Re-Doing Accent Wall in Powder Room

The homeowner’s contractor’s guy hung this accent wall in an under the stairs powder room . He did a good enough job. But there were some bubbles / wrinkles . Depending on where you’re standing in the room, and where light is coming from, the bubbles were somewhat noticeable , even with this busy patterned wallpaper . It bugged the homeowner , and she wanted it to look better.

Dry-stripping the wallpaper resulted in this. The paper came off in an intact sheet, as the mfgr promises. But it took some of the primer along with it.
Let’s examine this. It’s a good thing, at least, that the previous installer used a primer, and hopefully one made for use under wallpaper. But, to be honest, a wallpaper primer is designed to let go of the wallpaper when you start to strip it off the wall. So maybe this is just paint, or a paint primer .
Second, I have a suspicion that, after skim-floating and then sanding the wall to smooth it, dust was left on the wall , and then trapped between the wall and the primer. That’s a likely reason why the primer / paint pulled away from the wall so easily. Nothing sticks to dust! So it’s imperative that, after vacuuming , you take a damp sponge – rinsed frequently – and wipe down the entire wall, and then let dry , before priming. The primer also has to dry completely, before wallpaper goes up.

I switched to wet-stripping the remaining wallpaper, and had less damage . But was still left with a wall with lots of irregular and un-smooth areas . So to prepare it for wallpaper , I first sealed loose or dusty areas with GARDZ , which is a penetrating and hard-drying sealer for torn drywall or other unstable surfaces . It’s pretty cool stuff.
After that dried, I applied a very thin skim coat of joint compound (which we call mud ). Once that was dry, I sanded smooth , vacuumed , wiped off residual dust with a damp sponge, let dry, and then primed with Roman Ultra Prime Pro 977 and let dry.
Here’s what it looked like when I was done with the prep .

And here it is with the new paper up.

I switched to wet-stripping the remaining wallpaper, and had less damage . But was still left with a wall with lots of irregular and un-smooth areas . So to prepare it for wallpaper , I first sealed loose or dusty areas with GARDZ , which is a penetrating and hard-drying sealer for torn drywall or other unstable surfaces . It’s pretty cool stuff.
After that dried, I applied a very thin skim coat of joint compound (which we call mud ). Once that was dry, I sanded smooth , vacuumed , wiped off residual dust with a damp sponge, let dry, and then primed with Roman Ultra Prime Pro 977 and let dry.
This single wall was a bit of a challenge, for many reasons. For one thing, we really didn’t have enough paper. Luckily, the previous guy had kept the left over scraps, and I did need to use some of those. It also was OK to mis-match the pattern when necessary, as the design is very forgiving. The rounded bull-nosed edges around and over the window are a PITA. This pattern was forgiving in that respect, too, as well as the layout of the area over the window. There were also some printing defects , which will be addressed in a future blog post .
Oh – and I, also, got bubbles ! In fact, I hung this same brand a few weeks ago and got bubbles then, too. Some I got rid of by making a tiny cut with a razor blade and then pushing the air out with my plastic smoother . But, usually, with these pre-pasted materials, once they get good and dry, small bubbles dry flat and disappear. Not sure why the other guy had problems with this. But I will say that the bubbles were larger than typically show up with these papers.

Close up.

The pattern is called Brownstoner , and is by Flavor Paper . I am not a fan of their vinyl products, and definitely not their peel & stick . But I do like their EZ Papes , which is a pre-pasted material . Not crazy about the bubbles, though.

The home is in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston .
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Dark and Moody Jungle Theme for Powder Room

Before. Heavily textured wall has been skim-floated with smoothing / joint compound and then sanded smooth , and then primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer . I’ve run a narrow line of dark green craft paint along the top of the chair rail / wainscoting , due to uneven edges . More on that in a soon-future post.

Sink wall is done. Pattern is centered nicely on the faucet and in between the electrical boxes for the new sconces – They haven’t arrived yet and will be installed in a few weeks .

The homeowner’s carpenter created this beautiful wainscoting out of 3D block paneling , and then painted it a rich dark hunter’s green . Right now there’s some sanding dust collected on it, plus bad lighting . In person, it’s gorgeous . The same company did a fantastic paneled wall / fireplace surround in the family room (not pictured) .

Back to wallpaper … This shot is pretty color-accurate. I love the way the dark wallpaper coordinates with the green paneling . The pink and orange flowers , as well as the row of purple foliage , really stand out against all the dark .

