See the whitish area along the very top of the walls in the first photo? That was caused by the painters putting blue tape on the wallpaper and then yanking it off – and it’s not the topic we’re discussing today (but you can do a Search here on those terms to learn more).
What we’re looking at is the dark discoloration on the upper areas of the walls above the kitchen cabinets, all around the room.
This is a rental property, and the homeowners aren’t sure what happened, but they were told that at some point “the house was filled with smoke.”
Well, that smoke was enough to penetrate the wallpaper and permanently discolor it.
In the second picture, I have stripped the striped paper off the wall on the right side of the photo.
Above the door, the guy who hung the striped paper overlapped about 4″ of paper on top of the striped paper over the door. When I removed the overlapped section, it revealed some paper that had not been exposed to the smoke.
What a difference in color!
What’s especially intriguing is that, in the kitchen, the wallpaper was a paper, with no coating and which the smoke could penetrate easily. But in the second photo – the shot over a door in another room – this is a solid vinyl paper, which you think would be impenetrable to just about everything.
Yet the smoke got through – but it did not go far enough to damage the vinyl wallpaper underneath.
Typical textured wall in new homes in suburban Houston has been skim-floated , sanded smooth , and primed with Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer . All ready for baby Noah! The parents-to-be will spend the weekend bringing in the crib and other furnishings . This is a 4-panel mural . Here I’ve laid out the panels , to ensure correct placement , and get accurate measurements . We had some ” issues ” and I wasn’t completely happy with this product / vendor . For starters, they custom-printed custom-sized the material to the exact dimensions I had asked. Problem is, these panels are intended to be overlapped and double-cut ( spliced ). That means losing an inch on every seam . The company should have accommodated for that by providing us with four extra inches. They did not, so I had a real math and juggling match trying to plot how to get enough paper to cover the width of the wall.The grey colors go nicely with the current trend toward greys and beiges ; the rest of the home follows this color scheme . i thought this was going to be a pre-trimmed non-woven / paste the wall material. I was caught off guard when I discovered it was a textured vinyl on a paper backing , untrimmed and had to be double cut . See other post and/or do some Searching here for more info on this DC process . I think a better material would have resulted in better seams . But – wallpaper is meant to be viewed from about 5′ away, and from there, the wall is perfect. Remember the picture of the panels laid out on the floor . The panel on the far right had a cool train near the top. It was a prominent feature in the scene . But, as you see in this photo, that train was cut off by the door. So all you see over the door is blank sky . I really liked that train, and so did the mom . I wanted to put it where she could see it . So I took the bottom portion of that last panel and found the train. I used a straightedge to cut the bottom edge, and then used a scissors to trim around the top of the train and its trail of smoke . Vinyl is slick , and wallpaper paste won’t adhere to it. So I applied special paste designed to grab ahold of vinyl. Then I placed it over the door , butting it up against the right where it meets the adjoining wall. But – dangnabit! I forgot to take a picture of it finished! It looked great. Over the door was no longer all that dead-air blank space. Now there is a streamlined train with wisps of smoke , heading toward the distant castle ! I’m not going to mention where this was purchased from, because it’s one of the sites that I hope people will steer away from – a place that sells batteries , jewelry , fishing tackle , and – oh, yeah – wallpaper, too,,, you’re just better off with one of the established companies that specializes in wallpaper . nursery installer houston sienna
This home in Bellaire (Houston) received damage from flooding during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Water stains appeared on a small area of the wallpaper just above the baseboard in this powder room. Luckily, the homeowners had saved the paper left over from the original install, so I had material to use for the repair.
Certain substances, like grease, blood, smoke, rust, ink, tobacco, and water stains will bleed through wallpaper (and also paint and other materials, too). To prevent this, the discolorations must be treated with a stain-blocking sealer. Many of these are shellac-based, such as BIN, made by Zinsser, but there are others. I prefer oil-based KILZ Original (2nd photo).
I could have just cut some wallpaper and slapped it on top of the stain. But I wanted to be sure these flood survivors wouldn’t have to look at water stains again. So I used KILZ to cover the stains (3rd photo).
It wasn’t quite as simple as it sounds, because the wallpaper had to be hand-trimmed (use a razor blade to trim off the unprinted selvedge edge). And pasting the paper causes it to absorb moisture and expand, which can throw off the pattern match. So I was dealing with factors relative to what the other guy did and the products he used, compared to my own techniques and products / paste.
It took two tries, but with careful trimming and a little touch-up paint, the job turned out great (last photo).
I also used paint to cover some stains at the top of the baseboard, and also re-pasted some loose areas in other parts of the room (no picture).
This wall in the dining room of a very contemporary new home in the Spring Branch area of Houston “floats” in the middle of the room. This breath of smoke floating across the wall adds a distinctly ethereal feel.
The interior designer on this job is Neal LeBouef, of L Design Group, who was expertly assisted by Anthony Stransky. I love working for these guys. And homeowners love their creations, which are crisp, sleek, modern, a bit edgy, yet still warm and comfortable.
The smoke mural was custom made to fit the wall, and came from Murals Your Way https://www.muralsyourway.com/ , a member of the Wallcovering Installers Association (WIA). Their murals can be printed on various materials, and I chose the vinyl on an Osnaburg backing.
Each of the three panels was about 42″ wide, and they were meant to be overlapped and then double-cut (spliced) at the seams. Great care was taken to not get paste on either the surface of the mural or on the ceiling, and to not score the wall while splicing.
I have a specially made 2 1/2″ wide plastic tape that keeps paste off surfaces, and another special 2″ wide polystyrene plastic strip that protects the wall from cuts from the razor blade, and a specially made non-slip straightedge used as a guide while trimming. All of these were invented and made by fellow members of the WIA (Steve Boggess and Eunice Bokstrom). Probably boring for the average blog-reader, but exciting stuff for us paperhangers. These things really helped make this job turn out perfect.
See that red vertical line just to the right of the paint can? The previous wallpaper installer had used a red Magic Marker to color the edges of his vinyl wallpaper. This is a good way to cover the white edges so the seams don’t show, especially with a dark paper. But it’s better to use chalk or colored pencils, because oil or ink can bleed through and will stain the new wallpaper or paint.
In this photo, the previous dark red wallpaper has been stripped off, but the red ink that was used to color the seam’s edges has soaked into the wall. The wall has been skim-floated with a light coat joint compound and then primed with the penetrating sealer Gardz. Yet the red ink has bled through. If wallpaper is hung over this red line, it is quite likely that, over time, the ink will work its way through the various layers and up to the surface.
The best way to prevent that is to use a stain-blocker. KILZ Original oil-based sealer and stain blocker is about the best product on the market for this. Brush it on, it dries quickly, and then you are safe to apply wallpaper, paint, or other materials.
KILZ will also block stains from oil, smoke, rust, water, ink, crayon, tobacco, and more.
The dark red stain on the edge of that outside corner is rust. It is coming from the metal bead used to define the corner when the house was built. The only problem is, in a steamy bathroom with poor ventilation, these metal beads are sometimes prone to rust.
And rust bleeds through wallpaper.
Before I started hanging the new, pastel-colored wallpaper, I had to block off the rust stains. Nothing tackles this job better than the original oil-based KILZ Original. I’ve taken a small brush and applied KILZ to a half-inch wide strip that runs the height of the wall. It dries in about an hour, so paper can be hung fairly quickly.
Other substances can stain wallpaper, so KILZ is good to have on hand. KILZ also seals off water stains, oil and tar, ink and markers, and odors, like smoke from cigarettes or fire.
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