Grasscloth in a West Houston Study

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

Digital Image

This couple wanted the textural look of grasscloth for their study, in a newish home near Cross Creek Ranch and Cinco Ranch, a bit southwest of Houston. The pattern they chose is a medium-fine grass in a pretty uniform color. With fine grass, you don’t notice as much the mis-match of the fibers at every seam.

The grass fibers have been sewn onto the front of the wallpaper. But the black backing is less homogenous, and exhibits variations in its color. These are the horizontal differences in color that you see in the pictures.

Some of these color variations spill onto the surface of the material, too. These can be especially evident as swathes of darker colored dye on the outer edges of the wallpaper. (See photo)

Overall, this product looks very good. People who like grasscloth love the texture of the natural material. And they like the “organic look” of visible seams, mis-matched pattern (there is no pattern to match!), and the color variations at the edges and within the strips.

I believe the manufacturer of this grasscloth is York.

Faux Grasscloth With Hospitable Pineapples in a Powder Room – Compliments Yesterday’s Paper

Pineapples are the universal sign of hospitality, and what gracious Southerner wouldn’t want that in her home? For this small powder room in the rear of a beautifully remodeled Meyerland (Houston) home, this homeowner was originally looking at a pattern that had pineapples plopped rhythmically across a strongly contrasting background color. I gave my honest opinion and told her I thought it looked too polka-dotty.

She listened, and took my suggestion to search a little further. What she found was this easier-on-the-eyes design, which has a much more interesting motif, that still incorporates the pineapple theme, and is also imposed on a warm background that mimics textural grasscloth.

What’s even cooler is that this couple had chosen a faux grasscloth for the entry of their home, which was just a few yards away from the powder room (see previous post). Even though both wallpapers were made by different companies, they look very similar, and that helps to unify the look and feel of the whole downstairs.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, in the Kenneth James line, pattern # PS 40700, and was bought at a below retail 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.

Wallpaper & the Old San Franscisco Steakhouse

This week I’m working on an entry way, in a ranch-style home built in the ’60’s.

Under the existing wallpaper, I discovered remnants of the original wallpaper. It was the old “flocked” style, which was popular back then. The pattern was almost always a fleur-de-lis design, and was embellished by a raised “felt” or “velvet” flocking – an actual 3-D papper.

Two drawbacks to those papers – they are the Devil to remove, and … they collect dust!

As they say, everything old is new again… I was just contacted by a gal who is going for the “loft look” and is seeking some bold patterns and colors, like a damask in a huge scale. AND she said she would even consider a flocked paper.

She will have an easy time finding one, since the manufacturers are once again putting such textural styles front and center in their offerings.