The home is in the Energy Corridor area of west Houston.
installer
This is one of those houses that has a lot of crystal and glitter. The little girl’s bedroom has a LOT of crystal, glitter – and PINK.
So this hallway, which leads to both the girl’s room and to a glitzy guest bedroom, is fittingly outfitted with a navy-floral-on-pink wallpaper pattern. The colors show up much better in real life than on my phone camera shots.
The wallpaper is by designer Caitlin Wilson, made by York, in their Sure Strip line, and is one of my favorite wallpapers. It is a pre-pasted material. It is designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
The top photo shows the classic savoy pattern by Waverly that I have hung so many times – in the early ’90’s. Time for an update!
The new wallpaper maintains the same navy and white colorway, but in a stronger presence and with more upward movement. I mean, what lifts your spirits better than soaring shorebirds?!
I really like the way the navy background stands out against the white woodwork. Much of this kitchen is the area above the cabinets, and the color and pattern play out very well in that short area.
This wallpaper is by Anderson Prints. It is a traditional paper, and was fairly thick, compared to most of their papers. I think the extra heft was due to the manufacturer printing on a dark substrate. This helps keep white from showing at the seams as the paper dries and shrinks a tad.
Speaking of which, I was pleased that the paper did not shrink much at all. With a dark paper, even the smallest shrinkage will allow the wall surface to peek through.
The job is an older townhome in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. The wallpaper was bought through Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet.
The furnishings in this home are traditional, so I was surprised when the homeowners chose this ombre (shaded, graduated, faded) pattern for their powder room. I have to say, it turned out fantastic!
This innovative look is a mural, packed as two 36″ wide panels per “roll.” It took seven panels (four rolls) to do this very small powder room.
Each panel is 8′ high. Like most newer homes, this townhouse has 9′ high ceilings. So, to shorten the wall height, the homeowners decided to add a very short wainscoting at the bottom of the wall, topping it off with a strip of decorative chair rail molding. The deep navy color works perfectly with the tones in the mural, as well as the graduated saturation effect. I like it better than having the design come all the way to the floor.
The homeowners said it was near Divorce Court, with both of them squeezing into this 3′ x 6′ space (and toss in a toilet), trying to measure and hammer and paint and agree on install steps.
They were wise enough to not tackle hanging the wallpaper themselves. 🙂
Back to the wallpaper. This is by Brewster, in their A Street Prints line. It is a non-woven material, and can be hung via the paste-the-wall method …. but I chose to paste the material, for more flexibility and for getting around obstacles like the vanity and toilet.
This wallpaper should strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate. The mural was purchased from Southwestern Paint / Benjamin Moore near the Rice Village, but can also be bought on-line from various vendors, including Brewster’s own website.
Originally, the homeowner wasn’t “really” thinking about adding wallpaper to her master bedroom. But, in the back of her mind, she must have been “kinda” thinking about it, because, after I finished measuring several bathrooms in the home and was poised to leave, she hauled me into the bedroom and asked what could be done to create more of a haven.
I pulled out some samples of patterns I have hung in other homes, and she immediately zeroed in on this one. My sample was the navy blue colorway, but she grasped that wallpaper comes in different color options, and was able to envision this in a softer color to coordinate with the rest of the walls. (Note that that hot pink is a protective plastic sheet – not the color of the headboard!)
To me, the pattern looks like architectural details from old Roman ruins. The distant photos distort the design a bit, so please look at the close up to get a better idea.
Usually I will place a design like this in the middle of the wall. But in the case of this 18′ wide wall, the bed was not centered on the wall, nor was the chandelier. In addition, there curtains on either side of the wall that obscured the corners.
So I opted to center the circular design motif on the chandelier. This meant the bed had to be moved to the right … a whole 3″. This way, as you walk out of the master bathroom, you see the chandelier, the headboard, and the wallpaper design all synced up vertically.
The pattern doesn’t hit the wall uniformly on the right and left sides of the wall, but the drapes cover that. And, on a wall this wide with lots of furniture in front of it, who cares, anyway?!
The wallpaper is by Designer Wallpapers, one of my favorite companies, and was bought at Southwestern Paint. See link on the right for where to purchase wallpaper in Houston. This home is in Katy.
The little boy who uses this room is 2 1/2, but you’d think he was 5. He’s energetic, articulate, inquisitive, polite, outgoing – and ready to move from the nursery into his “big boy’s room.”
The room was originally all white, but the parents knew an accent wall in this “Pick Up Sticks” pattern in white on navy would add warmth and character. In addition, this is a pattern that will grow with the boy, from his tot years to his teens.
When you look at the close-up, I like the way the white lines look like they were drawn by hand, instead of being perfectly straight and regimented.
The wallpaper is by Magnolia Home (Joanna Gaines, of HGTV fame), which is made by York. It is in their SureStrip line, which is one of my favorite brands. It’s a thin, flexible non-woven material, designed to strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate.
SureStrip comes pre-pasted, so all you need to do to activate the paste is to add water. I do brush and roll a little augmentive paste onto the wall before hanging the paper.
Since papers like this are known to shrink as they dry, and because the factory often fails to trim the edges absolutely straight, I striped some dark paint on the wall where the seams would fall, so in case of gapping, you wouldn’t see jarring white lines.
The material does bubble a bit as it dries (releases moisture). You have to be patient, because bubbles will eventually disappear, and waiting is better than overworking the paper. But in this case, I got some rather large bubbles, so I did spend some time after the install going over the walls and chasing out the largest of them. By the next day, everything was nice and flat.
This wallpaper 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.
What a lively change this airy pattern brings to the front entry in the home of this busy young family. I suggested they paint the wall space below the chair rail a navy blue – that contrast will really make both the moldings and the wallpaper stand out.
I hope they send me a photo when it’s done!
The wallpaper pattern is called “Luna Stripe” and is by Serena & Lily, one of my favorite brands. The home is on the west side of Houston.
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