Dark Cornflower Pattern in Small Powder Room

Powder room before.  The original paper dates to the ‘90’s , and was a popular theme at that time.  Fast-forward 30 years and add a young family with active kiddies = time for an update .  For various reasons, the existing wallpaper could not be removed .  So I’m prepping and will hang the new paper over it.  Here I’ve skim-floated over the seams, so there will be no ridges showing under the new paper .  Next I’ll seal with a stain blocker (see previous post) and follow that with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer .

Primed and ready to for wallpaper .

Such a pretty pattern , full of movement and cheer .  The homeowner wanted something dramatic , hence the dark color .  Dark works quite nicely in a small room like a powder room . 

The homeowner also wanted the ceiling papered .

Close up .

From a distance .  A large , sculpted mirror with a heavy white frame will be hung over the sink.  This will contrast against the dark paper , and really stand out .  I like to think that the wallpaper is the star attraction , but I really think the mirror will take center stage

The pattern is Cornflower and is by Rifle Paper , made by York , one of my favorite brands .  This is a non-woven / paste the wall material .  It’s relatively easy to work with , and is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece without damage to your walls when it’s time to redecorate .   This was purchased from Dorota at the Sherwin-Williams on University in the Rice Village .  Excellent help in tracking down your perfect paper , and discounted prices , too.  Wed – Sat .  Call before heading over (713) 529-6515 . 
The home of this install is in the West University / West U area of Houston .

Stains Bleeding Through Wallpaper

This is the current wallpaper, and I’m to put a new paper in this powder room.  For various reasons, this paper cannot be stripped off the wall , so I’m prepping the walls to be able to hang the new paper on top of it .  Normally, my favorite Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime will seal this effectively enough.  But – hard to see in this photo – but this existing paper looks dirty to me.  Some of that is due to the mottled look of the pattern / colorway .  But I’m seeing tan discoloration , and I think it’s coming from under the wallpaper . 
This home was built in the early ‘90’s , and in a neighborhood where , through stripping off many old wallpapers in order to prep for new installation , I’ve noticed that someone working in that area and era used what we call clay-based paste .  This paste is made using actual clay – i.e. dirt – and has a reddish color .  I  believe that this red clay paste is able to work its way through wallpaper, and creep onto the surface, causing a subtle “dirty” cast to appear on the wallpaper. 
Once you strip the old wallpaper off the wall, the wall can then be washed , and hopefully you’ll get all the clay paste off .  But usually, no matter how much you scrub, residue will remain.  I fear that that residue will work its way through the new wallpaper, as well. 
Additionally, the most severe stains are in the vicinity of the toilet – housekeeper splashing cleaning agents?  or little boys with bad aim ??  
Yes, most homeowners will never notice this, especially since it can take years to show up.  And the paper I’ll be hanging is black , so it’s highly unlikely that any discernable stains will become visible .  But I get a little anal about wanting jobs to look perfect. 
 

So I like to use a stain blocker , which will ensure that no discoloring elements will work their way through .  My two favorites are KILZ Original , oil-based primer .  KILZ is wonderful, unparalleled stuff.  But it does have strong fumes , so you have to ventilate the room thoroughly and also wear a chemical respirator while applying it, to avoid becoming “high.”  i.e. “sick”   
My other option is BIN , which is shellac – based  .  This is also an excellent stain blocker , and has a strong smell , but nothing that will kill your brain cells .  Since my current clients have little kids, I opted for the BIN . 
Unless you want to go through a LOT of paint thinner and mess , you can’t easily wash oil-based or shellac-based liquids out of your roller cover or brush es .  So I plan to use disposable rollers and brushes.  This doesn’t mean cheap rollers and brushes – it just means that I factor in that these will be used once and then thrown away. 
Speaking of factoring in costs – the gallon of BIN was  $70 (and that was a reduced price due to dented can).  The KILZ was $40 , but I would have had to purchase a new respirator and cartridges , which would have added an additional $40 – some of the respirators went up to $70.  March 2023 prices . All this needs to be considered when figuring up the price for doing a wallpaper job.   I’ll also note that these products can be difficult to source – my local hardware store, which typically has stock even when larger outfits are out , had only one can of KILZ and one scratch-and-dent can of BIN .  Whichever I would have chosen, I sure got lucky. 
Note that these stain blockers are formulated to block lots of nasty stuff – water stains , blood , rust , wood sap / knot holes , ink , tar , grease , crayon , lipstick , cooking stains , marker , Sharpies , etc. 

