Shiny Geometric Wallpaper Pattern Brings Life to a Dark, Dull Powder Room

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This retired couple near the Montrose neighborhood of Houston has a 15-year-old home that is, along with their furnishings, pretty traditional. They wanted to update with wallpaper, but didn’t want the new look to clash with the rest of their house. Going a little wild in the powder room is a great way to do this, because you only see the contemporary look when you are in the powder room – the rest of the time, the door is closed.

But now that the new paper is up, they will surely want to keep the door open!

This powder room was originally painted a deep, murky aqua/teal. Despite the high ceilings and large footprint, the matt finish and dark color made the room look small, and it definitely was lacking in personality.

The first day, I skim-floated the textured walls to smooth them (see first photo). The second day, the paper went up. The new wallpaper sports a fluid, interlocking geometric pattern that is in the same color family as the original paint, but much lighter, and the shiny surface adds a lot of light and dazzle.

Interestingly, I hung this same pattern, but in a darker color, just last week. It is lovely to work with. The walls in this room were pretty off-plumb, and also bowed, which can be Hell with a rigid geometric design. But I used some tricks to make the pattern look like it’s hanging straight and plumb. The homeowners were very happy with the finished room.

This wallpaper pattern is by York, in their Designer Series, and 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.

Faux Grasscloth on an Accent Wall in a Dining Room

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This retired couple near the Montrose neighborhood of Houston wanted to update their 15-year old house by adding a textured wallpaper to one wall in their dining room. Originally, they were considering grasscloth.

Luckily, they listened to my “lecture” about grasscloth – the disappointing visible seams, color variations, shading, paneling – and attractiveness to cats who like to scratch. Instead of grasscloth, they chose this alternative.

This product is surfaced with stringcloth (real vertical string fibers), so it has a tangible texture. But because it has a printed grass-like design, the pattern can be matched from strip to strip, so you never see the seams. In addition, the color is uniform so you don’t have the shading and paneling problems so prevalent with real grasscloth.

And, to top it off, the paper is lovely to work with, and will hold up for many years to come.

This wallpaper pattern is by Wallquest, in their “Grass Effects” book, and 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.

Anaglypta Textured Wallpaper – Tough Day at Work Today

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This homeowner wanted to brighten up a drab bathroom (previous paper was a dark tan, with no pattern). She loves texture, and was thrilled to find this herringbone “man’s suit” pattern by Anaglypta.

This is an embossed paper, and the herringbone pattern is quite deep and tactile.

So all that was quite nice for the homeowner. What was not so nice for me was that the material was positively horrible to work with.

It was so thick and stiff that it was honestly impossible to unroll it, let alone lay it out flat so it could be pasted.

Even gentle handling could cause it to crease. Laying my straight edge against it could cause it to crease.

It was impossible to paste, book, and then table-trim, as one would do with a “normal” wallpaper.

I finally started sponging the back with clean water, which relaxed it enough to open it up, so I could paste it.

Once I got a pasted strip to the wall, it was not easy to press the hard stuff against moldings or ceiling, so it was difficult to get tight cuts in those areas.

Cutting around curved crown molding was a challenge – I couldn’t see around it or feel through it, so it was tedious going.

The seams showed a little, depending on what angle you are looking from, because the puffy texture of the herringbone on one strip didn’t necessarily line up with the puffy texture on the next strip.

The last pic is a shot of just this. The photo doesn’t look all that bad . … It looks worse in real life.

It took me probably twice the originally planned time to hang this bathroom. Let’s just say that I was there ’til way after dark.

The end result, though, is that it looks great. The homeowner loves it, and said that she is “beyond pleased.”

Still, I’d like to point out that there are companies that make textured, embossed, paintable wallpapers that are not such bugger-bears to work with. Most of these other brands are softer and more pliable, and will allow themselves to be worked around turns and moldings and etc. My wallpaper source (below) can help you find one.

I hung this in a guest bathroom in a newish home in Montrose (Houston). The wallpaper is by Anaglypta, a company that dates back to the 1800’s. The paper can be left as-is, or it can be painted.

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.

Fun Wallpaper Pattern for a Not-Too-Serious Master Bath

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This fun and somewhat ethnic looking wallpaper pattern went into the master bathroom of a newly remodeled 1939 brick bungalow in Montrose (Houston).

The homeowner kept saying, “It changes it SO MUCH! Before, it was just all white. Boring white. This has personality, and the room feels larger, too.”