Close-up looks like an artist’s painting . Besides centering the pattern on the sink wall, the dimensions worked out so that I was able to balance the chameleons between the ceiling and chair rail , one just below the ceiling and the one here just above the chair rail. So no critter got cut in half .

This product comes as a 2-strip (roll) set , with an “A” strip and a “B” strip in each box. Together, the two strips equal just a hair under 6′ wide , and a little over 9′ high . Here I’m rolling out the two strips so I can gauge the pattern , measure width and height , and plot the layout on the wall.
Sobering fact: Each 2-strip set (one “roll”) cost about $500. This room used four of those sets. I always try to keep that in mind when working with people’s purchased wallpaper .

OK, this damned Word Press blog account has AGAIN (2nd time in two nights!) deleted paragraphs that I spent a lot of time typing. I can’t recreate all the info I put into that lost post, but below I will try to include some of the important points.
First and foremost – since the switch to the New Editor back about 2015, I pretty much HATE WORDPRESS .
Anyway, here the company is providing a mock-up of what the “A” and “B” strips look like. The mock-up above shows the two panels next to each other.
Since this is essentially a mural and the pattern doesn’t repeat vertically as more typical wallpapers do, you can plan on getting only one strip out of each panel. These walls are 6′ high , and the panels are 9′ high. So you’re losing 3′ with every strip.
Further, the area over the door needed one panel that’s 2′ high. But an entire 9′ panel was needed for this, to get the 2′ high strip. So 7′ are going into the trash. Add to that, since this product comes as a 2-panel set , the homeowner had to buy a 2-panel set (at $500), even though only part of one panel would be used. This means that 1 + 2/3 9′ long panels were purchased but not used.
Also, because this comes in panels instead of traditional rolled goods, there are no “extra” strips. This means that I can’t make any mistakes.
Nothing like a little pressure while trying to install wallpaper !
No fears … this pattern and material went up nicely, and we had just enough paper to git ‘er done.

Manufacturer is Breeze and the pattern is called Fantasy Tree . It was purchased from one of the show rooms in one of the Design / Decorative Centers in central Houston. It’s printed on the user-friendly / DIY – friendly non-woven material , which can be hung by pasting the paper (which I prefer) or the paste-the-wall method . It’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece with no damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate . Definitely better than peel & stick (click my link on the right to read more about P&S ).
The home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks / Heights neighborhood of Houston .

Skim-Floating to Smooth a Textured Wall

Wallpaper is to go on the top 2/3 of the walls in this large dining room. But the walls are textured, and that texture will show through the new paper. Which looks pretty bad , IMO , especially since most the design is plain white background. So here I am applying a skim-coat by skim-coating / skim-floating the wall to smooth over the texture.

Close up. A lot of people use a wide broad knife or drywall taping tool . But I prefer the control I have using this trowel . There will be ridges and valleys and imperfections . But tomorrow, when the smoothing compound is dry , I will sand everything smooth . I have to say, I’m pretty darned good at smoothing walls . 🙂

I like to use the Plus 3 Joint Compound by the Sheetrock brand. It’s much easier to sand than the standard joint compound . Do NOT use the ” quick set ” version – coatings such as primer , paint , or wallpaper don’t like to adhere to this stuff . It’s made for small patches , not covering entire walls. BTW, for short, we simply call this ” mud .”

Once the walls have been sanded smooth , all the dust vacuumed up, and residual dust wiped off the walls with a damp sponge , then I will apply my favorite primer, Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime , made specifically for use under wallpaper .

From Dark and Dated to Light and Livable

Oh, my! – I hung lots of these chintz florals, ” satin ” look (the design of the dark green at the bottom of the wall), and dark colors back in the ’90’s . Sure enough – this home was built and wallpapered in 1994.
IIt’s still a good look, IMO, and the homeowner still likes it. But she’s just gotten tired of it. So – time for an update !
She also decided to eliminate the chair rail , so the new wallpaper will go ceiling to floor . Here you see some damage to the drywall where the chair rail molding was removed .

