This couple in a beautifully updated 1939 home (4-plex converted to single family) in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston loves Africa and has traveled there several times. This spare bedroom on the first floor is devoted to Africa. On the walls they have hanging artifacts from their travels. And now they have a map of the continent , front and center! accent wall Close up looks like old paper that has been folded and stashed and aged , then uncovered and now placed on the wall. The mural is custom-sized to the wall. Remember to add 3″ to both width and height, to accommodate trimming and also wonky walls. The material comes as one big roll , with six panels all in one long piece. You have to unroll the whole thing and cut the panels apart . Note that five panels are 19″ wide. But that sixth one on the far right is only 16″ wide. I have cut off the 3″ overage. So when you’re plotting your lay-out, don’t go assuming that you will have six panels of the same width. That last panel is going to be whatever it needs to be, to custom-fit the size of the wall. Here, I’m laying the panels out to compare dimensions of width and length with those of the wall . Also checking to be sure the sequence of panels is correct. Note the diagram provided by the company on the white sheet of paper at the top of the photo. Here’s a close-up of the diagram / install instruction sheet . The mural is by Rebel Walls , a part of Gimmersta . I love their hundreds of selections, their material , quality , and excellent customer service. This particular mural is called World Map . I’m not sure, but it may come in other colors . Here’s the mock-up the company sent. The homeowner requested that Africa be placed in the center . You see what a good job Rebel Walls did with that. The mural that we received was actually a little smaller, and didn’t contain that much of America on the left, nor the far right sides of the countries on the right. Interestingly, the mural doesn’t meet up with itself. In other words, you can’t place two murals side-by-side. Look at the left, where America is. There’s only the eastern half of America. But there is no connecting western half of America on the right side of the mural. So you couldn’t order several of these and place them next to each other, to go around a bedroom , for instance. This may be because the mural was designed to fit one wall only , and to focus on Africa . It’s possible that the same mural is available so that it will connect to itself, and so that you could use it all the way around a room.According to the shipping box, Rebel Walls is also connected with Sandberg , another manufacturer of fine wallpapers . This stuff comes from Sweden . It is a non-woven material and can be hung using the paste the wall method . I often prefer to paste the paper , but on this simple accent wall, I did paste the wall . Saves space, because I don’t have to set up my big table . Non-woven wallpapers don’t expand when wet with paste like traditional papers do, which is a nice advantage for many reasons. They also are durable and stain-resistant . And are also designed to strip off the wall easily and in one piece, and with no damage to your wall when you redecorate . Non-woven is MUCH better than the false-hopes peel & stick material being pushed by some mfgrs today. Click my link to the right. Rebel Walls also includes special paste for this non-woven paper. This is important, because some other types of paste have been known to stain N-W’s, also called blushing – paper looks wet in areas, but never dries out . It’s believed that excess moisture is a reason for this staining / blushing . Which is the main reason why I don’t used the paste provided by RW. If the powdered substance has to be mixed with water to turn into paste , it stands to reason that it can be too liquidy and could bleed through the surface of the wallpaper, causing staining. I prefer a pre-mixed paste made by Roman called 780 . You can also use Roman 838 . These both have lower moisture contents, and have good record of not staining wallpapers . Most Sherwin-Williams stores carry these pastes. But call first!
A few months ago, I papered the adjoining powder room in this same watercolor -y wallpaper pattern. Now that the homeowner’s new custom cabinetry has been installed in the laundry room, I’m papering that area, too. Here’s the before picture.The homeowner made the point that, after all the money they spent on the carpentry, everything was swallowed up by the all-white walls. Well, a little color and pattern from wallpaper changes all that! Besides being beautiful, note how the wallpaper makes the moldings and cabinets stand out. Here the roses look purple … they’re actually more navy blue in color. Close up. The design looks like real watercolor brush strokes. Note there’s a slight pattern mis-match at the seam. This is a very close-up shot. From three feet away, you don’t notice it. Tomorrow I’m hanging another room with the same pattern but from a different run … Let’s see if the pattern matches better in the new run. The pattern is by Caitlin Wilson and is in the Sure Strip line, made by York , one of my favorite manufacturers. This is a unique pre-pasted material, as it’s designed to strip off the wall easily when you redecorate. I like Sure Strip a lot. Do a Search here to read about my install techniques with these. This is a nicely renovated and updated home in the energy corridor / Memorial area of west Houston.