The wallpaper is by Hygge & West, an on-line company, and is called “Diamante.”  Unlike most of their papers, which waffle, and curl at the seams (see yesterday’s post), this one was a positive delight to work with. I am guessing that that’s because there is not as much ink on this pattern.

“Otomi” Forest Frollic Wallpaper Pattern by Hygge & West

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Like animals? Like the forest? Like a little whimsy? Then this wallpaper pattern is for you!

I hung this in a children’s bathroom in a very nicely remodeled 1939 brick cottage in Montrose (inner Houston). The bottom 1/3 of the walls was shiny white subway tile, and the straight-lined vanity cabinets below were painted a strong, glossy yellow. The navy blue wallpaper pattern looked smart against the white tile, and the color perfectly complimented the yellow cabinetry.

This wallpaper pattern is called “Otomi,” and is in the Emily Isabella line by Hygge & West. This wallpaper can be bought on-line.

Camouflaging a Young Boy’s Room

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This 9 year old boy is all into camouflage. He has camouflage-colored tile in his bathroom, and just had to have this fun and quirky camouflage tree wallpaper for an accent wall in his bedroom.

That’s fine for him, but I had my work cut out for me … Turns out this paper has a multiple drop pattern match. Hard to explain, but it relates to how the design motifs repeat themselves across the wall overall. And it is a h3ll of a bugger to figure out how to cut the strips and place them on the wall. Matching the pattern can eat up a lot of paper, too.

Nevertheless, I got ‘er done, and the homeowner’s son loves it.

The paper is by Marimekko, and is a non-woven material and was installed by the paste-the-wall method. It is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.

I hung it in a newly built, contemporary style home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.

Wild & Crazy Mod Wallpaper in Green

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The homeowner loved this paper in the powder room of her previous home. They didn’t have enough to do an entire room in the new house, so they had me put it on just one wall in their master bedroom closet. I hate this overused expression, but it sure “makes it pop!”

This wallpaper is by Graham & Brown, who makes a wide variety of nice papers. This one is on a pulp substrate and is called “Boheme.” I hung it in a brand new, very contemporary home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.

Butterflies & Lavender for a Little Girl’s Room

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Looking almost like a quilt from a distance, these pretty butterflies swarm together to create a geometric pattern on the wall, while remaining natural and fluid at the same time. Best of all, they are sprinkled with little bits of glitter.

I hung this on a 12′ high accent wall in a 7 year old girl’s room, in a contemporary new home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. The other walls are painted a complimentary lavender. The chandelier is the crowning touch!

This wallpaper is by York, in the revived Waverly collection, in the SureStrip line, one of my favorite papers. It is a thin paper that hugs the wall nicely, and the seams are nearly invisible. It is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.

All Lined Up

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This fun paper went in the powder room of a newly-built, very contemporary style home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. Originally, the walls were white. Wow – what a change! The homeowners and all the workers on the job site kept walking in to see the transformation.

People mistakenly think that a wallpaper pattern, or dark colors, will make a room look smaller. But the opposite is true … A little pattern and movement will actually push the walls away visually, and a design of some sort will add personality and keep the room from feeling claustrophobic.

This wallpaper is called “Lines,” and is by Ferm, and is a non-woven material and was installed by the paste-the-wall method.

Trellis Pattern on Grasscloth

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This homeowner loves the texture of grasscloth, and I have already done several rooms for her in their 1930 home in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. For this downstairs entry and upstairs hallway, she was originally looking at grasscloth by Phillip Jeffries. But that toney designer’s paper got mighty pricey mighty quickly. She visited my recommended source for wallpaper (read below) and found this very similar pattern by Wallquest at a much more reasonable price.

The pattern was made to be identical right side up or upside down. This was great, because with grasscloth, it’s good to reverse every other strip, so you are hanging one edge of each strip against itself, which minimizes color differences between strips, which are inherent to grasscloth. All of the full-height seams looked very nice.

Still, there were some unavoidable color differences (paneling) on some short pieces over the doors. I was able to lessen this by using a pencil to add some very light color to the halves of the lanterns that were at the seam. You can get an idea of what I’m talking about in the photo of the left edge of a door frame.

Another photo shows me using the laser level to get a perfect placement of a strip in a narrow area.

Oh, and it’s hard to explain why, but that tallest strip along the stairway’s curved wall took me over an hour, just to position and trim. It turned out great, and I was pleased that the grasscloth conformed and stuck to the curved wall very nicely.

This wallpaper is by Wallquest and was bought at a 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.