall , and I feel it’s best not to jimmy around with that.
Rather than have the first strip straddle the TV mount, I plotted to have my first seam fall down the middle of the wall, placing a seam in the mid point of the mount. This meant I had to hang four strips instead of three, but it made it a whole lot easier to work around the TV mount, as well as to keep the left and right edges of the grasscloth straight and plumb.
Close up showing the texture of this grasscloth material. It’s atypical to have grass cloth printed with a pattern , and I rather like the way the ink looks somewhat scratchy against the rough background.
Because it’s Schumacher, you can expect printing defects . The slight pattern match doesn’t bother me, as there were many more places along each strip that matched up perfectly. Nor do I mind the different intensity of ink on the two strips. That’s all part of the look of grasscloth.
But I wasn’t pleased with the white ink out in the middle of nowhere, as seen about 1//3 down the center of the picture. This isn’t considered a defect , and from a distance it’s not really noticeable. But it bugged me.
So I used some water-based paint and a very small brush from the craft store and lightly touched up the spots.
I also softened the mis-matched edges a bit. There’s a fine line between covering the white spots and staining the material, so use a light hand. And never permanent ink or oil-based markers or pastels.
Likewise, the ceiling line was not level, so as I moved from the mid-point out to the right, the ceiling rose above the geometric motif’s top edge, and a white line began to be visible, but only to the right of the centerpoint.
So I used the black paint to cover up that extra bit of white. This increases the width of that horizontal navy blue line from 1/4″ to about 1/2″. But from down on the floor you can’t tell, and it looks a whole lot better than having white on the right side and none on the left.
The brand is Schumacher and the home is in the Garden Oaks / Oak Forest area of Houston.
The interior designer who came up with this bold and lively look is Clayton Brooks .

Popular Rifle Paper Peacock Pattern in Houston Heights Powder Room

June 11, 2022
In this townhome, the powder room is at the top of the stairs. The homeowner wanted something lively and dramatic to catch your eye as you walk from the garage up the stairs.
The bold and bright colors against a very dark green background, and fun flower and peacock design really answer the call!
Simply called Peacock Wallpaper , this very popular design is by Rifle Paper , which is manufactured by York , one of the oldest wallpaper manufacturers in the U.S.
It’s a non-woven , paste-the-wall material, and will hold up and resist stains very nicely for years to come.
N-W ‘s are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece , with no damage to the wall , when it’s time to redecorate