The homeowners of this 1936 bungalow in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston are artists and maximalists , and their home home is filled with lots of funky , colorful , and unexpected items. This poor bedroom needed something to help it fit in with the rest of the house . Solution! This shot pretty much depicts the correct colors in this wallpaper pattern . the colors are actually darker and murkier than this. Mysterious looking flowers and foliage , and deep , rich jewel-tone colors . This wallpaper is called Opia and is by House of Hackney . Hackney makes lovely non-woven / paste-the-wall goods, along with innovative patterns , many of which are sort of murals . I like this brand a lot , for fun patterns and also for excellent quality , durability , ease of installation , ease of removal , and affordable price . Each of their ” rolls ” contains four panels , which are meant to be hung in sequence , left to right . Put together, the four panels measure about 6′ wide by 10.5′ high . If you have 8′ ceilings , yes, you will be throwing away 2.5′ of length for each strip . Likewise, for the space over a door , which is usually about 1′ – 2′ high, you will use a full 10.5′ strip, throwing away up to 9′ of it . It’s important to know this when calculating how much to purchase , because if you figure by square footage, you’re gonna come up way short. You’ve got to count how many panels you will need. Or, better yet – let the installer calculate how much to buy .
Including right here on the cover! And a real coup! … A magazine that’s pretty much dedicated to the all-white or all-grey trend in decorating, as well as minimalism … it’s so exciting to see some pattern and color in the ” farmhouse ” themed homes. Let’s take a look …Textured grasscloth behind bookshelves in a living room .Two-tone classic toile on one wall as a background to a stairwell . It warms up the space, without hitting you in the face. Soft , cloud – like feel behind this credenza . Look carefully right above the baskets , and you’ll see an overlapped seam. Some commercial murals are hung like this, as well as the very popular patterns by Spoonflower , which is a budget-friendly and DIY – able , good quality material and brand . (But ONLY their ” prepasted smooth ” option. Do NOT get the ” traditional pebble ” nor their ” peel and stick . “More of the toile pattern , in the entry , with batten board wainscoting and a chair rail , in a mud room . Also called rear back door entry . : )Floral pattern in the laundry room . I’m getting lots of queries for wallpaper in laundries … must be trending right now!Soft two-tone floral in small bathroom .Textured grasscloth behind desk in home office .Apologies for the sideways image … WordPress used to be easy to use, and I could correct this. But they “upgraded” their program and made many, many features much more difficult to work with. I tried tutorials on how to fix this, but after reading and watching tons of info and videos, I gave up. It used to be just one click ! Anyway, note the cheery breakfast room. Colorful without being overwhelming . Closer picture. Very innovative use of floral pattern with subdued color around the archway / entry to another breakfast nook . Note that the back of the nook also wears a textured wallpaper . Sorry for the out-of-order picture … another frustration from the “upgraded” WordPress Editor . This gives an idea of what the afore-mentioned breakfast area looked like pre-wallpaper. The magazine didn’t mention a brand, but this sure looks like one of Serena & Lily ‘s designs . Of course, when one company makes a popular pattern , many other companies make their own versions . These days, usually you see pattern on the accent wall behind the headboard . So it’s a little unusual to see wallpaper on all four walls of this master bedroom . But it works, because the pattern is simple and the colors are kept to only two , so the overall feel is calming , rather than busy . Fooled me! I thought this headboard accent wall was done in tile – but it’s wallpaper !The same paper on a kitchen cabinet .
Headboard wall skim-floated smooth and primed – ready for wallpaper. Having the foliage hang from the ceiling means you see more of it as the leaves and blossoms fall and fold around the bed. Moody and brooding colors make this perfect for a master bedroom. It looks like it was painted on canvas or burlap, or possibly like you are looking through a window screen out onto a dark forest. There are some very expensive versions of ” upside down over-scaled dark floral ” patterns. rebelwalls.com makes it affordable for any budget, and with a DIY friendly, easy-to-install non-woven paste-the-wall material. Murals are custom-sized to your wall(s), which is more tricky than it sounds, so be sure the paperhanger calculates dimensions before you order. Rebel Walls sells mostly murals, but they also sell traditional rolled goods, too. They can even create custom-made designs. The home is in the Bellaire area of Houston.
