Bright Botanical for Home Office Accent Wall

The windows look out into a green yard,

so the verdant , playful design frames the view perfectly.
The bull-nosed edges on the sides and top of the windows are really tricky to wrap wallpaper around, BTW.
Skim-floating / skim-coating the textured wall to smooth it, along with the puffy wallpaper, added enough thickness to the wall that the blinds on the right would not fit into their brackets. A window covering company can easily trim those down.

Arrrgh! Moving from left to right, the last strip ended up 1/2″ from the corner. That meant that I had to cut a narrow strip and work it into place. Trickier than it sounds.
Note that this required an entire 10′ long strip, to get that 1/2″ wide piece. Always order a little extra!

el like I’m stepping back into the ’70’s !

This ” House Plants ” design is buy MissPrint , a British company. It’s on a non-woven / paste the wall substrate , which is more durable and stain-resistant than traditional papers. And it’s designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when you redecorate .
The home is in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston .
install installer

Contractor Prepped Walls – But Left Dust

I usually insist on prepping the walls for wallpaper. But we had a time crunch here, and the homeowner asked her paint contractor to strip the old wallpaper and smooth the walls.
He did a good enough job of skim-floating and sanding the walls smooth.
Unfortunately, he neglected to wipe residual dust off the walls.
The problem is that nothing sticks to dust. Not paint, not primer, and not wallpaper. Over time, stress, humidity, and other factors can cause the wallpaper to expand and contract, which puts tension on the seams. This tension tugs at the seams , and if the wall surface underneath is unstable ( dusty ), the layers can pull apart ( delaminate ), and you end up with failing seams.

So I wiped down every square inch of wall, using a sponge and bucket of water. I rinsed the sponge frequently, to prevent build up of dust on the sponge.

Here’s drywall dust wiped off in just a few swipes. In the background, you can see tracks of my damp sponge along the wall. These damp areas will need to dry thoroughly before I can apply my wallpaper primer. A heat gun helps speed that process along.

One fear that I have is because, as you see in the photo, the contractor spray painted the woodwork, and in so doing, got a lot of overspray onto the wall. This can be painted over without much problem.
But, as mentioned above, putting wallpaper over this can open a can of worms.
Even with a good wallpaper primer underneath, the drying / shrinking wallpaper can put stress on the seams. If the wall underneath is dusty, the layers may let loose of one another and result in a popped seam .

Smoothing Over Holes and Bumps

The artwork and hanger have been removed, but this wall anchor remains in the drywall . It will leave a bump under the new wallpaper . I removed it from the wall. That left a hole that will leave an indention under the new paper .

Here I’ve collected a bit of joint compound (we call it mud ), a plaster -like substance that’s used for installing drywall , as well as for patching holes and smoothing textured walls (called skim-floating or skim-coating )

Here it is applied over the hole.

To speed the drying process, I use my heat gun .

Using a sanding sponge to smooth it.

Wiping dust off with a damp sponge . Important, because neither primer nor wallpaper paste will adhere to dust .
After this dried , I primed over this area and the whole wall with wallpaper primer . I like Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime .
Now the wall is ready for wallpaper, with no worries that bumps or dips will show through .

Smoothing Over A Mess

This kind homeowner had the sink / vanity in this powder room removed. This makes it a LOT easier and faster for me to to get the wallpaper up, and with less stress on the paper and fewer relief cuts .

Removing a sink that’s attached to the wall often damages the surface. Here you can see how the workman used spackle compound to cover the torn drywall and other damage.

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Close-up. This isn’t a very smooth surface, and the wallpaper will have a hard time grabbing ahold and adhering. It’s also way too porous and crumbly to support wallpaper.
In the top photo, you see where I have applied smoothing compound on the upper portion of the wall. I’m working my way down.
Once it’s dry, I will sand and prime it, and it will be nice and smooth.

Here’s a shot of the fresh smoothing compound, before sanding.

