Major Transformation – From Cave-Like to Bright, Warm and Tranquil

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Wow, what a change! This home office / TV room in Southside Place / West University neighborhood of Houston, was papered in a dark-navy-on-navy stripe. In my opinion, it looked great in the room, especially above the white paneled wainscoting. But it was time for a change … in fact, the husband said, “We should have gotten rid of this when we bought the house 25 years ago.”

The navy wallpaper was hung properly, but it would not come off the wall without a LOT of time and mess (and $ ). So I prepped and sealed the walls and hung over it (see other posts). I love the 2nd photo, because it shows the new, light wallpaper juxtaposed against the original dark paper.

This material is a light tan stringcloth superimposed with a barely-there white Moroccan lantern motif. I love this as an alternative to grasscloth. It is uniform in color, has a wonderful tactile texture, and has none of the shading, paneling, color variations, visible seams, or propensity to staining and bleeding that make grasscloth so disappointing.

In addition, it is a non-woven, paste-the-wall product, and was nice to work with. The design was even perfectly centered on the 27″ wide material, and could be reverse-hung (hung upside down and still match up perfectly with the previous strip).

The new, light colored wallpaper looked super against the wainscoting, and had just enough color to stand out against the white woodwork. The sofa was a tan linen fabric, and synced with the new wallpaper in color and texture. The armoire that holds the TV is a medium wood tone, and contrasts against the light walls “just enough.” The whole overall look is relaxing.

This wallpaper pattern is by Designer Wallpaper, in their EcoChic line, in a book or line called Wallpaper Effects, and was bought at 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.

Grasscloth Wallpaper in a TV Room / Sunroom

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I hung a woven grasscloth in this TV room / sunroom in an older home in the Rice Village area of Houston when the homeowners first bought the house – back in 1992 ! The wallpaper was still in great condition – except for where shower pan in the upstairs bathroom had leaked, causing damage to the wallpaper below. The paper had suffered fading from the abundant sunlight in the room, too. Time for a change.

The homeowners considered other types of paper and patterns, but came back to the natural, earthy, textured look of grasscloth. Their new choice is more relaxed than the previous woven one, and has more color – although it’s all in the neutral / brown / tan scope.

I was pleased that there was minimal shading / paneling (color variations between strips) (see 3rd photo). The material has a lovely texture (last photo), and was reasonably easy to trim and position.

There was no brand name on the product label, but it was bought at 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.

Contrast, Texture, Tailored

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Here is a new-construction home in the Timber Grove neighborhood, just west of the Heights, in Houston. The home has a decidedly Craftsman feel (a design theme popular in the early 1900’s).

The TV room has dark stained wainscoting and paneling battons, which is period-correct. But all this dark is not suited to modern 21st Century living. The homeowner chose to cover the space inside the battons with a lighter-colored, textured wallcovering.

Instead of grasscloth, which can stain, be shredded by pets, or display eye-jarring color variations, the homeowner chose this faux grasscloth product – and I am all in favor!

Bankun Raffia by Thibaut Designs is a wonderful alternative to natural grasscloth. It has the texture and motley color that people love these days, and when properly installed (reverse-hung), there are no color variations between strips. It is a strong, durable vinyl product that will hold up to splashes and dings. And it does not have the gritty manila paper backing, so no worries about curling seams under humid conditions.

The finished room, with its dark woodwork contrasting against the lighter, textured wallcovering, is crisp, tailored, and manly, yet warm and inviting. You can almost see Sherlock and Watson reclining on the tufted leather sofa, stoking their pipes and sipping sherry.

The homeowner commented on how the wallpaper brightened up the once too-dark room, while still allowing the Craftsman feel and colors to show through.

This wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was bought at a discounted price from Dorota Hartwig whom you can find at the Sherwin-Williams on University Blvd in the Rice Village . She is great at helping you find just the perfect paper! Discuss your project and make an appointment before heading over to see her  (713) 529-6515

Fantastic Faux Grasscloth

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If you’ve spent any time on my blog, you know that I am not a fan of grasscloth. I don’t like that you can see all the seams, there are too may issues with color differences between strips (paneling) and even within the same strip (shading), plus it stains easily, and dogs and cats love to tear it up. There are faux grass products out there, and you can read about some of my favorites by doing a Search on this blog.

