Whale of a Good Time in Little Boy’s Bedroom

Before shot of accent wall in little boy’s room in a nicely renovated 1920’s home in the Houston Heights .

Done. This is a good background wallpaper pattern , because the colors are muted and the design is overall and relatively calm.
Bunk beds will be coming soon.

The little tyke is in to all things nautical , so whales and a little whimsey are just the ticket.

Waves , whales , turtles , fish , turbulent seas … this looks like an artist’s ink or pencil drawing .

The design is ” Melville ” and it’s by Cole & Son , a British manufacturer known for good quality and affordable non-woven paste-the-wall wallpapers . Their designs run the gamut from traditional to fun to even a bit kooky .

Clipper Ships / Battle Ships Mural

Nursery wall smoothed, primed, and ready for wallpaper

Battling ships fill the wall space with dramatic action

The action continues to the left of the door

More battle action on the opposite wall

Close up

Detail

Manufacturer is Rebel Walls, from Sweden. I like their products.

A baby boy is due in a few months. For his nursery, Mom wanted an action-packed, historic nautical look. She found this mural on RebelWalls.com

Usually you see a mural on one accent wall. But here we have two companion murals on opposing walls in this nursery. I think it works swimmingly! 🙂

The mural was custom-sized to fit each wall. The website also allows the option to choose which portions of the design you want. So Mom chose to put the largest battleship on the main wall that you see when you walk into the room. A smaller ship and quieter scene was plotted to go on the opposite wall.

I will note that, on both murals, the company did include some motifs that were not on the customer’s order sheet. That changed the dimensions and placement of the ships on the wall. It all worked out O.K., though, with the stormy vessels positioned perfectly on each wall.

Custom-sized to fit each wall, the murals came in 8 panels, plus one panel that was just 4″ wide. It was a non-woven material, which is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate. It can be hung via the paste-the-wall method, which is what I did today. It can also be hung the traditional way, which is to paste the paper. The seams are virtually invisible.

This home is in the Garden Oaks / Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston.

Ahoy Matey! Fun Mural in Home Office

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.

nautical, ship, ocean, sea, monster, pirate, serpent,

Update for a Teen Aged Boy’s Bedroom

Stripes are safe, but they’re not very interesting. And the original border showed little children at play. Now that this young man is old enough to choose his own décor, he wants something that reflected his interests – boating and the ocean.

You don’t see many borders these days, but the family liked the look. Also, because the installer who hung the original border used a rubbery paste that would not come off the wall, sealing it and hanging the new border over it is much easier than retexturing the walls. The new border is wider than the original, which works nicely to cover the old residue.

This nautical look wallpaper and border are by York, in their Sure Strip line. The job site is in Baytown, a suburb of Houston.

Subtle Stripe Wallpaper Coordinates With Main Room

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This dusty yellow striped wallpaper pattern went in the potty room / water closet of a master bathroom. In the larger room, the homeowner wanted a brightly colored, nautical-themed wallpaper. She chose this more muted color and subdued pattern for the smaller commode room.

I really like the idea of companion / coordinating wallpaper patterns in adjoining rooms. All it takes are colors from the same family, and design themes that are in the same league. This is a perfect example.

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, 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.

Brightly Nautical Wallpaper in a Master Bathroom

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I didn’t get pictures of the original wallpaper, but it was a pre-pasted, paper-backed solid vinyl (my least favorite kind) and had been poorly installed on un-primed bare drywall. Over the 12 years it was up, humidity from the bathroom had penetrated the seams and caused the paper to curl.

This paper (not vinyl) wallpaper, hung over properly primed walls, will cling tightly to the wall and perform well for many years to come. Plus, it’s bright and pretty and adds a lot of life to the room.

One shot shows the oceanic paper in the main room, looking into the potty / water closet, which has been papered in a coordinating yellow striped pattern. I really like using two papers this way. See tomorrow’s post for pics of the potty room.

This home is in West University Place (Houston). The wallpaper pattern is #839-T-6701 by Thibaut Designs, 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.

From Dark and Traditional to Bright and Contemporary

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Here is a dramatic change! This master bathroom in a River Oaks (Houston) home was originally papered with the classic Empire Star (I’m betting the manufacturer was Osborn & Little, a higher-end British company). It was beautiful.

But it didn’t suit the new homeowners’ taste.

At first, I thought their new selection was too “mod” for the traditional bones of their home. But once it started going up, boy, was it clear that this was a wonderful choice!

The paper has just a bit of sparkle and shimmer, but is understated and serves well as a backdrop for the couple’s nautical-themed artwork. More important, it is light in color, and it reflects light, so it really brightens up the whole room. The pictures include shots of the outer sink room, and the toilet cubbyhole room.

The wallpaper is by DecorLine, and is a paste-the-wall non-woven product, and was purchased from Sherwin-Williams.

Oval Geometric Stripe in a Powder Room

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This oval and knotted geometric design in indigo on white is clean and crisp, and it has both a modern and a nautical feel.

I hung this in a large powder room with 12′ high ceilings in a new home in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston. Those 12′ high walls tended to get off-plumb / bowed in the center (where the sheets of drywall were joined), and, with a rigid, specific design like this, there were some real challenges in getting the pattern to match in the corners. Two of those corners took me a half an hour each – but I got ‘er done, and you can’t detect any pattern mis-match.

The wallpaper is printed on a non-woven substrate, and is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, when it’s time to redecorate.

This geometric stripe is by A Street Prints, by Brewster (the manufacturer), and was bought from Wallpapers to Go, which is now named Luxury Wall Décor, and is in Stafford, a southwestern suburb of Houston. http://www.brewsterwallcovering.com/2625-21835-indigo-geometric-stripe.aspx.

Tailored Men’s Shirt Stripes in a Powder Room

Here is a very tailored and serene look with just a touch of a nautical feel, that I hung in a large powder room in a 1960’s era home in Highland Village. The wallpaper sales gal (read below) helped the homeowner find a pattern that pulled in the colors of the black granite countertop, as well as the cool stone wall with sea shell fossils in it. The homeowners spend a lot of time off-shore, so they love the slight seaside feel.

I centered the pattern (we call that “balancing”), so when they hang their mirror, the stripes will fall evenly on either side. (The toilet wall is also balanced, but you can’t tell, because the toilet is a tad off-center.)

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.