A Note Makes It Nicer

It’s always nice to get a check in the mail. But it’s even nicer when they take the time to include a note.

This is a job that went haywire, with a LOT more prep and time being needed than originally expected. Which is a nice way of saying that I lost money on this one.

The interior designer was kind enough to include a little extra when she wrote the check. I don’t know if she charged the client, or if she took it out of her own revenue, but it was really sweet and muchly appreciated.

The interior designer is Rachel Goetz Interiors. Do a Search here and see this and other projects I have done for her.

Faux Stone Pattern in Galleria Area Powder Room

Here’s an eye-catching design reminiscent of agate stone. I have hung similar patterns, but this is the first that has a continuous horizontal striped effect.

It really expands the feel of this small powder room, by visually pushing the walls away.

The wallpaper is by Thibaut. The interior designer is Rachel Goetz, of Rachel Goetz Interiors. This home is in the Galleria neighborhood of Houston.

Farrow & Ball “Lotus” in a Woodland Heights Dining Room

Look at the transformation of this bland dining room!

The pattern could be overwhelming if it were to go from floor-to-ceiling. But here, on just the 4′ above the wainscoting, it’s fun and cozy at the same time. This is a popular pattern, and it can be hung right-side-up or upside-down, depending on your preference.

This home is in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston. The interior designer is Rachel Goetz. I love her look, which is sophisticated, yet open and airy, but tweaked to be very livable for families with kids. The wallpaper is called “Lotus,” and is by Farrow & Ball, and was bought from Dorota at Southwestern Paint near the Rice Village. Call before heading over. (713) 520-6262.

Little Girl’s Room is Full of Ants!

The bottom of these walls are covered in beautiful block paneling. Originally, the top of this bedroom belonging to a little girl in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston was painted tan. Tan’s a nice, safe color – but it’s bland and boring and is totally not up to the energy and zeal for life of a toddler.

Interior designer Rachel Goetz found this cool watercolor-like design from Anthropologie. It’s colorful and fun, and, if you look closely, there are hidden grasshoppers, butterflies, and ants!

The wallpaper is in the Sure Strip line made by York, one of my favorite papers – but this Ant pattern (also called “Watercolor Peony”) is only available through Anthropologie. It’s pre-pasted, and very thin, and no worries about curling seams. Sure Strip is designed to come off the wall easily later, when you’re ready to redecorate.

My Wallpaper on Upcoming Local Home Tours

Are you a Home Tour Junkie? I am! I attend all the home tours I can in the Houston area. This year I am thrilled to say that two of the homes where I hung wallpaper will be on the Heights Home Tour in April. And another home I worked in will be on the Woodland Heights Home Tour in March. Two homes were pulled together by interior designers – Stacie Cokinos in the Woodland Heights and Rachel Goetz in the Heights.

As a side note, a home on the Good Brick tour last year featured a room I hung wallpaper in, and a few years back some of my work was shown on the Garden Oaks Home Tour.

Forget the past stuff – come on out to the Heights and the Woodland Height Home Tours and see some lovely homes, some cutting edge decorating, and some really craftsmanly-hung wallpaper!

Silvery Trees in a Powder Room

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This soft and silvery paper coordinates beautifully with the Carrera marble counter top and the tile floor in this guest bathroom in a nicely remodeled older home in the Houston Heights. (The builder is Ridgewater Homes, and I was very impressed with the quality of their work.)

As usual with the brand Schumacher, I had some printing defects, and also some smudging on the back of one roll (4th & 5th photos). Also, with their moth bally-smelling ink, as with other brands that use this ink, the seams curled at the points were the ink hit the seam (3rd photo). This is because the ink absorbs moisture from the paste differently from how the paper absorbs moisture, so they expand at different rates, causing curling at the seams.

Once the paper was good and dry, these areas mostly laid down, but there were still quite a few seams that were not perfectly flat.

The wallpaper pattern is named “Twiggy.” The interior designer for this job is Rachel Goetz, who works in the Heights area a lot, and has a soft, clean, uncluttered, fresh look to the rooms she decorates.

Chinoiserie in a Small Bathroom

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Here is a classic Chinoiserie (Oriental design) that went in a guest bathroom in a new addition to a 1950’s ranch style Mid-Century Modern home in Shepherd Park Plaza / Oak Forest.

The aqua background coordinates nicely with the grey marble vanity. I lined up the figure holding the umbrella with the center spout on the sink, for a balanced look. The two circles at the top are the bases of light fixtures.

The pattern is called Shantung Silhouette, and is by Schumacher.

Schumacher used to be known for quality, higher-end wallpapers. But these days, the quality has slipped. This install did not have any printing defects, but they are pretty much de rigor with Schumacher products. I did encounter some other problems, though.

For starters, the instructions said this was a paste-the-wall non-woven material. It was not. It was paper, and needed to have paste applied to the back of the wallpaper, not to the wall.

And the material was thick and stiff and difficult to handle on my table, and difficult to manipulate into corners and tight areas. Going around the multiple curves on the backsplash was tricky and time consuming. Pasting the wall did not allow the paper to expand and relax, so bubbles appeared on the wall. Because the paper was dry and stiff, it did not meld to the contours of the vanity top, and was difficult to trim neatly. In fact, I was unhappy with my first attempt, and ripped it off and started over.

A good reminder to always buy a little extra paper.

I also was not happy with the seams. They weren’t bad, but a thinner substrate would have given tighter seams that held closer to the wall.

Overall, though, the room looked wonderful – light and airy with a sense of uplift from the parasols and tight ropes. The monkey adds something to smile at.

The interior designer for this job is Rachel Goetz.

Charcoal Phillip Jeffries Grasscloth in a Master Bedroom

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These days, I am papering so many accent walls, it was a refreshing change this week to put paper on all four walls of a master bedroom in a newly remodeled 1913 cottage in the Houston Heights. All the furniture and rugs in the room are white, and the bedside tables are smoky silver. The wallpaper is smoky charcoal in color, with a slight sheen to it – which the homeowner was not expecting. But when the paper went up, she really loved the satiny silky look, and it really set off the rest of the room. There is an immense crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and it is positively riveting when set against the dark shimmery wallpaper.

This grasscloth is by designer Phillip Jeffries, which is a fairly high-end brand. Yet, like most grasscloths, this natural material is subject to color variations, such as shading and paneling (see Photos 2 & 3). Because the uneven color is often more concentrated on the outer edges of the wallpaper, sometimes it’s helpful to trim off those edges (Photo 4). But, as you can see, there will virtually always still be color variations from one strip to the next.

Because the seams on grasscloth are so readily visible, I also like to trim the material to fit the wall (balancing). In other words, instead of hanging two strips that are 36″ wide and one that is 10″ wide, I will trim the strips to all be 27 3/8″ wide. That gives a more balanced look. This plotting and measuring and trimming takes a lot more time, but I think the uniform look of the finished wall is worth it.

On dark papers like this, and because grasscloth does not always meet together at the seams perfectly, I like to stripe paint of a matching color under the seams (Photo 5), to hide any gaps that might appear between the strips.

The interior designer on this job is Rachel Goetz.  I like her decorating style, as well as the ease of working with her, very much.  http://www.rachelgoetzinteriors.com/

Grasscloth in Bookshelves / TV Niche

Here I have installed some Phillip Jeffries silver metallic grasscloth on the back of an entertainment center. This was in a renovated and updated and enlarged bungalow in the Heights. The interior designer is Rachel Goetz (Google her).

Papering the backs of bookshelves with a textured material is very hot right now. In this home, the designer tied rooms together by using the same grasscloth on this entertainment center as in the study.