What a change! Now the room’s look is quiet and fresh .
The buffet , topped with a decorative mirror , will go on this wall . That’s why I centered the pattern in between the windows , so it will fall evenly on either side of the furnishings .
I also plotted so that a full “Moroccan lantern” (that’s what this style of trellis pattern is called), would balance out between the crown molding and the window molding. There were several of these 12.5″ high areas all around the room, so this placement of whole “lantern” motifs gave the room a pleasing look.
It also worked out that the lanterns were evenly placed and kept whole between the crown molding and the baseboard. See the second following photo to see what I’m talking about
As a note – just this one window wall took me about five hours to measure , calculate , and hang . Getting the pattern to go over, around, and under the two windows , and still line up and match correctly , took some time and futzing. The material was thick and stiff , and a bit tricky to fit into corners and trim around the decorative window molding .
In the foreground you see my work table area . The homeowner has let me put protective padding on her dining room table and then set my work table on that. This saves space and allows plenty of room for my ladder and other tools as I work around all four walls.

So that I could center the pattern on this wall , I had to start hanging my first strip in the middle of the wall. I was lucky this time, that the pattern was centered exactly on the edge of the wallpaper roll . Sometimes (as in the one I did yesterday – see previous post ) the center of the design motif is a to the right or left of the edge of the wallpaper . This, naturally, means you’ve got to do more measuring and plotting and double-checking , to be sure the center of the design falls down the center of the wall .
Back to the photo above … that dark block on the right side of my work table is my laser level. It’s shooting a perfectly plumb red line onto the wall. Here I’m lining up my first strip of paper butted against this red line .
Switch topics … Back in 1994, the original installer did a very nice job of hanging the wallpaper. But … he didn’t prime the new drywall first. That lack of primer / protective layer means that the wallpaper will actually bond to the drywall. I tried, but was unable to get the existing wallpaper off . Eventually, you need to factor in time , damage to the wall , paste residue left on the wall, and take a different tac if called for.
So I skim-floated over the seams , so they wouldn’t show under the new paper , and also floated over the damaged drywall where the chair rail had been removed . Sanded smooth , and then primed the patched areas as well as the original wallpaper, with Roman Ultra Prime Pro 977 . This stuff will adhere to the light acrylic (slick) surface of the original wallpaper, as well as protect it from moisture from my paste on the new wallpaper. ( Moisture could cause the underlying original wallpaper to expand , creating bubbles that will look bad, or loose areas that will pull away from the wall, creating a bubble or pocket.)
My primer is also lightly pigmented, so it helps block out the dark color and busy pattern of the original wallpaper . This particular new wallpaper is quite opaque , but not all of them are, so a pigmented primer is important , IMO .

Left corner of the buffet wall. Here you can see how the lantern motifs are placed between ceiling and floor.

The background has a lightly mottled effect, that mimics grasscloth a bit, and also adds more depth and warmth than just a plain solid color .

Been havin’ more than a fair share of defects lately, especially this week. This paper had on both front and back sides, incidences of these black flecks . They seemed to be maybe charcoal , so I wasn’t too worried about their black bleeding through to the surface , like ink or any oil-based substance will do.
Most of them were embedded in the material itself, so could not be wiped off , nor dug out with a razor blade . Some I had to cut around and discard the affected paper. Others were so small as to not be noticeable once the paper was up on the wall and all the furniture and artwork was back in the room.
There was also one 3′ section of wallpaper that had an odd streak or arc running across it. It wasn’t ink . It was more like some kind of compromise to the substrate . I noticed it was I was pasting the back of the paper . I turned it over and, sure enough, you could see it a little on the surface. (see photo in previous post) It’s the kind of thing that was subtle, but would catch your eye when looking at the wall from a distance . It was minor , but I discarded that strip . Good thing I have the homeowners purchase a little extra wallpaper .

The manufacturer is Designer Wallcoverings , which is a good quality brand (aside from the printing defects I described earlier ). It was a non-woven / paste the wall material , which is pretty user-friendly . It will strip off the wall easily and in one piece when you redecorate . Stain-resistant , and ” breathable ” in humid conditions .
The home is in the West University neighborhood of Houston . Dining room installer

Shimmery Trees

Before … Heavy stipple / sand texture on drab sage green semi-gloss paint.
I skim-floated the walls , sanded smooth , primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer and …

Here’s the finished sink area of this hall bathroom .

Before shot of tub and window wall .

So much brighter and livelier!

Close up . It’s hard to see from these photos, but the colors are pewter, silver, and metallic silver.

The paper also has a lightly textured surface .

