Sink / window area, primed and ready for wallpaper. Pattern nicely centered on this wall and at ceiling line.Breakfast area window wall before.I tweaked the pattern just a tad so I could get the dark vertical line along the cabinets on the right, and then also down the left side where this wall meets the painted wall. It makes a nice stopping point for the eye, and it looks so much better than box motifs that might have been chopped in half.The “star” design adds so much energy and life to this room!The pattern is in the Sure Strip line of pre-pasted wallpapers by York Wallcoverings. I really like Sure Strip. Graham & Brown makes a very similar design called Indigo, which is very popular. I like this one better, for lotsa reasons. The home is in Pearland, a southern suburb of Houston. Some previous posts show other rooms I did at that same time. The homeowners did a wonderful job of coordinating the colors and themes throughout the home, working with golds and greys. The wallpaper and design help came from Ballard Designs new physical store on W. Gray in Montrose / River Oaks. After I arrived to start work, the homeowner decided she wanted the paper behind the refrigerator and also over a bank of cabinets to the right over the ovens. I hadn’t measured for these areas, so we didn’t have enough paper. Ballard could order more, but it would take several weeks to arrive. So I had the homeowner contact my favorite resource, Dorota Hartwig at Sherwin-Williams on University in the Rice Village. (713) 529-6515. She’s been slingin’ paper for decades, and knew right where to go that could supply the same paper in just a few days. The additional two bolts arrived yesterday, so I was able to hang them and finish the job today, right on schedule. 🙂 This home suffered extensive water damage to the entire first floor due to burst pipes after the major freeze here in Houston in February 2021. It’s taken these folks more than a year to get their home back together. I was proud to help them get their home and lives back to normal – and a good bit prettier!
Before, with walls skim-floated smooth and primed . So fun! So much personality and energy! The door on the left opens to the water closet / potty room, which was papered in a coordinating plain gold, textured material. See previous post for photos. Long wall behind his & hers vessel sinks. Tub area, with shower area behind. Wallpapering all these little nooks and crannies took a lot of time!The opposite side of the tub area.This non-woven wallpaper is made by York and was purchased from the Ballard Designs showroom in Montrose / River Oaks ( Houston ). It was nice to work with, the seams are nearly invisible, and it will hold up for many years to come.
Before – new drywall has ben skim-floated and is clean, but, gee, it’s boring … and lends nothing to the room. After. Now the room has color, movement, and feels more spacious.This beautiful, sculpted mirror was found at Ballard Designs new brick & mortar store on W. Gray in the River Oaks Shopping Center. Ballard also has a wallpaper section, and experienced designers to help you. Call first, because they stay pretty booked.The colors in the wallpaper coordinate beautifully with the granite countertop, and the brushed copper fixtures (faucets, hand towel rings, etc.)Close-up shows the water color-y appearance of this pattern, as well as the cool shadow effect. This wallpaper is by York, one of my favorite d brands, and is in the Candice Olson (of HGTV fame) line. It was a joy to work with, and will hold up nicely in this powder room. It is made of the classic paper material, nice and thin, clings tightly to the wall, and easy enough to remove when it’s time to redecorate.
This home experienced severe damage during the February 2021 freeze here in Houston. Just about everything had to be replaced, including floors, walls, cabinets, and tons more. The homeowners took advantage of the tragedy to update as they made repairs.
You couldn’t possibly find a better wallpaper pattern for this room … the colors meld perfectly with the floor, paint, granite countertop, and metal fixtures. The limited pallet keeps the paper from being too busy. The scale covers the walls nicely without feeling crowed or too busy.
Ron Dillon of Calico (a.k.a. Calico Corners) at 1845 W. Alabama in Montrose helped these homeowners pull everything together. Calico has a good selection of wallpaper brands. Ron has been handling wallpaper for decades, so is one of the best in town to help you track down just the right pattern.
This home is in the Old Braeswood / Boulevard Oaks / Medical Center / Rice University neighborhood of Houston.
Walls were originally mud-brown. Here my wallpaper primer has been applied. So lively and fresh!Close-up.Detail. It looks like a water color artist has taken his brush to the walls.Wallquest – one of my preferred brands.
A once-drab, cookie-cutter powder room in a new build in Cypress (far northwest Houston) is now airy and fresh, thanks to this water color-y pattern of trees, leaves, and birds.
The manufacturer is Wallquest, and the wallpaper was purchased at Ballard Designs. This well-loved mail order company has a brand new actual store on W. Gray in River Oaks / Montrose (Houston). They sell a number of wallpaper brands (good quality and medium price range), and have designers with extensive wallpaper experience available to help you (call before heading over).
