Wallpaper in Southern Living Magazine

I always love seeing wallpaper in a magazine (current issue of Southern Living ), but especially when it’s something bold and colorful. This is a powder room .

Here it is, making a statement from afar, peeking out at visitors, from behind louvered doors, seen through the compact galley kitchen .

Same house, a primary bedroom with hand-painted , custom mural with a tropical theme. So perfectly suited for a beach house retreat .

To be honest, I don’t remember if they said this was a custom painted mural , or a custom wallpaper mural . Either way, I have some questions about the pattern placement . For starters, the mural is beautiful whichever way the motifs ended up on the wall.
But … usually, custom murals are plotted and executed so that major motifs are centered on a given wall space. And so that motifs don’t get cut off at corners or moldings. In this room, with the windows and doors reaching up so high, it would be possible to treat each area between windows as a separate space, making each scene a focal point .
So I’m curious at to why the foliage on both the left and right sides of the space got cut off a bit. And why the tall plant wasn’t placed in the center of the space.
But … maybe,,,, In this picture, maybe they plotted to have the foliage “cradle” that end table and lamp.

This scene looks a bit odder to me. Why is that tree cut off on the left? And why is the short palm plant chopped off on the right? Again, maybe it was planned that way.
OR – maybe the dimensions got skewed a bit, and whoever painted the mural, or whoever printed it, or whoever installed it – lots of possibilities – maybe the pattern got shifted to one side of the other a bit.
Another possibility is that the mural was simply custom sized , as in, to fit the width and height of the room as a whole. Lots of murals are this way. You find a scene you like, and they’ll print it to your wall dimensions . But the pattern still has to play out across the walls, and in the proportions the artist plotted .
But another class are those that are actually custom printed or even custom hand painted to fit the individual spaces on each wall. These take a lot more precise measuring , working with a designer or graphic artist to plot placement of each element , and, naturally, take a lot more time to produce. Oh, and cost a whole lot more.
Whatever avenue the homeowner takes, murals are a unique and super lovely decorating option .

Shimmering Gold on Teal Trees in West Houston Powder Room

Before. (Client brought me a sliced apple, so I’d keep up my stamina. 🙂 )

Vanity wall done. Sorry about the weird pink tint.

Vanity wall. The light sconces are a full inch off-center from the sink and faucet. But the mirror is going to be hung between the sconces, so I centered the trio of trees on the sconces, rather than on the sink / faucet. Still, the pattern looks nice with that center tree in line with the center of the countertop and sink .

Better example of the color. Three shades of the rich teal , and then the metallic gold in the tree branches and trunks . Such a gorgeous wallcovering !

Close-up. Some of the blotches you’re seeing are shadows cast by the hanging crystals on the chandelier .

This wallpaper design is called Shimmering Foliage and is by Antonia Vella in the Modern Medals line , by York.
It’s a non-woven material and was nice to work with, and will hold up well against water splashes and stains . N-W are also designed to strip off the wall easily and without damage to the wall when it’s time to redecorate.
This was purchased with Dorota’s help at the Sherwin-Williams store in the Rice Village area of Houston . Dorota is excellent at helping you narrow down your hunt . Wed – Sat, call first and let her know what you’re looking for. (713) 529-6515.
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Tall Windows Allow Innovative Pattern Placement

Focal wall before. With many patterns, the finished room looks better if the dominant features of the pattern can be centered .
You may not consciously notice this, but the overall room just feels more cohesive and balanced .

Here I’ve located the horizontal center of the wall , and placed the skinny tree running vertically down that line .

Same thing on this section of wall, but I used the alternate tree figure, which is wider and filled the space better.

It’s kind of tricky finding the center of a design like this, because it’s not symmetrical and elements of it move to left and right , and some are wider than others. So it helps to be able to pull up a room-scale image on-line , or to lay a couple of rolls out next to each other on the floor and look at the pattern from a distance.

It was cool that this dining room had lots of individual spaces , separated by windows and doors .

And extra cool that these features reached up almost all the way to the ceiling. AND that the design was loose and flowing . That’s what allowed me to fiddle with the pattern and center the trees on each individual section of wall . Normally a pattern would have to match all the way around the room. But here you would never notice if a tree branch didn’t perfectly match the next tree branch way up 9′ high over the window that was only 2″ high .

On those short areas over the windows and doors, I overlapped the left and right strips a small amount, and then cut along one of the branches to disguise the mis-matched pattern.

Since there were two tree figures to the design , I varied what I placed in the center of each wall, to prevent every visual vignette from being the same.

It was fun plotting all this out and executing the layout . I love when my work environment is nice and quiet and I have the space and time to play around like this .