The pattern is called Hedgerow and the brand name is Super Fresco.
Every other SF I’ve hung has been on a non-woven / paste-the-wall substrate , so I was surprised to discover that this one was a paste-the-paper material , and that the backing is a paper / pulp material , with textured vinyl laminated to the surface.
My issue with this is that, historically, these paper-backed solid vinyl wallpapers don’t hold up well in humid areas , such as bathrooms.
Humidity in the air can actually be wicked up through the seams and then settle on the paper backing , which is absorbent and thirsty. Once that paper absorbs moisture, it’s going to expand . Since there is nowhere for it to go, it will push back against the wall , and that can cause the seam to curl up and pull away from the wall.
Oftentimes, the paper backing actually delaminates (comes apart) from the vinyl surface. This is not a “loose seam” and cannot be repaired.
You pretty much have to replace the whole strip. Or, more likely, to replace the entire wall, from one corner to the next.
Proper wall prep , including a primer made for use under wallpaper , goes a long way toward avoiding these sorts of occurrences.
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Swirly Leafy Priano Wallpaper in Spring Branch Powder Room

Walls were originally a light tan , with a poor texture job , too much caulk along the top of the backsplash , and later it was discovered that someone had painted (several layers ) on top of wallpaper .

Same area after I’ve skim-floated and sanded smooth , then primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime made specifically for use under wallpaper . I have Murphy Brothers paint store add a little blue tint so I can see where I’ve rolled it on.

Finished!

Such a happy pattern to look at – swirly , nods to foliage and ferns , crisp . Yet not too busy , due to the 2-tone color palate and the tight, overall design .

Close up. You get the feel of a watercolor artist / painting .

The design matched up perfectly in the last corner . This only happens about once in every 10 years!
In addition, what’s even more astounding is that EACH of the four walls in this powder room was EXACTLY the width of two strips of my Serena & Lily 27″ wide paper + expansion. The strips fell in EACH corner ABSOLUTELY tight and straight. I’ve had perfect kills before, but never had paper fall in the corners with no need to wrap or trim.
I know that’s a little techy for the non-professional reader to grasp. But just know that it was a room and a day full of almost paranormal-grade coincidences , math , and execution .

Pattern is Priano and is made by Serena & Lily , one of my favorite companies.
This is the home of a young family in the Spring Branch area of Houston .

Dark and Moody Bedroom Accent Wall

The wall has been skim-floated and sanded smooth , primed , and is ready for wallpaper .

The homeowner did a great job coordinating the wall and ceiling paint with the colors in the wallpaper.
This is a room that’s made for sleeping!

At first I thought the pattern scale was too small for the large wall. But once I saw it on the wall, I really like the way it fills the space.
To me, this pattern has a sort of calico look.

Close-up shows the light texture on the paper.

This is a non-woven material, so I’m installing via the paste the wall method . Here I’ve cut and arranged all my strips in the order in which they will be hung . This is a drop match pattern , which some folks think of as A and B strips. Meaning, for instance, an orange flower appears at the top of the wall on Strip A . But the next strip, Strip B, has a yellow flower at the top. When you get to the third strip, we are back to an A and an orange flower. Next comes another B strip – and so on.
I’ve rolled the strips backward , with the top of the strip coming off first. This will prevent the printed face of the wallpaper from bumping into the pasted wall during installation .

Wallpaper often shrinks a tad when the paste dries , and this can result in very minute gaps at the seams . With dark wallpapers , it’s pretty important to take steps to prevent white from showing at these gaps. Here I’ve measured out where each seam will fall, and taken diluted black paint to make a dark stripe under each seam . I don’t make the paint full-strength, because wallpaper paste isn’t formulated to adhere to paint. I want the wallpaper adhering to the primer I’ve applied. That’s also the reason why you don’t want to roll paint over the whole wall.
Also, I have only striped some of the seam areas, and will wait until some strips are up on the wall before striping more lines. This is because wallpaper expands when it gets wet with paste, which can make it difficult to plot the exact width of each strip as you move across the wall.

I use acrylic craft paint from the hobby store, applied with a bit of sponge. I keep a small dish of water to dip the sponge into, which dilutes the paint a bit.
You also see a stick of chalk pastel . See next photo.

Besides the wall peeking out from behind the wallpaper seams , it’s also possible / probable that the white edges of the wallpaper backing / substrate will show at the seams. I take a stick of chalk and run it along the edges, making sure to apply from the backside, to avoid getting chalk onto the surface of the wallpaper.
Be sure to use chalk pastels and not oil pastels – oil will bleed and stain wallpaper. Some installers use liquid paint or markers – again, be sure to use water-based or acrylic , and never oil based or permanent markers .

