Preventing Mars on the Wall & Fixtures

A step ladder, which is what I normally use, does not touch the wall, so there is no worry of marks or dents. But in this room, with it’s high ceilings and awkwardly placed tub, it was necessary to use my extension ladder, which works by leaning against the wall.

In the first photo, you see how a towel is used to protect the wall and woodwork from the ladder. In the second shot, the tub has been well-padded, before placing the ladder inside (the only way to access the walls above it).

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Knuckle-Buster Ceiling

Recently, I posted a photo of my finger after a run-in with a razor blade. Here’s another danger you won’t even think about … until you’re running your hand or a tool along the ceiling line, and bang your knuckles on the thick, hard, shark’s tooth-sharp texture on the ceiling!

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Railroading and Double Cutting

This faux finish pattern had no real direction, so the eye didn’t notice if it hung right-side-up, upside-down, or sideways. This kitchen had lots of horizontal spaces, all shorter than the width of the wallpaper. So I was able to “railroad” the paper – run it laterally – on the long horizontal runs. This provides a nice straight line at the ceiling, and, most important, eliminates seams.

With a strip run horizontally intersecting with a strip run vertically, it’s impossible to match the pattern. So, to minimize the pattern mis-match, I overlapped the pieces and did a double cut (splice), using a curved line, rather than a straight cut, to disguise the seam.

This faux finish wallpaper is by Chesapeake Easy-Walls, #PN58593

Even Guys on HGTV Don’t Like Working in Hi-Rises

Yesterday I blogged about a wallpaper project Candice Olson was doing for an HGTV show. The job was in a large city, in a mid- or high-rise building, with no elevator.

I’m sure that many contractors scramble and fight to win the opportunity to be on HGTV.* Well, I just had to laugh as the show went along. One of the contractors was NOT happy about working in the walk-up mid-rise building – and for the very same reasons that I will hardly ever work in that type of setting.

Parking faaaar away. Lugging heavy and awkward tools and supplies up many, many flights of stairs. Restricted working hours limiting how much work you can accomplish in a day. Rules about noise and odors. Persnickety door men and building supervisors.

I’ve learned to pass those types of jobs on to buddies of mine who don’t mind the hassles. Unfortunately for the contractors on today’s HGTV program, he had probably signed a contract and was stuck with all the difficulties that came with working in that building. I hope it worked out for him, in the end, that lots of people saw his company name and hired him to do thier remodel jobs. Hopefully in GROUND LEVEL homes!

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Classic Circus Pattern in a Child’s Bathroom

This is a classic pattern that has been in the book for decades; I had another client looking at it recently, in a different color. Dang but I can’t remember the manufacturer, but, if you want to know, I can get the info for you. Dorota at Southwestern Paint will know it immediately.

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Upside Down

This was hung in the entry of a house some years back. Note that it is UPSIDE DOWN. My finger is pointing up; the pattern is pointing down.

A family lived with that for many years, and I’ll bet they never even noticed.

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The Last Corner Never Matches

As you go around the room hanging paper, you match the pattern from strip to strip. However, once you make it all the way around and are back at your starting point, the last corner is never going to match perfectly. (Not unless the distance around the room is an exact multiple of the width of the pattern repeat, which is a chance in about five million.)

So you plot ahead of time to put the last, unmatched corner in the least conspicuous spot, usually over an entry door. With some patterns, there are little tricks you can do to disguise it, but usually you’re just stuck with a somewhat-but-hopefully-not-disagreeable pattern mis-match.

I think this one I did today turned out pretty darned well.

The biggest challenge was keeping the horizontal lines at the same height. You see, walls are never plumb, and corners are never straight. So as you go around the room, the pattern can move up or down on the wall. This one did, too. On the right side of the wall, one of the black horizontal lines was 2 1/4″ from the ceiling, and on the left side of the wall, the lines were at 2.” I wanted the horizontal lines to match up, but moving such a strong visual element up or down can be tricky. Not only do you want them to match each other side-to-side, but you want them to be at the same distance from the ceiling and from the tops of doors and windows. Your eye will definately notice if the distances are off.

What I did today turned out nicely. Can you see the hexagon that is slightly wider than the others, with the double vertical line? The fact that it’s smack in the middle of the corner helps fool the eye.  It doesn’t pop out at you, the horizontal lines match up, and the elements along the top of the door and at the ceiling are equal heights, so the mis-match is not too noticeable.

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One More Comment About Shading in Grasscloth

I discussed shading / paneling in previous posts. Can you hang with me on just one more comment about the topic?

One way to minimize shading is to reverse-hang every other strip, meaning, you hang the first strip right-side-up, and the second one upside-down, the third one right-side-up, and so on.

The idea is that if there is slightly more color printed on the right side of the roll, if you reverse the next strip, you are placing the same side of the roll against itself. This greatly minimizes any color variations, at least that your eye can detect. It sounds confusing, but if you just take a long piece of paper, color one long edge blue, tear it in half horizontally, and then place the two pieces next to one another, first with both pieces right side up, and then turning one of them upside down, you will see what I mean.

Anyway, the point is that that trick doesn’t work with grasscloth, at least not natural-colored grasscloth. For starters, all the fibers are natural, and vary in color and width, so it doesn’t matter how you turn them – there is never going to be any match.

I also am reluctant to reverse-hang grasscloth (and certain other solid-color goods) because I worry about a sheen, or nap, or other directional element that may be imposed on the material, that you don’t consciously notice, but that would catch your eye if that “rythmn” were disturbed.

As an example of that, look closely at the photo; enlarge it if you can. You will notice that the grass fibers seem to go downward ever so slightly on either end of each strip – sort of like they are frowning. If I were to reverse every other strip, you would have one strip frowning, one strip smiling, the next one frowning again, and then another one smiling. From a distance, this would give a very wavy look to the wall.

Now, if you WANTED that look, you could plot to hang the room that way. Personally, I think uniformity is a much better goal. At least, as uniform as you can get with a decicedly UNuniform product such as grasscloth.

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Soft and Pink for a Young Girl’s Room

Getting to the last two strips on an accent wall in a young girl’s bedroom.

Accent walls are a great way to pump up the volume of a room’s decor, with minimal investment in paper and labor.

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A Paperhanger’s Favorite Kind of Toilet

The strip on the right is in place, and the strip on the left is in the process of being hung.

What I like about this toilet, what makes my heart all aflutter, is that I CAN GET MY HAND BEHIND IT!

That means I can properly butt the seam, smooth the paper into place, and be sure it will stay nice and tight against the wall.

This is rare, folks.  Most of the time, I’m wrestling some tool behind the toilet tank, trying to push the paper against the wall, or, in some cases, actually cutting the paper around a tank that is rammed up tightly against the wall.

A little space is sooo much better.

Make a note of that, all you plumbers out there!

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