The homeowner wanted a tropical , jungle , palm , sorta wild look for her powder room . She unfortunately had not read my link (to the right) about the perils and misleading claims re peel & stick “wallpaper.” So she bought some and attempted to cover the walls in her powder room. First mistake was purchasing this stuff in the first place. Second was trying to hang over textured walls . Third was not having a properly smoothed , sealed and cured surface. Beyond that, just the concept of peel and stick material is a project doomed to fail. IMO Note wrinkles and warps in the material. Paper not adhering .More wrinkles and warps. Gap at seam over door .Paper looked good when she put it up, but seam split / opened within a short time . This is characteristic of P&S wallpaper , especially if the walls have not been prepped as spec’ed.So now the P&S has been removed , I’ll step in and skim-float the textured wall to smooth it , prime, and then we’ll be ready for wallpaper . REAL wallpaper !Done. No wrinkles , no warps , good adherence . She found a pattern that was very similar to her original choice , but more visually pleasing , I think, because it’s less “spiky.” A good idea of hers was to paint the sink / mirror wall , as this pattern on all four walls could have been overwhelming . This is a traditional wallpaper , install ed by pasting the paper . It’s good quality , seams were flat and invisible , and it was nice to work with. Close up. Closer-up.Just tossing in this photo of how I use a baby’s T-shirt to protect the toilet seat cover . I guess I forgot to take a photo of the label, but this is made by Designer Wallpaper . Pattern number is TA20004 . Oddly, when I Google this, I get pattern names of Jamaica and Tortuga . And also get the brand name Seabrook . Wallquest took over Seabrook, but leaving the old brand name on older patterns . My best suggestion here is, if you want this wallpaper pattern, contact Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams in the Rice Village of Houston (713) 529-6515 . She is the master at tracking down patterns and all things wallpaper. The home is in the Timbergrove / Heights neighborhood of Houston . installer
Before. Primed and ready for wallpaper . Done. This image could be positioned so that the palm leaves push up from the floor , or, as in the photo , they hang down from the ceiling. This is a popular look right now, and very fitting to an accent / headboard wall in a bedroom . Done. The homeowner bought one mural from Russia before she and I consulted , so it would be difficult to get another. In addition, the mural images don’t continue from right to left, so you can’t place two murals next to each other and have palm leaves continue unbroken . The manufacturer’s picture on-line is misleading, too, because it’s been Photoshopped to look like it fills the whole wall with tropical fronds . As you can see, the actual mural is a lot narrower than the wall, plus shorter by about a foot and a half. The mural is placed slightly off-center on the wall , because the homeowner wanted it centered on the bed , which sits a little to the right of center . Plans are still incubating, but she’ll probably have wooden panels or trim placed on the wall flanking the mural as well as beneath it, to give a finished look. All in all, I think the room looks dreamy !Close-up .The material is vinyl and has a woven fabric – like texture . The mural came in four panels, each about 3′ wide by about 8.5′ high . Here I am laying them out so I can get measurements and to be sure they go up in the right sequence. There were a lot of these little black specks of a chalk – like substance on the back , and even some on one area of the front . Did I tell you this came from Russia ?! Sorry, no brand name, but this was thin and very flexible and pretty nice to work with . This is a popular design concept , and many companies are making similar patterns . Try RebelWalls.com , which is super quality and really good customer service, plus tons of designs and images to cover your walls .
Sink wall primed and ready for wallpaper.Sink wall done. (except for a 1″ wide sliver on the left)A larger view of this pattern. Don’t know why it’s showing pink here … it’s not. The craze started years ago with the ” iconic ” Martinique tropical pattern, which has graced the walls of the Beverly Hills Hotel since 1942. The design is fabulously lush, and overscaled. Makes an unmistakable impact when you walk from the pool and into the adjoining bathroom and are met with – WHAM! Deep in the tropics!My client was drawn to Brazilliance by Dorothy Draper. And of course, there’s the original Martinique. Both these versions are screen prints made with bad (IMO) inks on uncooperative substrates, and result in puckering within the wallpaper and curling at the seams. Do a Search here to read my experience hanging the Martinique. In addition, these high-end papers are notoriously expensive. And a very long 41″ pattern repeat means there’s potentially a lot of waste – meaning, a lot of paper that is cut off and thrown away in order to match the pattern. My client was open to suggestions, and happily found a much better option. This Daintree Palm by Graham & Brown is equally huge and stunning, but at a fraction of the price. In addition, it’s printed on a non-woven substrate, which is much easier to work with, the vinyl surface is much more resistant to splashes and dirt, and it will strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate. I want to make the point that while this pool bath is not part of the main house, it does have air conditioning and heat – climate control are imperative to ensuring that wallpaper stays on the walls, and stays free of mildew and other issues. The home is in the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston.