You’d think this mural went on the wall of a child’s room. But, no – it’s a focal wall in a home office. All the more fun because, due to COVID, the homeowners are working from home and spending a lot of time in here.
The product is by Murals Wallpaper. In the second photo, you see their instruction sheet. In the third photo, I have cut apart and rolled out all the panels on the floor, to check the pattern match to be sure of their proper placement, and to get accurate measurements.
It’s important that murals are ordered 4″ wider and taller than the wall’s exact dimensions, to accommodate for wonky walls and ceilings, and for trimming at the ceiling and baseboard and at the sides.
The next photo shows I have rolled the strips backwards and lined them up in the order they will be hung. This is a non-woven material, and I am installing via the paste-the-wall method. Rolling the strips backward ensures that the surface of the panel will not hit against the pasted wall.
This went up very nicely, and Murals Wallpaper is a good company to purchase murals. The murals can be custom-sized to your wall. (Remember to add those 4″!)
The other three walls are painted a complimentary medium-hued blue. This wall lightens the room – and adds some whimsey, too!
The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.
Better Homes & Gardens magazine has frequently included wallpaper as a backdrop in its decorating stories. The January 2017 issue has a story with wallpaper in just about every photo. 🙂 Makes me happy that wallpaper is getting such great exposure.
Featured are a variety of patterns, from bold to subdued, from focal point to background pattern, plus grasscloth and murals, too. (I am doing a lot of murals lately – must be a trend.)
Check with a professional before you buy – Some of the brands are higher-end, some are average price, some are custom made to fit your wall, some are of, uh … curious quality, and the peel-and-stick stuff I wish they would take off the market.
Most murals come in strips or panels, which can be either vertical (as shown here) or horizontal. Before hitting the back with paste and attempting to put the paper on the wall, it’s a really good idea to unroll all the panels an spread the mural out on the floor.
This will allow you to organize the panels into the sequence in which you want them to be hung. You will also need to check the dimensions of the mural as compared to those of the wall, and decide which, if any, of the design will have to be cut off and discarded. You’ll also be checking to see how (well) the pattern matches across the seams.
I don’t have info on this paper, but it looks like one of the very expensive hand-painted murals on silk that cost several thousand dollars per panel. Just beautiful! (Although I might choose a more tone-down color!)
Note the zig-zag wallpaper in the entry and under the fer down.
This mural was little tricky to hang, for several reasons. First of all, the homeowner wanted it to “float” in the middle of the wall, not abut any wall or ceiling. Second, while most murals come in panels or strips of standard size, this one came in one huge piece.
The wall was textured, so what you see in the 2nd photo is where I have carefully measured the size of the mural (not the paper it’s printed on, as the white border had to be trimmed off), plotted where it would hang in the center of the wall, and then skim floated just that area, to smooth the wall. Most wallpapers stretch when they get wet with paste, so I allowed for that, and left about a half inch around the outer edges unsmoothed, to ensure there would be no white showing beyond the mural’s edges.
I’m not very tall, so I was a little worried about managing the 7′ wide piece, but it ended up being fairly easy. There was some twisting and stretching, which would have been less if the mural had been in traditional sized strips or panels.
The homeowner is toying with the idea of having an artist paint a frame around the mural. This is the bedroom of a teen aged girl – who loves Paris! Besides the tufted headboard, there is a pair of mirrored bedside chests that will flank the bed. Pretty classy for a high school kid!
Most classic photo wall murals come in eight panels, rather than rolls or strips. They go on the wall four across the top, with another row of four below them.
Although they are numbered on the back, I like to lay them out on the floor, to be sure I have the right sequence.
Here you can see the first three panels in place on the wall. I started with Panel 3, at the top center of the wall, butted against a plumb line. Panel 4 went directly below it, also butted against the plumb line. These murals are meant to be overlapped a little at the seams, rather than butted, as most wallpapers are. And don’t worry about the blotchy background – it will disappear as the mural dries.
Panels 5 and 6 were hung next, to the right of the first two panels. Then Panels 7 and 8 were hung next to them, and finally I moved to the left and installed Panels 1 and 2. See why it’s a good idea to lay them out on the floor first?!
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