The pattern is called Luminous Branches and is by York . It’s a material made by a good brand .

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Luminous Branches Breathe Life Into Dining Room

Before

The homeowners had this elegant wainscoting added to the bottom of their dining room when the house was built . But for seven years, the room was bland and boring . The new crystal chandelier adds glamor , but the room is still lacking .

Wallpaper to the rescue!

Now there’s soft color and soft pattern . And a little gold shimmer !

I’m encouraging the homeowners to paint that band of wall under the tray ceiling a very soft aqua color, to meld with the misty feel of the wallpaper .

It’s a soft aqua color , but enough to stand out against the woodwork . Now you see the beautiful moldings and trim work .

South wall before

South wall done

I positioned the tree pattern to fall down the mid-point of this space between the two windows .

This shot with the chandelier dimmer turned down allows you to see the pattern more fully.

This wallpaper pattern is called Luminous Branches and is by York , one of my favorite brands , in their Designer Series line.
The material has a slight raised / embossed / textured effect. It’s a non-woven product, so is strong , durable , stain-resistant , and designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece and with no damage to the wall when you redecorate later.
Non-wovens can be hung by the paste the wall method , but I generally prefer to paste the paper . NW requires no booking / soaking time , so they install a little faster , with no worries about shrinking or gaps at the seams . In fact, the seams are near-invisible .
The home is in the Braes Heights area of Houston

Trick for Centering Pattern With Non-Woven Wallpaper

Dining room focal wall before.

Same wall done, with dominant tree figure positioned down center of the wall. How was this achieved?

Laying the paper out on my work table, to see the pattern. Determine this tree is more vertical and visible than the more spreading trees on either side.

It helps to access the pattern on-line, to see a full-scale , room-set photo. And also to roll the paper out on the floor.

Finding the center point of this tree.

The center of the pattern is 20 1/8″ from the left edge of the paper . Since the wallpaper is 27″ wide, this places the center at 6 7/8″ from the right edge of the strip. Hold on to that / those figures!

It helps to access the pattern on-line, to see a full-scale room-set photo. And also to roll the paper out on the floor.

Now we’re looking at the wall, and the calculations I’ve drawn on it.

At the left, I’ve marked the mid-point of the wall. The mid-point is 27″ from either side.
Since the center of the tree is 6 7/8″ from the right side of the wallpaper, to the right I have marked 6 7/8″ over, which is where the right edge of the wallpaper should be placed. This will land the center of the tree motif at the center point of the wall.
This also works out to 20 1/8″ from the left edge of the subsequent wallpaper strip.

6 7/8″ from the right edge of the strip on the left works out to 20 1/8″ from the left edge of the strip to be placed on the right.

Confused yet? We paperhanger s aren’t just slapping paper on the wall . There is a lot of math and plotting and engineering that goes into all this.

At least the way I do it. You can call me the Queen of Overthinking . 🙂

Trimming right-hand strip to 20 1/8″ wide.

Instead of placing the left-hand strip along a plumb line at the 20 1/8″ point on the wall, and then placing the next strip to the right of it, and having to trim against that window molding, I found it simpler to pre-trim the right-hand strip to 20 1/8 ” wide, and then I could simply butt this strip up against the window molding, eliminating the need to wipe paste off the molding, and also keeping the pattern straight along the molding.
But there is also that 2″ high bit of space over the window. That’s why I’ve left that little tab of wallpaper you see at the upper right of this photo.

Here is that first strip in place. Maybe now if finally all makes sense.

When I put that second strip next to it, the mid-point of that tree is going to be 6 7/8″ from the edge, and will fall right at the mid-point of the wall. Remember, that was at 27″ from both the right and the left window moldings.

And here we are! Measured from the right.

Measured from the left. Spot on!

All that math and calculating for one 54″ wide x 5′ high wall!

But look at how nice it looks with that tree down the center of the wall. Especially with the brand new chandelier hung in the middle of the room. This will be the focal point of the room, as people walk into the home’s entry .

The pattern is called Luminous Branches , and is by York.

Note that this calculating and plotting could be achieved because this product is a non-woven / paste the wall material. This stuff does not expand when wet with paste . That means that you can take measurements and trim your wallpaper , without fear of it stretching beyond where you plotted for it to land on the wall.

Kill Point Over Door

If you’re hanging wallpaper around a room with four walls and four corners , virtually always when that last strip of paper meets up with the first strip you hung some hours ago, you’ll have a mis-match of the pattern . That’s why we try to tuck this in an inconspicuous place like a 1′ high corner above or behind a door.
But sometimes you don’t have a hidden corner , and all four corners are highly visible and run the full height of the wall. In these cases, it looks much better for the pattern to match floor to ceiling , as you see in this photo. But you have to put the kill point somewhere!

