Open the Pool Bath Door and – SURPRISE!

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.

Making the Best of a Bad Day

When things go wrong at work and I’m not able even get started, and I end up with a free afternoon … it’s a great opportunity to get in a mile in the pool!
LA Fitness

Fun Neutral-Toned Broken Lines Pattern in Pool Bathroom

Pool bathroom before.

Done!

Close-up. The paper has a light texture, which emphasizes the scratchy print of the design. It almost looks like someone dyed strips of tissue paper and laid them abstractly on canvas.

A Street Prints makes nice wallpaper, and this one was a joy to work with. It is a non-woven material. It can be hung via the paste-the-wall method, but I prefer to paste the paper.

This very contemporary new home is in the Hilshire Village neighborhood of the Spring Branch area of Houston.

Fun, Adventurous, Wild Color in a Rear Bathroom

Here is a larger-than-usual rear / pool bathroom that went from typical suburban hum-drum to wildly fun and colorful, all due to the addition of a little wallpaper.

Located in the Humble / northeast area of Houston, this house is home to a family with young children. The homeowner’s taste in the formal “public” areas of the home leans toward the classic, rather than trendy. Click here to see a room I did a year ago. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2018/09/08/brunschwig-fils-bird-and-thistle-in-a-north-east-houston-powder-room/

But for this bathroom, which is located off the family’s greatroom, and is adjacent to both the swimming pool and the wife’s work-out room, the homeowner wanted something fun and bright and spirited.

This wallpaper pattern is called Janta Bazaar, by Thibaut Designs. The inks on this paper are delicate, and can be stained easily. So it’s fortuitous that the homeowner had beaded board paneling installed, that reaches up to nearly 6′ – way past any splashes from the sink or toilet.

It 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.

Similar Color, But More Uplifting Pattern

The original wallpaper in this rear powder room / pool bathroom of a home in the Memorial Villages neighborhood of Houston was very dark blue with tiny black dots on it – from a distance, it looked like a solid color. It was an interesting pattern, but didn’t have personality of its own, so needed artwork to set it off.

This new pattern is very similar in background color, but the upward-moving foliage, accented by the beautifully painted hummingbirds, add a whole lot of movement and character to the room.

The leaves are a shimmery metallic champagne sort of color, and the hummingbirds have a mesmerizing iridescence; they almost look like photographs.

The stained glass window, which had been a bit of an odd duck – mostly because of the baseball in the center – became an asset when the wallpaper went up, because the colors of the birds miraculously matched the colors in the window.

Because the dark paper was printed on a white substrate, I used chalk to color the edges, so that white would not peek out at the seams.

This paper is by Harlequin, a British company. It is on a non-woven backing, and could be hung by the paste-the-wall method, or, as I did, by pasting the paper. It was nice to work with, but it could be creased easily, which would have made it difficult in a room that required more turns and intricate cuts and objects to trim around.

The 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.