Perfectly centered wallpaper pattern on one accent wall over the sinks in a master bathroom. Th manufacturer is Designer Wallpapers
A fresh, clean look for a master bath in a new home in the Cypress neighborhood of far northwest Houston.
You don’t see a lot of accent walls in bathrooms; usually I recommend that baths look better with all the walls papered. But I have to admit, once the homeowner adds the mirrors and light fixtures, this will be a crisp, fun look.
this paper was purchased through the showroom at the brand new Ballard Designs brick-and-mortar store on W. Gray in the River Oaks / Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
The lady of the house likes glitter and bling, but didn’t want to over do it in the dining room. She also didn’t want anything too rigid or precise.
This rather scratchy, indistinct damask by York works perfectly. There’s a bit of glitter, but not overwhelming, plus a light texture that adds a pleasing effect.
This is a non-woven material, and so could be hung using the paste-the-wall method, which works nicely for an accent / feature wall like this.
In the last photo, you see me measuring off the strips, rolling them backwards (to prevent the surface from bopping into the pasted wall), and lining them up in the order they will be hung on the wall. Because I pasted the wall, there was no need for me to haul in my big work / pasting table. The PTW method is also very clean, because pastes goes on the wall only, so no messy wet scraps and no need to wipe paste off the woodwork.
“Lotus” is a very old and very popular pattern by the British paint and wallpaper company Farrow & Ball.
It comes in several colors, but for all four walls in a large bedroom in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, the homeowner wisely chose this muted light tan-on-white.
It coordinates beautifully with the newly lightened and refinished floors, and the woodwork.
The material has an interesting gesso-like texture, which you can see in the last photo. It kind of makes the walls look like an artist’s painting.
A dresser and white ratan mirror will sit in front of this accent wall, in the bedroom of a young girl.
The pattern is called “Summerside,” and the manufacturer is Serena & Lily. Their patterns tend to be sweet and usually small scale, and I positively love the quality of their paper.
The home is in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston.
Farrow & Ball is a long-established British company. Here is their very unique design “Feather Grass” which I hung in a master bedroom in the country. I love the look of this pattern as you gaze out the windows to the pastureland beyond.
Farrow & Ball includes their own powdered paste, which you mix up with water. To get a smooth mix, I prefer a hand-held blender to the old-fashioned stirrer stick. Not shown is the 1-gallon bucket of cellulose pasted all ready to go.
The company sends a mock-up of what their design will look like. (The image above is from a different pattern I hung in this same home.)
Because their paper is coated with their paint, rather than ink, there can be variations in color as the printer moves through the batch of paint. So the company labels each bolt in the sequence that it came off the printer, and you are instructed to use the bolts and strips in sequence, to minimize any color variations.
This pattern is something like a mural, and comes in panels with one design per panel, rather than strips with multiple repeats of the pattern. In the photo above, I am rolling the paper out on the floor, to get an understanding of how it is laid out and how it is packaged.
Each bolt contained three panels, all rolled up together. The panels are made to fit a wall as high as 12′, so I had to cut each panel from the bolt, then trim it down to fit the 7 1/2′ high walls.
Yes, there is a lot of waste with Feather Grass. In fact, it takes a full strip to go above and below the windows and doors, even though you are throwing away the entire middle part. So, again, incredible amount of waste – I carted home a whole lot of unusable paper to toss into the recycling bin!
Before shot.
The “grass” pattern is meant to appear at about 4 1/2′ from the floor. Since you start hanging wallpaper from the ceiling, I needed to know where to place the tops of the sheaves of grass. So I drew a horizontal line around the room at the 4 1/2′ height. (enlarge photo to see the faint pencil line) This way, from up on the ladder at the ceiling, I was able to see where the tops of the grass stalks were landing on the wall. It took a few trips up and down the ladder on each strip, but I was able to get all the stalks lined up perfectly.
Finished photos. It’s a subtle colorway, so you may need to enlarge the photo to see it well.
Isn’t the overall effect lovely, with the soft misty color of the grass showing against the view of nature outside the window?!
I hung this in the country home (Chappell Hill) of a family for whom I have worked previously in their River Oaks area home in Houston.
What a pretty bathroom to walk into! The bottom third of the walls is painted semi-gloss black, and there is a thin gold chair rail separating it from the wallpaper. The overall look is stunning.
This master bathroom is in a home in River Oaks (Houston). The wallpaper manufacturer is Anderson Prints, in their EcoChic line. 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.
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