I hung this wallpaper a year or two ago and was back to paper the dining room this week, so had a chance to peek into the powder room and get a “finished” photo. Here it is with lights off. With lights on. South wall. I love the window molding and vanity painted to complement the wallpaper . This is in a beautifully remodeled and enlarged bungalow in the Heights neighborhood of Houston . This lively and fun pattern is called Frutto Proibito and is in the adventurous Fornasetti collection by Cole & Son . It’s a popular pattern, and I installed it a number of times, including a few months ago in a Montrose laundry room. https://wallpaperlady.wordpress.com/2023/02/24/cole-son-monkeys-liven-up-laundry-day/ This material is a DIY -friendly non-woven / paste the wall type of wallpaper . It’s strong , durable , stain-resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate .
It’s been a few years since I’ve visited this place, but today I was working right around the corner, and finished early enough to stop in. And I wanted to check up on my friend Ron Dillon , who’s been selling wallpaper for about 30 years – and I’ve known him just about that long, too!Calico (formerly Calico Corners ) sells mostly fabrics , drapes , and upholstery . But they do have wallpaper , too. OK, only a couple of books right now, but all good brands . York and A Street Prints (which is under the Brewster umbrella.) And the corporate office has plans to issue more books. Please note that if you find something you like, even if Calico doesn’t have the selection book in-house, if it’s a brand they sell (like York ), they can most surely order it for you. Calico has many vignettes displaying furniture with their upholstery . And racks and racks of fabrics .There is a current trend toward grey and/or white rooms. So I was thrilled to see that Calico offers plenty of options with color , too.As well as grey , of course. (Decorated up for Valentine’s Day in this photo.)Area where you can sit and work with a designer for your fabric decorating. Oh – and don’t forget about wallpaper!Faux suede fabric samples .Photoboard display.I love this Check List. Especially “Make an Appointment.” This ensures you’ll have the designer’s full attention. And especially “Wallpaper Guest Bedroom.” 🙂 In fact, I think you should paper every room! 🙂Lorena Sosa is the store manager , and a skilled designer. Ron has a degree in Interior Design , as well as decades of experience selling (and installing !) wallpaper. He also has a knack for “seeing” the client’s room in his ” mind’s eye ” and knowing intuitively and immediately what fabrics and papers and paint colors will work to pull everything together. Also a kind and upbeat person. My clients who work with him always rave about their experience.
Shot of the finished breakfast room , for pattern reference.Close-up view. The vertical lines are not wrinkles , but shadows cast by the macrame light fixture in this breakfast room . The problem is, when walls aren’t plumb , and ceiling and floor and chair rail are not level , the pattern motifs won’t march across the wall at the same height on every strip . I’ve learned that, in most cases, it’s more important to match the pattern in the corner , and then allow the pattern to go off-track at ceiling or floor if necessary. In this photo, note that the humming bird is sitting completely above the chair rail. Here he’s dropped down to where his tail is swallowed up by the chair rail . By the time we get to the left corner , half of the bird has dropped down and disappeared .Here’s another bird motif doing the same disappearing act .Feet and belly gone. This house in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston is nearly 85 years, so you can expect some settling and shifting on its foundation . But even brand new homes can have walls that are out of whack . This beautiful pattern is by Cole & Son and is called Hummingbirds – it’s very popular and has been around more than 100 years … that’s older than the house!
Dang … I forgot to take a before pic. This large powder room was originally papered in Serena & Lily ‘s Feather , in green . I stripped it off and applied wallpaper primer , which took a day, and hung the paper the second day. Larger than usual toilet alcove .If you’re from Austin , Texas , you recognize these things. Barton Springs , BBQ trucks , the State Capitol , cowboy boots . Hippy Hollow isn’t on there, and I’m not sure it even still exists, but the nudist colony there was definitely part of Austin’s culture! The pattern is in the City Toile collection by Katie Kime , which is wildly popular . I wasn’t crazy about the quality of the paper , but it install ed OK and will hold up for many years. It sure changes the room! iThe home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks area of Houston
Nicely centered pattern in the potty room of this beautifully renovated 1926 home in the Woodland Heights area of Houston . Toilet alcove before … along with my cute baby T-shirt used to cover and protect the toilet seat. Toilet area finished.Looking from the main room into the commode room / potty . Finished. The colors coordinate beautifully with the tile . Wildwood is yet another of the cheerful and fresh patters by Rifle Paper . I’ve been hanging a lot of their papers lately … the brand is very popular .wallpaper installation houston
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 .
