More Pics of Yesterday’s Bathroom

Looking through the sink room into the wet room. What a serene look. The bold, monochromatic, shower curtain is a nice foil to the soft wallpaper.

This wallpaper pattern is called Woodland and is by Crown Wallcoverings.

Bringing Color and Life to a Garden Oaks Dining Room

This family bought a new home in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston, and then lived for a year with dull, lifeless walls in the dining room – all the while craving color and personality. Finally, the husband had a chance to tackle the textured walls (see previous post), and shortly thereafter, I came along.

This print is fun but not cutesy or trendy. And – while monochromatic, it adds a whole lot of color to the once-bland room.

Printed on a non-woven substrate, this product could be hung using the paste-the-wall method, or the paste-the-material method, which is what I did, for many reasons. It went up very nicely.

This wallpaper pattern is by A-Street Prints, 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.

Phillip Jeffries “Wish” Silk Adds Quiet Drama to a Dining Room Wall

The homeowners of this newish home in the Bellaire / Braes Heights / Willow Meadows area of Houston like it’s serene, monochromatic look. But they wanted something with more color and eye appeal on this focal wall in the dining room.

They chose this tone-on-tone 4-panel mural by Phillip Jeffries, screened on silk on a paper backing. The soft and whimsical design is called “Wish” – remember when you were a kid and blew the fluffy seed pods off of dandelion stems?!

A mural is pleasing to the eye, in part because it is one scene, and doesn’t have the repeating design motifs that a typical wallpaper pattern has.

I particularly like the way the design mimics the look of the chandelier. These are little things that visually pull the room together. And the homeowner did it without hiring a decorator!

The silk material was bonded to a thin paper backing. The first day, I primed the wall and then hung a liner , a special paper that will cushion the silk wallpaper and provide extra “grab” to hold the seams in place. I let that dry overnight, and hung the mural the second day.

The mural comes in a set of four panels. Each panel came 36″ wide, but there was a selvedge edge that had to be trimmed off by hand with a straightedge and razor blade, reducing the width of each to 33″.

This wall’s width required 21″ of a fifth panel. The mural is printed so that the left side of Panel 1 matches up with the right side of Panel 4. So the homeowners simply needed an additional Panel 1 (which became the fifth panel, last on the right), to cover their wall.

The mural was 11′ high, but this home’s wall was only 9′. So I rolled all the strips out on the floor and plotted out which were the most important design elements to keep, and which we could afford to lose. I cut off about 16″ from the top, and another 8″ or so from the bottom.

Silk is a natural material, and so there are color variations between panels, and even within the same panel. I hate these color variations in grasscloth, but in this silk material, I think they enhance the look. It looks like there are real strips of silk fabric laid on the wall – and that’s exactly what there is! In the close-up shot, you can even see nubs of the silk fibers here and there.

This wallpaper pattern is by Phillip Jeffries, 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.

Foresty Flair for a Bare Powder Room

Covered with beige paint, this powder room in a new home in the Rice Village / Medical Center area of Houston didn’t have much going for it. And despite it’s large foot print and 12′ high ceilings, it felt close and claustrophobic.

This lively pattern helped a lot, by visually opening the space. All those swirling tree branches add a lot of movement. Yet the paper does not feel busy, because of the monochromatic color scheme.

To reach the high ceiling, I had to bring in my 8′ stepladder. Working with it is always a challenge, especially in tight quarters like a powder room.

This wallpaper pattern is by York, in their Dwell Studios line, and reminds me a lot of “Daintree,” by Thibaut. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2017/03/19/wild-whimsical-wallpaper/

This paper is on a non-woven substrate, and could be hung using the paste-the-wall method, or the paste-the-paper method; I chose to paste the paper.

This 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.

From Dark and Dated to Soft and Welcoming

This powder room in the West U neighborhood of Houston was decorated around the unique dark green pedestal sink and toilet. Back when the house was built, in 1992, the black floral wallpaper was a fun and in-vogue choice for this room. But by 2018, the look was dated, and some of the seams were succumbing to humidity and splashed water, which were causing curling. (2nd photo)

So the old black vinyl paper was stripped off. (3rd photo) The new paper still looks good with the plumbing fixtures, but it is bright and airy, and has a softness to it. But it’s not a sleeper – look closely and you’ll see a wonderland of fun characters playing and gallivanting through the forest. (4th photo)

This wallpaper pattern is by the Swedish company Boras Tapeter. While this particular choice is monochromatic and muted, the company has a wide variety of very playful designs with a whole lot of color – all the while reflecting the simple, clean-lined Scandinavian look. Interestingly enough, I have another client family looking at patterns from this same brand.

Additionally, the quality is great, and it was very nice to work with. It’s a non-woven material, and is designed to be a paste-the-wall install process – but I pasted the paper instead, which makes it more pliable and cooperative, especially around complicated areas like the fluted pedestal sink. Another advantage if the non-woven products is that they are engineered to strip off the wall easily and with minimal damage to the walls, when it’s time to redecorate.

The paper 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.

Subtle Wallpaper Pattern in a Magazine Spread

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The May 2017 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine has a feature on the color pink. Along with paint samples, bedding, and accessories, this wallpaper was shown, as a backdrop in a living room.

Pink is a pretty bold color for what’s considered a public room. But this particular treatment is not overwhelming at all. The pattern is light and airy, and the monochromatic color scheme keeps it from looking busy.

You could easily live with this wallpaper on all four walls.

Tone-On-Tone and Movement Open Up A Guest Bathroom

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This guest bathroom is large, but with nothing but grey paint on the walls, it felt claustrophobic and bland. This pen-and-ink look foliage pattern with watercolor birds has just enough movement to bring life to the room, but the scale and the monochromatic color scheme keep it from overpowering.

This wallpaper is by Prestigious Textiles, a British company, and is a non-woven material and is meant to be hung by pasting the wall (not the paper). It is amazingly similar to another paper I hung a few months ago. (last photo) https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/birds-pen-and-ink-and-watercolor/ I guess when someone has a good concept, there is always someone quick to knock it off.

The interior designer for this room is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope Designs. http://www.pamelahopedesigns.com/ PHD does a lot of work on new builds, helping to get everything organized and coordinated from the ground up. This home is brand new, and is in the Crestwood neighborhood, across from Memorial Park in Houston.