BN Walls is the brand. Altogether, this was a pretty nice product to work with. It was thin and very soft and flexible (many non-wovens are not).

I wasn’t happy with all the seams, though. I believe the paper was cut with dull or wobbly wheels at the factory, because the edges seemed to not be perfectly straight . So I ended up with gaps and overlaps in some areas. Here you can see the wallpaper edges pouching up a bit due to excess paper.
But, as I mentioned, this material was quite flexible, so it was pretty easy to spread these edges apart an use a tool to push them apart and then down to prevent them from pouching up again. Once the paste started to dry, these areas held nice and tight and flat.
This is a townhome in the Rice Military neighborhood of central Houston .

Dwunk Cwitters Wid’ Booze and Hookah in Garden Oaks Powder Room

Walls have been skim-floated and sanded smooth, primed, and are ready for wallpaper.

Done. The dark woodwork really accentuates the wallpaper; the room would not be nearly as dramatic and fun without the dark woodwork.

Eeek! Another console sink to squeeze under and behind. Just this area took more than an hour.
Some tricks I’ve learned is that you don’t have to wrestle full-length and -width strips. Here I cut the two strips behind the sink horizontally at the point where the vanity hits the wall. I hung the upper strips. Then, moving to the right, I hung the strips to the right. After I ended in the corner to the right (not pictured), I came back and hung the two short strips under the sink. So I was only wielding strips 2′ high, instead of 9′.
I also sliced one strip vertically at the point where it intersected the drain pipe under the sink. This was much easier than trying to wrangle an 18″ wide strip around the drain, two faucets, and the metal support pipes.

What are these cwitters up to??!

Close-up. The homeowner said that the family has a sense of humor , and wanted something wild and fun .

Detail.

Many House of Hackney wallpapers come as a mural , or 4-roll set. This diagram shows the layout of the four panels. You can take a second set of four panels and place it to the right (or to the left – just keep track of the sequence order of the panels) and the pattern will continue.
Each panel is about 18″ wide, so a 4-panel set gives you about 6′ of width. Panels are about 9.5′ high.

This is called Hackney Empire and is in the Midnight colorway. This is a non-woven material , also called paste the wall . I did paste the material rather than the wall, though, as it makes the paper more supple, and enables me to get paste into difficult-to-access areas – such as under and behind that console sink! Non-wovens are designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece without damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate. This HofH material was lovely to work with.

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Replacing Countertop Leaves Damage to be Repaired

The vanity top was replaced. The new backsplash is a tad shorter than the previous one, so there is a gap above it. In addition, the original caulk is sticking out from the wall. The new wallpaper cannot go over this, because it will not sit tightly to the backsplash or wall.
After stripping off the wallpaper, I used a razor knife to remove the caulk – which is harder than it sounds, because that stuff is sticky! Then I sealed the torn drywall areas with Gardz (do a Search here to learn more about that product). Once that was dry, I used joint compound to fill in the gap between the backsplash and wall. Once that was dry, I sanded smooth and sealed again with Gardz.
Silly me forgot to take an “after” photo.

More Work on Yesterday’s Delaminating Wall

Re yesterday’s post … after I got the wall stabilized, I skim-floated the surface to smooth it. That dried overnight, and today I sanded it smooth, vacuumed up the dust and then wiped residual dust off the wall with a damp sponge, and then primed with good old Gardz. I feel pretty confident that that wall is secure enough to withstand the tension of drying wallpaper. But, just to be sure, I applied a liner. A liner is a special paper that goes on the wall under the decorative wallpaper. In this case, the purpose is to distribute tension so that no stress is placed directly on the wall. So it’s important that the seams of the liner and the decorative wallpaper do not line up or fall on top of each other. This way any tension is dispersed and distributed, and any inner surface that wants to delaminate will be held in place by the layers of paper over it. In this photo, the section to the left has the new white liner, and I am moving toward the right to finish this wall.

t’s important that the liner be flat and that the seams lie down tightly, so no bumps or ridges show under the new wallpaper. I was really pleased with how these seams just melted away.

There are all kinds of liner papers out there. This one is a stiff, somewhat thin non-woven option made in Germany.
Using a liner does add to the cost of the installation, for both material and labor to hang it.