In these cases, a more logical and less noticeable location for the mis-match is the shorter area over the door – where nobody is going to be spending much time looking at, anyway.
My first strip is on the left, and the rest of the powder room has been papered, and I’m working my way from the right to meet up with that strip on the left.

Here it is going into place. I’ve matched the pattern on this new strip to the strip on the left . The strip is too wide, and is overlapping the strip on the right. And, as expected, the pattern doesn’t match up on the right.
As an aside, that blue plastic tape you see at the top of the strip of wallpaper is to keep paste off the ceiling. Once I’ve trimmed that excess paper off, I’ll remove the tape , and the ceiling will be nice and clean – no paste residue to wipe off or worry that it will be visible or damage the paint / cause flaking .

Here I’ve trimmed that short strip at ceiling and above the door trim. As you can see, it’s overlapping the strip on the right, leaving a bump, and plus, the pattern doesn’t match .
To be honest, with this busy pattern and this short area up over a door , this 1′ of mismatch isn’t going to be very noticeable. But I wanted to make it look better.
I’m going to splice these two strips together.
In the photo above, the left strip is overlapping the strip on the right. I don’t like the way the pattern is lining up. A splice will leave branches cut off, and will be noticeable.

So here I’ve reversed things and have overlapped the strip on the right on top of the strip on the left . Now the pattern gives a better option for a splice . I like that there is a curved vertical tree trunk that I can cut along. This will help disguise the splice.

So now to do the splice, I have push hard enough on my blade to cut through two strips of paper. But it’s important to not score the wall surface beneath. When the wallpaper paste dries and the paper shrinks a tad, it will put tension on the wall surface . If that underlying surface is not unstable or not sound, due to being cut into, or dust is another factor , that tension can cause the wall surface to pull apart , and the wallpaper can come away from the wall. Actually, it’s not the wallpaper coming away – it’s the layers of the wall pulling apart.
So I use these thin flexible polystyrene plastic strips under where the splice will be. You can’t cut through them!

Here I’ve pulled the two strips of wallpaper away from the wall and am positioning the plastic strip under where the splice will take place. Next, I’ll smooth the two wallpaper strips back into place, with the right one overlapping the one on the left.

I like to hold a single edge razor blade in my fingers , but you can use a blade holder or trim knife , too.

Here I’ve free-handed my cut , trimming along the vertical tree trunk at the top , then straight down through blank area, then through some branches, and finally at the bottom again trimming along a curved vertical tree branch. Now I’m removing the excess from the left side of the trim / splice .

Lifting the strip on the right so I can remove the excess piece that was trimmed off on the right.

Now removing the polystyrene strip.

Using my plastic smoother to gently press the two trimmed strips of wallpaper into place.

Here it is all done. Trimming along the vertical branch at the top has helped disguise the splice. The bottom area doesn’t match 100% perfectly, but I’m OK with that. I’ll work on smoothing out that teensy overlap and the seam will be nice and flat.

All done!

The wallpaper pattern is called Luminous Branches and is by York . It’s non-woven / paste the wall material , and very nice to work with, durable , stain resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage when you redecorate .
If you’re interested in the source for the splicing / double cutting strips , or the thin blue tape to keep paste off the ceiling, please email me at wallpaperlady@att.net

Outsmarting Bull Nosed / Rounded Edges / Arch

Looks nice, huh?

But these rounded edges , especially arches , have been a thorn in the side of wallpaper installer s since they became popular more than 10 years ago. Hanging paper on them and trimming neatly at the right point is difficult. Because the paper is hanging over the edge blocking your view of where you need to trim . A level or laser level don’t always work because the home’s framing isn’t always perfectly plumb . Metal straightedges / trim guides are useful, but can slip and mess up your cut. The arches present their own challenges because a straight edge won’t line up with them .

A colleague in the Wallcovering Installers Association ( WIA ) invented this gadget , which is a huge help. This is a 1.5″ section cut off from the 10′ length of bull nose corner bead used in the drywall construction of these edges. Then you cut notches in it at the point on the corner where you want to trim your wallpaper .

Some installers place a trimmer blade in the notch and slide the gadget along the edge, trimming as they go. I find that the thing wobbles too much for an accurate trim, plus it’s difficult to hold the blade while you’re sliding the thing down the wall. So I put a pencil point into the notch and draw a line along where I want to trim. Then I can use a straightedge and trimming blade , or a scissors, to cut along the line. Makes a nice, even, straight cut! Note that I like to wrap it about 1/3 of the way around the rounded edge.