Half bath sink room primed and read for wallpaper . I have plotted where the seams will fall and striped with dark paint , to prevent the light colored primer from showing in case the seams gap a bit. Artemis is available as a floor-to-ceiling pattern. So this partial coverage option is an innovative and fun variation on a theme . This is the same pattern Artemis Climbing Walls as yesterday, but reversed , so the flowers go from bottom upward . The ceilings are pretty high. The empty 5 gallon bucket is there on the counter (with non-slip cushioning beneath it) as an un-OSHA approved footrest , so I can safely reach the top corners . Artemis is a very popular wallpaper pattern , especially in this dark / black colorway . Manufacturer is House of Hackney . This install was on four walls in a powder room , instead of a single accent wall. Since this comes as a 4-panel mural instead of traditional rolled goods, the layout was a little more tricky . I cut out the little mock-ups from the instruction insert, and marked them as to roughly where each panel was separated . This is a non-woven material, and can be hung by the paste the wall method, as I did yesterday in the dining room. But today, in the small and chopped up powder room , I opted to paste the paper instead. You will note that this pattern continues uninterrupted from one mural to the next. If you have a wide space to cover and will need more than one mural , this continuation of the design is imperative. Not all do, so check and be extra sure, before you order. Speaking of ordering material … remember that for murals, you MUST add 2″ to EACH side – in other words, a total of FOUR INCHES to BOTH WIDTH and HEIGHT . This will accommodate trimming at floor and ceiling , and also will allow for wonky or off-plumb / level surfaces . Better yet, have your wallpaper installer calculate for you. Houston
This is a closet tucked under the stairs off the main living area of a nicely renovated and enlarged 1920’s home in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. Nice and bright, but a little claustrophobic. (That brown vertical thing is my yardstick.) This two-toned wallpaper with pencil-like sketches immediately visually opens up the room and creates an inviting work space .
Here’s the wall after I stripped, sealed, skim-floated, sanded, and primed it. Finished. The birds in the pattern balanced nicely with between the ceiling line and the wainscoting. I had more success with this install than the previous guy, due to proper prep, and also the material used this time was the user-friendly non-woven , rather than the old fashioned pulp type wallpaper the other guy had to wrestle with. Strawberry Thief is a very popular pattern right now, and comes in many colorways. Do a Search here to see my other installations of this design.There were some issues at the top of the wainscoting where the painters had used tape to mask off areas, long with caulk, an it left a rather large (1/8″) unpainted area between the wood molding and the wall. I filled this in with joint compound and primed it, and wallpaper would have adhered just fine. But that would have left a white gap between the wallpaper and the green molding. I rummaged in my truck for the best matching paint I could come up with, and painted over the white edge. This would have left a bit of a thin brown line between the wallpaper and the green molding. It would have looked OK, but I had an idea to get rid of the gap altogether.If I had used my regular thin straightedge (the red one), it would have let me trim the bottom edge of the wallpaper nice and close to the wall. But that would have left the aforementioned brown line showing. So I used the metal plate you see at the upper right of the photo as a trim guide. It’s thicker than my red straightedge, and so gives a fat cut that leaves more wallpaper and less of that brown line. In fact, the left edge, as you can see, is rolled, and that creates an even thicker edge to trim against, leaving even more wallpaper at the bottom of the cut. See the photo just above, to see how the wallpaper now completely covers the brown line. These metal plates have a lot of other uses. They are made and sold by a fellow member of the Wallcovering Installers Association . She makes a lot of other cool tools, too. If you are interested, send me an email. wallpaperlady@att.net The wallpaper design is by William Morris , a famed artist of the Arts & Crafts / Art Nouveau periods . The brand is Morris & Co. This label is EXACTLY the same as the pulp material the original installer worked with – save for that one word non-woven . Be sure you get the non-woven version, which is also called paste the wall . The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston .
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