Some people use a drywall taping knife or a broad knife to apply the plaster-like substance. I prefer the trowel you see in the photo, because it gives me more control and precision.
The 2″ flexible putty knife is for getting into smaller areas. The 3″ stiff ” Hyde ” putty knife is for knocking off high points or bumps on the wall before applying the smoothing compound.
This process is called skim-floating or skim-coating .

I like to use the Plus 3 lightweight joint compound made by Sheetrock . We just refer to it as mud . Find it in the drywall aisle.
The Plus 3 spreads on easily enough, sands easily , and the dust falls to the floor where it can be vacuumed up easily – as opposed to getting air-borne and drifting all over the place.
This box, which is approximately one cubic foot , weights 32 pounds . Ugh. Try carrying that across a parking lot and then up to the third floor of a townhome!

I like to transfer the material to a 5-gallon bucket. This is what it looks like in the bottom of the bucket.
Easy to scoop out. When I’m finished, I use a wet hand to smooth down the surface, wipe residue off the sides of the bucket, then place a thick sheet of plastic over the surface to keep air from drying it out. Then, of course, I put the lid onto the bucket.

Pearland Powder Room Update and Wake Up

Originally, these walls were sorta heavily textured, and painted a drab brown-tan. Here I’ve finished skim-floating the walls to smooth them, and applied my wallpaper primer. Ready for paper!

Flowering tree branches are a popular trend right now, and many companies are making their own versions of it.

Pattern is nicely centered on the sink wall.
The white background really perks the room up, and the light touches of metallic gold in the leaves helps bounce light around this small room.

Close-up. This material has a slight raised ink texture to it. I love the look and feel.

That scribble at the top reads Florence Broadhurst . She was an Australian artist / painter. This line of wallpaper patterns are based on her art and designs.
The pattern is called Branches and the manufacturer is York Wallcoverings, one of my favorite brands.
Pearland is a southern subdivision of Houston.

Smoothing Walls – I Can’t See What I’m Doing!

To smooth textured walls so you won’t see bumps under the wallpaper, I use this trowel to spread on Sheetrock brand Plus 3 lightweight joint compound (a.k.a. “mud”). This is called “skim-coating” or “skim-floating.”

Problem is, the mud is the same color as the wall. I can hardly see what I am doing! Once it dries it will turn white. But until then, I’m fumbling along.

Textured Wall Now Nice and Smooth

“Orange peel” texture on wall

Same wall smoothed and primed and ready for paper

You don’t want to hang wallpaper on a textured wall. The bumps will show through and look bad. Plus they impede good adhesion.

I’m pretty darned good at smoothing textured walls, through the skim-floating or skim-coating procedure. You can do a Search here to read more.

Note: The slight texture in the second photos is from the roller that applied the primer. The photo is magnified many times. In real life, this wall is nice and smooth and ready for wallpaper.

’90’s Era Tissue Paper Wall Treatment

Here is an innovative wall treatment that was (sorta) popular a few years (decades) back. It involves taking tissue paper (such as wrapping paper), wetting it with diluted adhesive, wadding it up, and spreading it out on the wall. The ridges and folds create a unique textured effect.

The artist was quite talented, and actually laid these ridges of tissue texture in a pattern of oblong rings as you see in the photo above, spread out in horizontal bands around the room. I’m sorry I didn’t take a shot of the walls from a distance.

In order to hang wallpaper, I need to get the walls smooth. Unfortunately, this stuff does NOT want to come off the wall. So I am skim-floating over the mess, hoping to build up enough smoothing compound to bury these ridges (some of which are up to 1/4″ or more thick).

The challenge now is to get that thick layer of smoothing compound to dry overnight – in a small, enclosed powder room with poor air circulation.

Many of the globs of tissue paper swelled when they got wet with the smoothing compound, and created bubbles. In other situations – usually – when the compound is sanded smooth, these bubbles disappear. I hope that is the case tomorrow.

Stay tuned …