Handsome Tailored Men’s Wear Powder Room

Vanity area before.

Vanity area after.

Vanity from the front. Note the stripes perfectly centered / balanced on the wall, both above and below the sink. The wall-mounted faucet and handles, along with the stuck-to-the-wall mirror made this wall challenging. In fact, this one wall took me two and a half hours.

Stripes on the toilet alcove are also nicely balanced.

Looking up past the linen cabinet.

Close up. The wallpaper looks textured, but it’s just fooling your eye. It has the look of fabric.

This is a semi-contemporary new home in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Houston.

The manufacturer is Wallquest, one of my preferred brands, and the pattern # is MS91603.

More Pics of Yesterday’s Faux Grass Dining Room

More shots of the beautiful, tailored, embossed / textured vinyl, faux grasscloth described in yesterday’s post.

Textured Vinyl Faux Grasscloth in West U Powder Room

The homeowner waited 13 years to do away with the classic damask wallpaper in the powder room of their home in the West University neighborhood of Houston. That’s what happens to your plans when you buy a home and get sidetracked by kids, career, community, yada.

There was nothing wrong with the original gold damask pattern, but it was dark and it didn’t suit the homeowners’ taste. They were originally looking at grasscloth – but, luckily, listened to my many reasons to avoid that material (see page link at right).

They took my suggestion and went with this textured vinyl faux woven grasscloth by Thibaut called Bankun Raffia.

This material has the texture and depth of color that people are loving these days, but is (mostly) free of the color variations and fragility of real grasscloth.

Bankun Raffia is a commercial-grade material, so it is resistant to dings, splashed water, stains, fingerprints, and little boys with bad aim. 🙂

It’s harder to work with than regular wallcoverings, because it is thick and stiff and hard to cut and hard to make turn corners or work into tight spaces.

The finished look is tailored and serene, and a lot brighter. In the photo with my finger, you can see the textured surface and fauxed color application.

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and 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.

Home Office Make Over For A Man

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The cheery bird-and-butterfly pattern is a pricey designer wallpaper, and looked super in this sun room off the living room of a 1940’s home near the Rice Village (Houston). But the thing is, the new homeowners are using this room as a home office for the husband. Needless to say, he was not thrilled with the frilly wallpaper!

The couple was considering grasscloth, but I explained about the highly visible seams, the color differences between strips, potential for staining by young children with sticky hands and being ripped up by their dog. They took my suggestion and went with this faux grasscloth, with a woven texture and subtle two-toned color. The charcoal color looks sharp against the white woodwork and desk, and the feel is crisp and tailored – just perfect for a man’s space.

I love this particular product! Because it is a thick vinyl on a woven fabric (scrim) backing, it will wear like steel, and will be resistant to water and stains, too. The color is very uniform, and you cannot see a seam. It’s nice to work with, too – although the thickness makes it a little difficult to cut through when trimming at ceiling and floor and door moldings.

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, from their Texture Resource Volume 4 book, and has become so popular that it is available in about 30 colors! This one is called Bankun Raffia, #839 T-14146. It was bought at a discounted price from 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.

Major Transformation – From Dark & Dated to Sleek, Serene & Modern

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This under-the-stairs powder room in a townhome in Montrose (Houston) was originally papered in a dark murky blue striped wallpaper – very trendy back in the early ’90’s when this home was built (just like the shiny gold faucet and towel ring 🙂 ).

Neal LeBouef of L Design Group is helping the new homeowners bring their home into the New Millennium, with a sleeker, cleaner, and more contemporary look.

I don’t like grasscloth in bathrooms because it stains and runs when it gets splashed with water, and I really dislike the shading and paneling (color variations between strips) inherent to grasscloth. But I really do like Neal’s choice of this faux grass product! Thibaut Designs’s Bankun Raffia is a faux grasscloth in a woven pattern that has real texture and a subtle shadowing effect. It looks a whole lot like the real thing, but is free of the color defects of real grass, and is much more durable in wet areas.

I have hung this pattern many times, and it always looks crisp and clean and serene and, depending on the color, tailored and handsome. It’s thick, which makes it a little difficult to work around corners, but after many hangs, I’ve got the corners mastered.

In this room, I was unable to get the original wallpaper off the walls. It was coming off in 1″ pieces, and the 1′ square section I did get off took more than an hour, and left the wall a mess. So I opted to smooth over any uneven areas, and then sealed the paper with Gardz, by Zinsser, which soaks into porous materials like this (won’t work on vinyl or anything with a gloss), and then seals it, drying hard. It dries fast, and is suitable for hanging new wallpaper on top of it.

In the second photo, you see one wall in the original dark paper, and the wall to the right covered with the new fake grasscloth. With all the walls covered, the new look is fantastic. The shiny gold faucets will be changed, and a new light fixture and mirror will be added.

Tailored Men’s Shirt Stripes in a Powder Room

Here is a very tailored and serene look with just a touch of a nautical feel, that I hung in a large powder room in a 1960’s era home in Highland Village. The wallpaper sales gal (read below) helped the homeowner find a pattern that pulled in the colors of the black granite countertop, as well as the cool stone wall with sea shell fossils in it. The homeowners spend a lot of time off-shore, so they love the slight seaside feel.

I centered the pattern (we call that “balancing”), so when they hang their mirror, the stripes will fall evenly on either side. (The toilet wall is also balanced, but you can’t tell, because the toilet is a tad off-center.)

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig at Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near Kirby. (713) 520-6262 or dorotasouthwestern@hotmail.com. Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her.