Jungle pattern in dining area.Paisley, green, and purple invoke the Inner Bohemian in this bedroom.Paint-splatter look in kids’ homework station.Subtle palm fronds.You can get away with a lot of drama in a small powder room!Colefax & Fowler historic wallpaper pattern.
Just about every month, this magazine shows at least one home decorated with wallpaper. This month’s selections cover a wide variety of tastes and styles.
Beautiful with the burnished brass faucet and light fixture. If you could run your hand over this, you’d feel the slight “raised ink” texture. Not that you should go around touching your wallpaper! But it does add a very subtle dimension and warmth.Serena & Lily – one of my favorite brands.
The homeowners have done some nice updates to their 20-something suburban Houston home. This palm leaf pattern in their powder room was one of the final touches.
I had a schedule change and was able to get their wallpaper up more than a month ahead of their scheduled date.
Serena & Lily makes really nice paper, so today was a pleasant install.
Sego palm fronds is what this pattern reminds me of. Serena & Lily call it “Fallbrook” or “Cut Leaf,” depending on where you’re looking. No mind – it’s a fresh, crisp look with a lot of movement and fun.
I hung this in the powder room near the rear entrance and breakfast area of the home of a young family in the Energy Corridor area of west Houston.
Usually Serena & Lily prints on paper, and I am a great fan of that product. But this is the first time I’ve encountered a non-woven material from that company. I can’t say that I loved this stuff. It was quite stiff, and very translucent.
Lots of manufacturers are starting to print on non-woven. There are many benefits of that material – but it has to be a good non-woven. If S&L is moving in this direction, I hope they will do some research and networking and come up with a better substrate to print on.
The first picture is the most exciting. Murals have exploded in popularity these days, but they’re not the traditional palm-trees-hanging-over-a-white-sandy-beach photo. The pink floral mural looks like a very traditional hand-painted silk, most of which are very expensive. These days, there are all sorts of digitally-printed knock-offs, which are very reasonably priced. The other three murals are examples of more contemporary designs. Since many companies are printing digitally, their murals can be custom-sized to fit your specific wall. (Remember to have the paperhanger measure before you order – we know how to measure better than homeowners. 🙂 )
The second and third photos accompany an article about decorating with house plants. I am tickled that they chose wallpaper as a backdrop for these rooms.
The last photo shows a bedroom papered with an abstract palm leaf pattern – which just happens to be yellow – the magazine’s feature color of the month.
Just about everything in this house is expansive white – woodwork, walls, cabinets, appliances, even the floors are a whitewashed light grey. The house was just begging for some color and pattern somewhere …
This palm leaf wallpaper adds a lot of personality to the powder room, yet is understated and easy to live with. With only two colors and a fairly homogeneous pattern, it feels more like a texture than a pattern.
This attractive foliage wallpaper pattern is by Serena & Lily, and is called, simply, palm. The paper was nice to work with, and will stay nice and flat to the walls for decades to come. The house is in West University Place (Houston).
A kill point is the last corner in a room, and it almost always results in a mis-matched pattern.
Today, if I had followed tradition and cut my final strip in a straight vertical line at the last corner, it would have resulted in a visible line of cut-off palm fronds.
So what I did instead was to use a scissors and razor blade to cut around the green leaves on both the left-hand (original) strip and the right-hand (last) strip.
Because fronds were not cut off abruptly, they melded into one another, nicely obscuring the junction of old and new.
This wallpaper is by Serena & Lily, and is called “Palm.”
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