It’s hard to get a shot of this room, but here we are, looking from the family area through the entry vestibule toward the front door. The sliding barn door on the right leads to the husband’s home office. Here the walls are primed with my favorite Pro 977 Ultra Prime by Roman, and ready for wallpaper. Paper’s up! Lighting and shadows are playing across the walls in some areas. Opposite wall, west wall, primed and ready for wallpaper. Done!An interesting focal point in this room is this set of 100+ year old doors, reclaimed from a building in Arizona. The homeowner tells me that the door has been preserved from rot by the dry / arid climate in that state. The dealer stripped the doors of years of paint and stain, and shipped them in their most “raw” state. The doors were then fitted onto a track and hung to slide back and forth over the opening to the home office. I love the way the weathered wood coordinates in color and texture with the wallpaper pattern. It took a lot of measuring, trimming, engineering, and plotting to get the pattern so it aligned inside these two wall panels as if the pattern were continuing from the area outside the panels. Close-up of the wallpaper design. This material by Milton & King comes as a 2-roll set, consisting of one “A” roll and one “B” roll. This entryway took four of the 2-roll sets. Due to logistics, more strips from the “A” bolt were used than from the “B” roll. Another reminder to always buy a little extra paper. Milton & King makes some mighty fun wallpaper patterns. Visit their website! The material is a washable vinyl on a soft and flexible non-woven substrate. The material goes up on the wall like a dream, flexible and manipulable (is that a real word??!) and with seams that are invisible. When it’s time to redecorate, this non-woven material is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, with minimal / no damage to the wall.
Not all wallpapers come as traditional goods with a repeating pattern in a straight or drop match. Companies like House of Hackney (here) or Milton & King (search to find my previous posts), often package their patterns as 4-panel sets, or A & B rolls. These take a little more thought and engineering than just pulling strips off a bolt and slapping them on the wall. You’ve got to keep the 1-2-3-4’s in order, and parlay that into whether you’re moving to the right or the left. In this scenario, I started in the corner, so was moving in both directions. 1, 2, 3, 4. Then 4, 3, 2, 1. In the photo, I’ve measured, cut, and laid out my strips in the order in which they’ll be applied to the two walls. Believe me – I checked everything twice – no, thrice! – before pasting and hanging. Another thing about murals and 4-panel sets,,, you only get one chance to get it right. There are no additional strips sitting around to be called in in case of a goof. Here is the manufacturer’s instruction sheet.
Hanging wallpaper in powder rooms often means working around a pedestal sink. It’s sooo much easier if the sink is not in the room. But that means the homeowner has to pay a plumber to come remove the sink, and then come back and replace it after the paper is up. This risks damaging the new paper, causes damage to the wall that I will have to repair. And costs several hundreds of dollars. So I usually get the paper up with the sink in place. That means you have to wrestle a 9′ strip of paper over the sink, then down the narrow space on either side (on the right in this photo), and then underneath it. This opens the possibility of creasing the paper, tearing it, or other damage. I’ve developed a trick to make it easier. I’ll cut the paper horizontally a few inches below the top of the sink. When possible, I cut along design elements, to help disguise the cut. Here I’ve hung the paper above the sink and down the right side. Now I have to get the paper on the lower wall portion. But it’s a lot easier because the sink is out of the way. Here I am getting ready to position this bottom section. All in place. Next I will do the same with the area to the left of the sink. Things don’t always meet up perfectly at the seam, so you may end up with a gap or overlap or a pattern mis-match. But it will be behind the stand / base of the sink, so not noticeable. This pattern is by Milton & King. It’s a non-wove material, which is a lot stronger and tear-resistant than a paper wallpaper.
Before. The previous installer did a beautiful job with this earthy grasscloth. But it didn’t suit the homeowner’s taste, nor did it fit with the feel of this 1939 cottage in the historic Norhill section of the Houston heights.Done! The dark towel and mirror really set off the pattern and colors.Wall behind the toilet. This Asian-influenced design, with its pagodas and minstrels, is referred to as a Chinoiserie . These designs have been popular for centuries. Close-up. The green and blue tones coordinate beautifully with adjoining rooms in the house. I rolled the wallpaper out on the floor, so I could see the full-size design. This one has a 46″ pattern repeat, which is awfully long, and means there can be a lot of waste. This design had a straight pattern match, and came packaged in a 24″ x 33′ bolt, like traditional wallpaper. It did not come as an A-B set, as many M&K products do. I couldn’t find a full-size room-set photo on-line, so I availed myself of the Milton & King ‘s ” chat ” feature … I was connected with a live and knowledgeable representative in mere seconds, and he very quickly sent me a link to a picture of this pattern in a room. In the photo, I’m using my yardstick to determine a centerline of the design motifs.As are most of Milton & King ‘s wallpapers, this one was on a non-woven substrate. Rather than paste the wall, I chose to paste the paper, which works best in a bathroom with things to cut around and tuck paper behind. miThe pattern is called Mulberry . Milton & King’s bolts come packed individually in protective boxes – no worries about banged edges with this outfit!