Back to BIN….  It’s very watery and runny and drippy .  So you really have to cover the floors and baseboards , as well as countertops , toilets, etc.  Microfiber roller covers help a lot to minimize splatters .  Roll slowly and in an upward motion . 
Oh – additional plus … both BIN and KILZ dry quickly, so you can apply it and then move to your next step in less than an hour. 

Besides the shadow-y paste residue , this room has other issues .  Here, someone used ink pen to mark placement of the hooks for the powder room mirror .  Eeek!  Ink will bleed through paint and wallpaper even faster than clay paste residue will.  Here you can see one coat of the BIN applied – but the ink seems to have  been “resurrected” and is actually enlarging and spreading, and bleeding through the stain blocker . 

Here I’ve spot-primed with a heavier coat of BIN , and that appears to be holding the nasty ink at bay . 
Note that wallpaper paste will not adhere to oil-based products like KILZ , and probably not to shellac , either, because it dries kind of glossy.  So whichever of these primers you choose to use, you will need to top-coat with a primer formulated for use under wallpaper – and that will adhere to the stain blocker.  Tomorrow, I’m going to follow up with Roman Pro 977 , as mentioned above . 

Drywall Has Different Surfaces

Here I’m preparing to hang wallpaper on new drywall in a new addition to a 1930’s home in east Houston .
First I’ve used a damp sponge to remove all construction and sanding dust. Next I’m going to apply my primer.
It’s important to note that, even though this is wall is a new sheet of drywall, it’s not all the same surface.
We have mostly large expanses of drywall / greenrock (the type of drywall that’s used in wet areas ).
But at the joints , and covering where the screws and nails hold the drywall to the studs , we have joint compound . That’s the strips of white areas.
And next to the crown and door molding and the baseboards is overspray from the paint that was applied to the wood trim.

Here I’ve applied my light blue-tinted wallpaper primer over the top 1/3 of the wall.
It’s important to be sure that the primer you use is suited for use under wallpaper . But also that it will properly adhere to and seal all the surfaces on the wall .

My primer (below) will stick to just about anything. But this photo is interesting. Because my primer has been rolled on evenly across the wall , and cut in with a trim brush along the trim and corners . But you see that the primer is drying at different rates . On the right side of the photo, the primer is applied over the bare drywall, and it’s drying quickly. But toward the left, next to the door trim , the primer is drying more slowly. This is because there is paint overspray next to the door trim . The paint is semi-gloss enamel , and my wallpaper primer reacts with it differently from how it reacts to flat paint or drywall or other surfaces.
Not a big deal. Just be aware of the need for different dry times due to different surfaces the primer is applied to.

My preferred wallpaper primer is by Roman , called Pro 977 Ultra Prime. It’s not readily available, but you can find it on-line. All Sherwin-Williams stores can get it from the distribution center – but not all store managers know that, or are willing to do so. I get mine from Murphy Brothers Paint on Bissonnet near the Rice Village , who stocks it just for me.

Fixing Weird Things That Happen To Wallpaper

The top photo shows a stain on the wallpaper that is probably related to a rain or hurricane event a few years ago.

Water stains (and also other substances, like rust, blood, ink, oil, tobacco, tar, cosmetics, and more) will bleed through wallpaper. So, before patching the area, it is imperative to use a stain blocker to seal the problem. My favorite is KILZ Original oil-based.

KILZ will seal off the stain all right. But wallpaper won’t stick to it. So, in the third photo, you see where I have primed over the KILZ with a wallpaper primer (tinted light blue, for visibility). It’s not necessary to prime the entire wall area to be patched, because this type of wallpaper will stick to itself with just plain old adhesive.

The striped pattern made for an easy repair. I took a straightedge and sharp razor blade and trimmed along the striped design, creating a long skinny patch. See fourth photo. You can also see the strip pasted and booked (folded pasted-side-to-pasted-side).

Once that sat and relaxed for a few minutes, I took it to the wall and appliquéd it over the damaged area, going the full height.

There was a very slight color difference between the paper that had been on the wall for 20 years and the paper that had been in a dark closet. Had I placed the white area of the patch next to the white area on the existing paper on the wall, the color difference would have been noticeable. But trimming along the blue stripe gave the eye a logical stopping point, and so the color difference is not detectable.

In the finished photo, you would never guess there had been anything amiss with this wall.

I used this same technique to patch over the bug-bite holes in yesterday’s post.

And another good reminder that it’s always best to order a little extra wallpaper, in case of the need for repairs later. Store the paper in a climate-controlled space … not the garage or attic.