OK, so you’ve seen how I trimmed along the edge to the right. Now here’s another trick that I’m going to use on the edge to the left, as seen in the photo. The wallpaper strip is 20.5″ wide. But I trimmed it vertically so that the piece over the arch is 10″ wide. That correlates to the point where I want to trim the strip that will land on the rounded edge going down the wall.
Note that I have not completely trimmed the part under the arch on the left side, because I want to be sure the cut edge lines up with that on the next strip I’m going to hang.
The blue plastic tape is there to keep paste off the wall paint . It will be removed after the piece is trimmed to fit.

Now here I’ve placed the remaining 10.5″ wide left section of the strip of wallpaper. You can see how it’s falling perfectly along the bull-nosed edge – saving me from having to use a blade or straightedge or gadget.
Note that this works only if the edge is perfectly plumb , and that the piece above the arch is also perfectly plumb, and my new strip is hanging perfectly plumb. This paper is a non-woven material, and is somewhat stiff and unbending , so not really amenable to twisting or tweaking into place. Plus, you want to keep that left edge straight, because your next / subsequent strip will need to butt up against it. Trust me, I did a lot of measuring and shooting the laser level before I pasted or hung any paper!
Now that it’s in place, I can go back and trim that remaining bit under the arch, making sure that it meets up in the corner with the edge of this piece .

Here’s another shot of it finished.

Closer up.

This tree branch foliage pattern is called Twining and is by Graham & Brown . I like most everything they make. The non-woven substrate is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece , with no damage to the wall , when it’s time to redecorate .
This home is in the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks / Heights neigborhood of Houston .

Using One Strip to Cover Two Areas Saves Wallpaper

This wallpaper is 20″ wide . My next strip to the left needs to be 20″ wide above the window – but only 1.5″ wide down the side of the window. I hate to use a whole 6′ long strip for this area. Because, as you can see, most of the strip will be where the window is, and will be cut off and thrown away.

But here’s a plan. The same thing is happening on the right side of the wall, on the window to the right. About 10″ of the wallpaper has extended over the window, leaving about 10″ of the lower portion to be cut off and thrown into the trash.
NNo! Since I need a 1.5″ width of a right edge to finish my area on the left side of the wall (see previous photo), I can use this discarded lower 10″ of wallpaper to cover that 1.5″ to the left.

Planning ahead and measuring carefully, I removed the lower section of wallpaper that would have been hanging over the window / shutters . I left plenty of overlap to allow for trimming along the top and along side the window molding. Added bonus – because I’m now not wrestling a 20″ wide strip of paper next to this window and shutters, it keeps a lot of paste from slopping onto the window molding and shutters .
zin this photo, you see the 10″ wide strip I’ve removed. And also the 1.5″ wide strip from the left right edge, that will be put against the strip to the left.

Here’s my 1.5″ wide strip.

And here’s where I’m going to put it. Note that I cut a short strip to fit over the window . It’s 20″ wide – the width of the roll of wallpaper . I cut it long enough to come down the side of the window to where there’s a design element – in this case, a horizontal branch – to disguise the juncture of these two pieces of wallpaper .

About to go into place .

Positioned. Note the overlap of the branch, trimmed along the lines of the motif. This makes the overlap way less noticeable than a straight horizontal patch, or even a splice.
Note: I don’t like to splice / double cut in situations like these – cuts into the wall surface below and can cause the paper to come away from the wall. I don’t mind overlaps in these situations. They’re up high where no one can see, and also much stronger and more stable than a butted edge .

Teimming off excess along the window molding / trim .

Doone!

The tree and leaf pattern is called Twining and is by Graham and Brown . Like most of their materials, it’s a non-woven material and can be installed by pasting the wall – although I usually paste the paper . It is designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece when it’s time to redecorate . The seams are invisible .

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.

Sleekly, Cooly, Scandinavian

This family has lived all over the world, including several years in Denmark. The mom has definitely picked up a love for the cool colors and sleek look of Scandinavian decorating. Here is a corner of the entry, before, and a peek into adjoining rooms.

Cream and silvery grey on white tree foliage add just a touch of texture and warmth, while keeping with the all-white color scheme in this home.

The room consisted of four corners of wall space, and four chunks of shorter areas over doorways.
Note how the cool light fixture repeats the look of peeking through branches. They are going to trade out that yellowish bulb for a whiter one.

The wallpaper has a slight raised ink texture.

This is Sandberg ‘s popular Rafael pattern. I’ve hung it a number of times, but this is the first time in the white-on-white colorway.
This is a non-woven material , and will strip off the wall easily when it’s time to redecorate. It was flexible and quite nice to work with.
The home is pretty new, very contemporary, and is in the Montrose / Museum District / Rice Village area of Houston.