The powder room in this 1990’s home in the Houston Heights is being updated, and that means replacing the wall-to-wall vanity. Here the vanity has been ripped out. The areas where the backsplash was adhered to the wall have pulled the top surface of the drywall off. In addition, the plumber had to cut out a section of drywall in order to gain access to the pipes, so he can install the new faucet and handles. You can see the connections roughed in. You can’t hang wallpaper over this mess. First of all, it way too uneven – all those bumps will show under the new wallpaper. And the outline of the ” trapdoor ” will leave a big square ridge under the paper. Thankfully, the plumber secured the panel with drywall screws – most plumbers just leave you with a chunk of drywall floating in space, or even just an empty hole. Back to patching issues … in addition, the torn areas of drywall will absorb moisture from the wallpaper primer and / or paste and expand, creating bubbles that will show under the new paper. I needed to fill in dips and gouges, even out high areas, and prevent bubbling drywall. Gardz by Zinsser to the rescue! This is a penetrating sealer that soaks into porous surfaces and then dries hard, binding them together and creating a stable surface, as well as resisting moisture from water-based top coatings. This picture doesn’t look much different, but here the torn drywall is a little darker, indicating that the Gardz has soaked in and dried. The surface is now ready for a skim-coat. But first, the trap door needs to be addressed. I covered the cut areas with four strips of self-adhesive mesh drywall tape (no photo). Then I went over everything (wall to wall) with joint compound (commonly referred to as mud ) (no photo). Because of the thickness of the high and low areas, this had to be a thick coat of smoothing compound, and would take a long time to dry. So I went to the jobsite two days ahead of our install date, to do these initial repairs. And – no – you can’t use quick set or hot mud or 5 or 20 minute mud to do these repairs. These products are intended for repairs of small areas. Top coatings like primers, paint, and wallpaper paste do not stick well to them. Don’t let a contractor sweet-talk you into letting him use any of these to smooth a large area of wall.Here is the wall after my first, heavy, coat of smoothing compound. I use Sheetrock brand’s Plus 3.The bubbles you see just left of center show that Gardz didn’t 100% do its job of sealing out moisture, as a little expansion and blistering has occurred. Not a biggie. These will disappear when the surface is sanded. There is usually not a problem with these re-appearing.When I got to work two days later, the smoothing compound had dried. I sanded pretty smooth. Then vacuumed up the dust on the floor, and then used a damp sponge to wipe residual dust off the wall. This is important, because no coating will stick to dust. The wall still wasn’t perfectly smooth, so I did another skim-coat. This was much thinner, so didn’t need a lot of time to dry. I used a fan and my heat gun to speed things along. Once that was dry, I sanded it smooth, vacuumed and then wiped off all dust. Then rolled on my favorite wallpaper primer Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime. I have the paint store (Murphy Brothers in central Houston) add a little blue tint, so I can see it when I apply it to the wall. What a transformation! Now this wall is ready for wallpaper!
Old, dated and dingy paper has been stripped off, walls are primed, and now ready for wallpaper. Done. Palm leaves accent wall on the left looks out into a landscaped courtyard. The quieter paper on the right going on three walls.Close up of the accent wall. The paper has a light sheen. By Fine Decor. A non-woven material / paste the wall installation method (I usually prefer to paste the paper).Bright pastel colors, and an easy-to-live with design that sort of fades into the background, giving a textured look. This is a good choice when you want the items in the room (furnishings, artwork) to take center stage, and the wallpaper simply provides a soft backdrop.Close up.A Street Prints, a very good brand. This is also non-woven, paste-the-wall wallpaper.
This room adjoins the master bath I blogged about on Nov. 12. Scroll down and see how beautifully the papers in all three areas coordinate, both in color and in theme.
Gradually, through my blog posts, you will see how five rooms in this home were updated and “cheered up” by the new colors and patterns.
This home is in League City, a south suburb of Houston.
Nothing wrong with this pattern – just outdated. And starting to fail after more than 20 years on the wall.The new selection is fresh and crisp, and coordinates nicely with the woodwork and tile colors.This bathroom had some Hellishly narrow and awkward spaces to maneuver around in.
After 20+ years in this Willowbend / Meyerland neighborhood, the homeowners are updating several rooms in their home.
With the new wallpaper, this hall bathroom is modernized, yet still in keeping with it’s ’60’s era classic ranch style roots.
The original wall treatment in this dining room was a nicely done deep red faux finish (see yesterday’s post). It was beautiful – but the fauxed trend has run its course, and the homeowner was ready for an updated look.
This lighthearted trellis design (La Giaconda) in gold on cream is checking off all the boxes!
This was a pleasing pattern to work with in this room, because it did not need to be matched absolutely-dutely perfectly. That meant that I could manipulate it where needed to maintain the ceiling line, and to keep things matched up while going around the SIX windows in the room.
The wallpaper manufacturer is Thibaut, and it was purchased from Southwestern Paint, Bissonnet just west of Kirby in Houston.
I normally love Thibaut wallpapers. But this one was oddly thick and stiff, and it had scraggly bits along the edges that I had to remove with a sanding block. The seams didn’t lie down well, and it took me a day and a half to figure out the best approach.
What tamed the beast was to paste the paper, book it, dip the ends in water, put all in a plastic trash bag for several minutes, and then, before hanging, roll a thin stripe of paste onto the wall under where the seams would fall.
Note: The shading on the wall in the 4th picture is shadows from the chandelier.
This week I’m working in a house in the Houston Heights that has been completely updated. The floors were just refinished and sealed, so workers are requested to not wear shoes in the home.
But don’t you think the workmen would set their shoes TO THE SIDE OF THE DOOR, instead of right where everyone needs to walk through?
Originally living in the heart of New York City, these homeowners “got a better offer” and moved to Houston. In a nicely updated 1925 bungalow in the Woodland Heights, life for these two has changed for the better – but the wife still reminisces over the view she had out her skyscraper office window back in NYC.
She found this really cool wallpaper design, which depicts hundreds and hundreds of New York buildings, from tall to gigantic, from the 1800’s to the 2000’s, with many styles of architecture tossed into the mix.
Where did this cool and sentimental wallpaper go? … In the laundry alcove. But it’s not tucked away in the rear of the house … this laundry room is in the main hall leading through the house – which means that this fun and sentimental wallpaper is on view every time anyone walks through the house.
This wallpaper is by York, in their Sure Strip line. It is a thin, easy to manipulate non-woven material, and is designed to strip off the wall easily and with minimal damage, when it’s time to redecorate. This is one of my favorite brands, because it’s easy to work with, doesn’t tear or crease, it doesn’t shrink and gap at the seams, it’s easy to remove, and it will stand up to humidity, such as will exist in a laundry room.
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