The wallpaper is by Schumacher, and appeared to be an old-school pulp paper material.

Sweetening an All-White Bathroom / Treating Trials

This homeowner was just trying to update her hall bathroom. She chose a new countertop, new tile, and new wallpaper. Unfortunately, some of the workmen who showed up for the job were less than stellar. I won’t say anything about the tile guys or the painters, but in the top photo, you can see how the “I can hang wallpaper” guy prepped the wall… which he proclaimed as “wallpaper-ready.”

I took down the light fixture, removed the remaining old wallpaper, and skim-floated the surface. Because the ridges in the original guy’s float job were so thick, I went there a few days early to get an initial layer of smoothing compound spread on the wall, so it would have time to dry. Then when I came back, I skim-floated the entire room. Because this second coat was thinner, it dried in a few hours (with fans, a space heater (to pull humidity from the air), and the home’s A/C unit cranking dry air through the room.)

I sanded smooth, vacuumed and wiped off the dust, and applied a coat of Gardz, which is my preferred primer for newly smoothed walls.

Mysterious tan dots worked their way through the smoothing compound and the Gardz. I didn’t know what they came from (mold, oil, tobacco, soft drink or food the workers splashed on the walls?), but I knew they would eventually bleed through the new wallpaper. So I rolled on BIN, a shellac-based stain-blocker made by Rust Oleum, to seal the wall.

This effectively sealed the stain, and the wall was nice and white after that.

A week later, I came back to hang the wallpaper. First I applied a coat of Roman’s Pro 977 Ultra Prime, a primer made specifically for wallpaper. For some reason, this product didn’t stick well to the BIN – which is surprising, because one reason I use this primer is because it sticks to anything, even glossy surfaces (the BIN was not particularly glossy). Look closely or enlarge the third photo, and you will see it sliding and dripping down the wall. Well, no fear. I brushed out the worst of the drips, and as the primer dried, it tightened up and clung flat and tight to the wall.

With the wall finally smooth and appropriately primed, I was ready to get that paper up on the wall. This was an old fashioned pulp paper, which the British companies were making before most of them switched to non-woven materials. I was looking forward to working with an authentic pulp paper, because it’s been a while since I’ve come across one.

But this one didn’t behave as most of them do… It was thicker and stiffer, which made trimming and intricate detail work difficult, and increased the potential for creasing (for instance, while fitting the paper into a corner at a ceiling line). And it sucked up paste and dried out way sooner than I could get a strip to the wall. So I ended up using a spray bottle to add extra moisture to the back of the paper while I was applying the paste. This did help a lot.

Some of the edges had been banged up during shipping, so some of the seams looked a little weathered. And the edges had not been cut perfectly straight at the factory, so we had a bit of what we call “gaps and overlaps.”

Still, the finished room looks great. With its sweet flowers and calming colors, the pattern reminds me of the Laura Ashley era. The blue really pops against the white woodwork and tile in the room, and the red roses are nothing short of romantic.

Such a happy turn-around, for a bathroom that started out full of trials and tribulations.

I’m not sure what the brand name is, but the label says “English Florals.” The homeowner found it on-line (free shipping!), and the cost was low – about $60 for a double roll bolt. The home is on the north side of Houston.

Wall Sealing Whoops

Today I prepped a room where the drywall had been badly torn when the old wallpaper was stripped off. This happened because the original installer hung the wallpaper directly on the drywall, with no coat of paint or primer to protect the drywall.

Before I could smooth the wall surface, I had to seal the torn drywall, because moisture on the torn areas would cause the brown paper to bubble. I rolled on a heavy coat of Gardz, a water-thin, penetrating product that is designed to soak into the porous material, bind everything together, and dry hard. It is supposed to dry inpenetrable by water.

Once it was dry, I skimmed over it with joint compound (which will be sanded smooth later).

As you can see, the Gardz failed to do as claimed, and it allowed moisture from my smoothing compound to seep through it and enter the torn paper of the drywall, which then expanded and bubbled. I’ve got a big mess on my hands!

Tomorrow, when everything is dry, I will sand smooth. Usually bubbles like this dry out and then sand flat. But the large loose areas have me a little worried. They may still be loose and bubbled, and they may swell again when the wall is given its final coat of Gardz.

I may end up having to cut out some loose areas, refloat, and reprime.

Not good, because this could add a full day to this job, and because there could potentially still be unstable areas under the surface. Never good to have an unsecure surface under your wallpaper.