All Boxed Up and Ready to Go!

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This client lives in the Woodlands, so to save her a trip to Dorota at Southwestern Paint in central Houston (713) 520-6262), I picked up her wallpaper for her.

Ahhh, 12 single rolls of Thibaut, one of my favorite brands, ready for their trip to a powder room up north.

Pencil Stickers in Children’s Playroom – CUTE!

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This ultra-cute peel-and-stick mural was made to order, to fit the exact dimensions of the wall. The interior designer even had the pencils on the bottom right go up a little higher than the others, so they would show above the white kiddie table that sits against that part of the wall.

It has been years since I did a peel-and-stick job, and today reminded me of why I prefer regular wallpaper. Unlike regular wallpaper, it is very difficult to smooth out wrinkles. It is somewhat repositionable at first, but once it sits against the wall for a few minutes, it is very difficult to pull it up without stretching or peeling paint off the wall.

The homeowner was concerned that her little ones might get their fingers under the stickers and peel them up, but no chance of that happening – that stuff is up for good! In fact, when they do get around to removing the stickers, they should be prepared to repair some damage to the wall.

I was not happy with the way the install was going, because of wrinkles in the material and because it didn’t want to hang straight. So I ended up cutting the pencils apart, so that instead of trying to unpeel and apply and smooth with one 15′ long strip, I cut it into more manageable pieces of two or three pencils each. The ones along the ceiling were easier to work with, probably because they were shorter. I also used a special smoother, which is made of plastic and wrapped with felt, to protect the surface of the material.

The finished room is really cute. I love the way the pencils coordinate with the dots in the playroom rug!

This home is in the Woodlands. I had also hung paper for them in their previous home, also in the Woodlands. That is a mighty nice community for families with young children.

Wallpaper Gets Dirty – and Can Sometimes Be Cleaned

This wallpaper is in a 30+ year old home in the Woodlands. It’s hard to see in the photo, but there’s a little whiter patch near the center.

The wallpaper had a dirty look to it, but I figured that was because of fading over the years, kitchen cooking smoke and grease, and sometimes the lack of a primer used under the paper or a clay-based paste, which can bleed through the surface.

I hung a new border over this old wallpaper. As I wiped my damp rag along the border to smooth it and remove any paste that oozed out below it, I was surprised to see that much of the reddish dirt actually wiped off. In fact, it came off quite readily.

This is rarely the case. But, since the paper has a light vinyl coating, it would be possible for the homeowner to go around the walls with a sponge or rag and some clean water, or possibly a light cleaner, like 409 mixed into the water, and LIGHTLY scrub the walls.

With 30 years worth of dirt and grime removed, the wallpaper would be brighter, and the kitchen would look fresher.