Cole & Son Monkeys Liven Up Laundry Day

Look close – there are monkeys stealing fruit !

Window wall before. Here I’ve applied my wallpaper primer to the upper portion of the wall, and am working my way down.

Closer view of sink area.

The dryer and washer will be placed against this wall, and into this corner .

If there’s any words to describe this family , it’s lively and fun-loving . No wonder the mom chose this pattern !

The interior designer loved it, too. Stacie Cokinos of Cokinos Design .

The wallpaper pattern is by Cole & Son , a long-established British company , in their Fornasetti (” edgy ” ) line. Like most British papers these days, this is a non-woven material and a paste the wall installation method . Although I usually prefer to paste the paper .

The pattern is called Frutto Proibito – Forbidden Fruit . This is in a townhome in the Montrose area of central Houston .

Fun Color and Lively Pattern for a Rice U. Area Powder Room

This powder room in a 1939 home near Rice University (Houston) also serves as the laundry. The previous owners had painted the room a grey semi-gloss. Serviceable, but lifeless. The new owners have a just-learning-to-walk little girl, and a more vibrant lifestyle. This wild and colorful floral pattern is just what was needed to wake up the room.

This pattern is reminiscent of the chintz designs that were popular in the 1990’s. But it’s updated by it’s overscale size, and the bright, edgy colors that are used.

I particularly like the way it works with the green vanity. In fact, parts of the room behind the appliances could not be papered (could not move the washer & dryer out of the way, one wall had too much weirdness going on – really bad surface, hoses and wires running through it, very large gaps) so the homeowners will paint that wall with a semi-gloss paint, which will be resistant to splashes from laundry day. They were thinking of white, but I suggested using the same green as on the vanity. It’s a lot more fun than plain old white, and it will tie the room together.

This room was difficult to paper, because of the wonky walls, unfortuitous placement of windows, doors, bump-outs, etc., none of which synced with the width of the wallpaper, hoses and pipes I had to trim around (sorry, no photo 😦 ), and lots more. Take a look at the soffit – easy to look at, but difficult to get paper on – luckily the pattern is wild enough that unavoidable mismatches are not noticeable.

This “Portofino” wallpaper pattern is by Thibaut Designs, and was very nice to work with. 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.

What’s It Like to Wallpaper Behind a Washing Machine?

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Originally, this laundry room had the White Wall Woes – too much of nothing. Once the wallpaper went up, the room took on warmth and a cheery personality. The homeowner, an interior designer, loved the way the pattern made the low ceilings look higher. And the color perfectly melds with the color of the woodwork.

What’s it like to hang wallpaper in a laundry room when the washer & dryer are still in the room? Well, you do a lot of reaching, squeezing, and contorting. Luckily for me, I’m small.

Because my ladder would not fit behind the appliances, I had to stand on the W & D (being careful to distribute my weight to the frame, not the center). This worked out because the ceiling was low enough that I could reach the top of the wall by standing on the W & D.

That took care of the top of the strips of wallpaper. To smooth them into place along the lower portion of the wall, I had to squeeze myself into that narrow space you see in the third photo, and work around all those hoses and wires.

This is a very nicely remodeled bungalow in the Woodland Heights (Houston), with a 2-story addition on the back. This room was in the new section, and it had about the most plumb walls and level floors / ceilings I have worked with – all important when dealing with strong straight lines such as these picture frames.

Nonetheless, I did have to pull a few tricks out of my hat, to keep the pattern looking straight around the whole room and against all the moldings.

This wallpaper is by Sanderson, a British company, and is called “Picture Gallery.” It is on a non-woven substrate and is intended to be a paste-the-wall product, but in this room with complicated cuts and narrow spaces, it was preferable to paste the material.

The interior designer (and home owner) is Stacie Cokinos, of Cokinos Design. All of the jobs I have done for her have been remodels or new builds in the greater Heights area of Houston.

Interestingly enough, I’ve had a number of queries and jobs about wallpaper in laundry rooms. It must be a new trend. I think this newish non-woven material will work well in a humid room, whereas the paper-backed solid vinyls that were popular for decades are a poor choice, due to moisture getting into the seams and causing curling.

And you just have to love the idea of doing mundane housework in a cherry, pretty setting!