I didn’t get a picture of the original dull, putty-brown paint, which did nothing for this space. Here is the room primed with my favorite Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime, formulated specifically for use under wallpaper. Sink / vanity area before.Wow! This billowy cactus pattern makes a statement! Tall! The ceilings in this home are over 10′ high. This very fluid, vertical design makes them seem even higher! Your eye just swoops up toward the ceiling! This back wall is what you see when you first enter the room, so I centered the cactus pattern on this wall. I was also able to center the pattern on this sink / vanity wall. It will look nicely balanced when the mirror goes up. A new light fixture is coming, and will be installed where you see the round hole / electrical box in the wall. Close up.Milton & King is the manufacturer, and San Pedro is the pattern name. M&K makes nice wallpaper, and I enjoyed working with this. It’s a non-woven substrate, so you can paste the wall if you like – but I usually prefer to paste the paper. The surface felt like a thin, flexible vinyl – durable and fairly resistant to splashes in a bathroom. Their patterns often come as a 2-roll set, with an ” A ” roll and a ” B ” roll. It can be a little tricky to measure for these until you get accustomed to how they work. Further complicating the issue is that this design has a 51″ pattern repeat. In a nutshell, this means that, in order to match the pattern from strip to strip, you may have to cut off and throw away as much as 50″ (more than 4′ ! ). Thus, with these high ceilings and the long pattern repeat, instead of getting three strips from each 33′ long roll, I got only two. So a lot of paper went into the trash pile. It’s important to be cognizant of that and include the waste factor when calculating how much paper to purchase. Better yet – have the paperhanger figure it up for you! These homeowners had already ordered their paper before I arrived for the initial consultation. After measuring and calculating, I told them to purchase one more 2-roll set. Another odd thing is that at the end of the day, we ended up with two full unopened “B” rolls plus one full-length “B” strip,,,, that’s a total of five full-length strips. But we had only one 10′ strip left of the “A” rolls. This points out that, depending on the layout of the room, you can use more “B’s” than “A’s” or vice versa. I’m sure glad I made them buy that additional 2-roll set! This new townhouse in the Heights neighborhood of Houston is home to a young couple. They will be married in a month or two. I had originally set their install date for a week or so before the wedding. I got a last-minute schedule change, they were able to get the room ready for me on short notice, and so I got their wallpaper up today,,, and they can spend the next months focusing on their upcoming special day!
BeforeDoneComplicated by rounded edges, plus contrary qualities of the wallpaper, it took me four hours to get paper around these windows. “Feather Palm” is the pattern nameManufacturer is Milton & King
When the kids grow up and move out, Mom moves in! This is to be her “girl-cave” or sanctuary. The wallpaper went on just two walls of the room.
She will add pops of pink and other strong colors around the room, to make the look cohesive.
This is a non-woven material and a paste-the-wall product. But, for the area around the windows, wrapping around those bull-nosed edges, I found it better to paste the paper. For the rest of the room, I used the paste-the-wall method.
The contemporary style home is in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston.
Re my previous post … This wallpaper by Milton & King comes as a 2-roll set, with an “A” roll and a “B” roll.
The 2-roll set thing forced the homeowner to buy more than she needed. With the two sets, we had four rolls. Each roll gave us three strips. Thus we had 12 strips. I needed only seven strips to cover the wall. So I only needed three rolls (total of nine strips, of which two would be unused ). Because you have to purchase both the “A” and “B” rolls, we ended up with one entire roll (three strips), that was unused.
If this had been packaged as a traditional wallpaper, the homeowner would have had the option of purchasing only three bolts / rolls.
I will note that it’s unusual to get three strips out of a bolt that is 24″ wide as we have here. Usually you get only two strips. But Milton & King’s rolls are 33′ long instead of the standard 27′. With the way the pattern repeat worked out relative to the exact height of the wall, I was able to squeeze out an additional strip of wallpaper from each roll.
Extra wallpaper isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It should be stored in a climate-controlled environment, in case of the need for repairs down the road.
You won’t fall asleep at your desk with this wild stuff going on!
Due to the pandemic, this homeowner is now working from home. A downstairs bedroom was converted to her home office. She wanted something to cheer up the slightly dark space, as well as bring some nature into the room.
The wallpaper pattern is “Summer Garden,” by Milton & King, a British company. This comes as a 2-roll set, with an “A” roll and a “B” roll, with each roll starting with a different pattern motif at the top. Really, it’s just a standard drop match, but that’s the way M&K packages it.
M&K is nice to work with, and will hold up nicely. It is a non-woven material, which contains polyester rather than tree or cotton fiber. It doesn’t expand when wet with paste, so there is no booking or waiting time. And it can be hung via the paste-the-wall method, which is what I did today – easy-peasy on a single accent wall like this.
The first photo shows the primed wall, ready for paper, with the original tan wall color visible on the walls on either side. In the third photo, I am laying out the bolts, getting a handle on how the pattern match and the “A” and “B” thing work. The layouts with M&K tend to differ, depending on the particular pattern.
The townhome is in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
A guest bathroom with new subway tile gets an even more exciting update with this “Stalactite” wallpaper pattern by Milton & King. I love the way it works with the rug in the adjoining guest bedroom.
This is a non-woven material, and I hung it with the paste-the-wall method.
The home is a contemporary townhouse in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
They tell me the 13-year-old girl who uses this bedroom has a BIG personality. Well, here is a wallpaper pattern bold enough to match that!
The pattern is called “Flower Bomb,” and is by Milton & King, a British company.
It is a non-woven material, so could be hung using the paste-the-wall method, which was nice because I didn’t need to haul in my big pasting table. The material is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, when it’s time to redecorate.
The new home is in the Pomono community south of Pearland / Manvel / Houston.
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