However, today I hung a new product, and it was fantastic! I think the surface is vinyl (at least it smelled like vinyl), and has a realistic print that mimics grasscloth. Then the manufacturer attached string to the material, as would be used to attach grass reeds onto real grasscloth wallpaper. This creates the texture that has such appeal to people, and bolsters the realistic look.

Even better, this product has a pattern repeat, so, unlike real grasscloth, the strands of “grass” can be matched from strip to strip, so you will never see a seam.

After this paper was purchased to cover one accent wall in a TV room, the homeowner decided to add a couple of walls (three, to be exact), so I had to pull out my “paper stretcher” and make one wall’s worth of paper cover four. I spent about an hour measuring and plotting and remeasuring, but managed to squeak by – with only one piece left, that was only 28″ long. !!

If I had matched the pattern, it would have used up a lot more paper, and we would have run short. So I hung the paper as if it were real grasscloth, where the seams do not match. Because the product is so uniform in color and pattern, the unmatched seams look far better than real grasscloth.

On the final wall, which needed only two strips, I was able to match the pattern, and this is what you see in the last photo. Meaning, you absolutely cannot see the seam.

The paper was very nice to work with, too. It trimmed easily and didn’t gobble up my razor blades or damage my scissors like coarse grasscloth will do. There were no strings hanging in mid-air, and the material was nice and malleable and allowed me to position it as I wanted.

Because it appears to be vinyl, and because I think the strings are treated with a sealer, I believe this product is somewhat stain resistant and washable – which real grasscloth definitely is not.

I am really happy to have discovered the paper, and I hope to recommend it to clients who are interested in grasscloth. It is in a book called “Grass Effects,” and comes in many colors and different textures, and even has some options that feature a Moroccan trellis on top of the textured paper.

This wallpaper pattern is by Wallquest, in their EcoChic line, and 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.

Why Live With White When You Can Have COLOR?!

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Recently, I have hung wallpaper in several homes in which all the rooms – ALL the rooms – are painted white. That’s a good look – for people who like that look. But I would much rather see some color, even if it’s a pale tan or off-white. Even a little color helps define your spaces, and it really shows off decorative moldings.

These homeowners are not afraid of color. The addition to their home includes a TV room, powder room, and master bedroom and bath. They painted the woodwork a rich, chocolate brown. And just look at their choice of wallpaper for the powder room… The color in the first photo is true – it positively GLOWS! The next two photos are dark, but they show the pretty and playful design.

This wallpaper pattern is called “Sheffield” and is by Thibaut Designs, and was wonderful to work with. I hung it in a mid-century modern ranch-style home in Timber Grove Manor in Houston.

Beating the Odds

I hung this easy-on-the-eyes wallpaper on all four walls in a TV room in Westbury (Houston) several years ago. They had a water leak, and one wall plus a portion of another wall were damaged, and the contractors had to remove the wallpaper in order to do their repairs to the Sheetrock. As you can see in the top photo, they were able to salvage just one strip of the wallpaper.

When I consulted with the homeowners, I looked at the left-over paper they had stashed away (Note: Always buy a little extra paper, and store it in a climate-controlled place, as these people did, since you never know when you may have to call it to service.) They had only two full length drops on one bolt, and then a lot of shorter strips. The wall required six single rolls of wallpaper. I told them there was not enough to rehang the wall. Adding to the problem was that the wallpaper was discontinued and no more was to be found.

They loved the paper, didn’t want the expense of repapering the entire room, declined to use a company that could reproduce it – and didn’t want to live with a mis-match of patching all the odds and ends together.

Well, nothing I could do for them.

But, they were determined, and so sat on the floor one evening with the scraps of left over paper spread around them, measuring tools in hand, and spent a good couple of hours playing, measuring and plotting – and determined that the wall COULD be rehung – IF a few areas down low were left unpapered (the sofa would hide this).

I was skeptical, but went there today to see what I could do. Amazingly, they had put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and most of the wall could be covered with wallpaper of the correct pattern match. There were three strips that did not come all the way to the floor. But, rather than leave them with bare wall in those spots, I took some scraps and spliced them. Even though the pattern didn’t match, the mis-match was not very noticeable, and, besides, the sofa would hide it.

All in all, it was a rewarding day.

The wallpaper pattern is by Antonia Vella for Seabrook Wallpaper. It adds warmth and pattern to the room, yet is muted enough fade into the background, and works perfectly for this TV / reading room. BUT – don’t go trying to buy some… As I said, the pattern has been discontinued. 😦