Romantic Vintage Look Rose Bedroom Accent Wall

Textured wall has been skim-floated smooth , primed , and ready for wallpaper .

This pattern is called Smoky Rose and also London Rose . Both are appropriate!

Charcoal on an off-white background . Up close, it looks like water color strokes.

The wallpaper is by House of Hackney . Most of their wallpapers are the user-friendly non-woven material. This one surprised me being a British pulp. This is a rather old-fashioned basic paper material with no protective coating. It’s brittle when dry and gets soggy when wet with paste, making it tear easily or to drag when the razor blade runs across it. Definitely takes a different approach during installation .
I was lucky enough to have hung a pulp just the day before, so was in good practice!
Although not resistant to stains and tricky to work with, I do like the matt finish and how the paper dries tight and flat to the wall.

Buffalo Check in North Houston Laundry Room

I hung this bold and fun pattern a few years ago in a Spring (north Houston) laundry room. I’m back this week to wallpaper their kitchen, so took a minute to snap this shot.

It has a hand painted , water color -y look. I don’t remember the brand, but I’m thinking it’s from the Joanna Gaines Magnolia Home Collection in the SureStrip line by York.

Brightened Bathroom

Original vinyl wallpaper in this bathroom was peeling badly, due to humidity and poor ventilation. The design was dated, too. And, gee – borders are pretty much a thing of the past. Time for an update.

Old paper has been stripped off, wall has been primed. Ready for the new stuff!

What a pretty and cheery pattern! The window looks out to a lush and green backyard, and this foliage-themed wallpaper helps pull the feeling inside.

I was losing natural daylight, so the pretty blue and lime tones are not showing up well.

The colors are a little more true here. This almost looks like a water color painting!

A Street Prints is the manufacturer. This is non-woven material, also called paste-the-wall. It went up very nicely. And, because there is no vinyl and because the substrate has a higher polyester content and less paper, this should hold up much better in the humid bathroom. Nonetheless, I did lecture the homeowner to run the exhaust fan and to keep the bathroom door open for air circulation.

The home is in the League City subdivision south of Houston.

“Burst Pipe” Powder Room Repaired and Updated

Before – new drywall has ben skim-floated and is clean, but, gee, it’s boring … and lends nothing to the room.

After. Now the room has color, movement, and feels more spacious.

This beautiful, sculpted mirror was found at Ballard Designs new brick & mortar store on W. Gray in the River Oaks Shopping Center. Ballard also has a wallpaper section, and experienced designers to help you. Call first, because they stay pretty booked.

The colors in the wallpaper coordinate beautifully with the granite countertop, and the brushed copper fixtures (faucets, hand towel rings, etc.)

Close-up shows the water color-y appearance of this pattern, as well as the cool shadow effect.

This wallpaper is by York, one of my favorite d brands, and is in the Candice Olson (of HGTV fame) line. It was a joy to work with, and will hold up nicely in this powder room. It is made of the classic paper material, nice and thin, clings tightly to the wall, and easy enough to remove when it’s time to redecorate.

This home experienced severe damage during the February 2021 freeze here in Houston. Just about everything had to be replaced, including floors, walls, cabinets, and tons more. The homeowners took advantage of the tragedy to update as they made repairs.

You couldn’t possibly find a better wallpaper pattern for this room … the colors meld perfectly with the floor, paint, granite countertop, and metal fixtures. The limited pallet keeps the paper from being too busy. The scale covers the walls nicely without feeling crowed or too busy.

Ron Dillon of Calico (a.k.a. Calico Corners) at 1845 W. Alabama in Montrose helped these homeowners pull everything together. Calico has a good selection of wallpaper brands. Ron has been handling wallpaper for decades, so is one of the best in town to help you track down just the right pattern.

This home is in the Old Braeswood / Boulevard Oaks / Medical Center / Rice University neighborhood of Houston.

Pretty Leaves and Birds in Northwest Houston Powder Room

Walls were originally mud-brown. Here my wallpaper primer has been applied.

So lively and fresh!

Close-up.

Detail. It looks like a water color artist has taken his brush to the walls.

Wallquest – one of my preferred brands.

A once-drab, cookie-cutter powder room in a new build in Cypress (far northwest Houston) is now airy and fresh, thanks to this water color-y pattern of trees, leaves, and birds.

The manufacturer is Wallquest, and the wallpaper was purchased at Ballard Designs. This well-loved mail order company has a brand new actual store on W. Gray in River Oaks / Montrose (Houston). They sell a number of wallpaper brands (good quality and medium price range), and have designers with extensive wallpaper experience available to help you (call before heading over).

Serena & Lily “Feather” in Houston Play Room

The original all-white walls didn’t do much to make this play room for young kids feel fun. Mom chose “Feather” by Serena & Lily to pump it up a couple of notches!

In the close-up photo, you can see the irregular lines of this design, as well as the hand-painted, watercolor-y look. The material has a slight “raised ink” texture.

You might think the pattern is a little busy now, but once the furniture is back in place and the artwork goes up, the room will feel more balanced.

The homeowners also commented that the pattern on the walls makes the room feel bigger and less “lost” than with the all-white look.

The home is in the Braes Heights neighborhood of southwest inner Loop Houston. The wallpaper is called “Feather” and is by Serena & Lily – one of my favorite brands.

“Big Girl’s Room” Gets Ants from Anthropologie

Here’s a bright and cheerful, watercolor-y pattern that is popular for little girls’ rooms.

I hung it on an accent wall in a toddler’s room in a home in the Timbergrove neighborhood of Houston.

The name of the pattern is “Ants,” and it’s sold through Anthropologie. The manufacturer is York, and it’s in their Sure Strip line of pre-pasted, thin non-woven, easily removable papers, and is one of my favorite brands to hang.

’90’s Check to Magnolia Buffalo Check

The differences in the before and after photos are subtle, so look carefully!

This laundry room in a far-north neighborhood of Houston (Louetta & I-45 area) happily sported it’s black & white checkered pattern for many years. The wallpaper dated to the ’90’s, but still looked fresh, and the homeowner loved it.

But an unfortunate water leak caused damage to the window wall, and a poor repair job left a very visible pattern mis-match over the window. Then another water leak required new drywall to be patched in behind the washer and dryer (see top photo). So once the repairs were made, the homeowner wanted to redo the room, and do a little updating along the way.

I stripped the old wallpaper, performed necessary patching and prep, primed the walls with Roman’s Ultra Prime Pro 977 wallcovering primer, and came back the next day to hang the new paper.

The new pattern is also a black & white checkered design, but it’s larger-scaled, and is just large enough to be called a “buffalo check.”

It’s also a freer design – meaning that the wavy edges of the vertical and horizontal pattern, along with the watercolor features of the ink, afforded me some breathing room while dealing with walls and ceiling that were not perfectly plumb and level.

This pattern is in the Magnolia Home collection (Joanna Gaines) by York Wall. It was bought from my favorite source for good quality, product knowledge, expert service, and competitive price – 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.

Way Fun Splotchy, Inky Lines in a Heights Powder Room

Here we are, in another new tract home in inside-the-Loop Houston, with a generic look and beige-everything. The homeowners have twin daughters who are just learning to walk, and they wanted their home to reflect the fresh energy of the young family.

Here comes a fun “angled, tufted pillow” sort of design to the rescue!

This cool design looks like it was hand-drawn in watercolor paint, and has a distinct Rorschach Ink Blot Test feel to it.

“Shibori” in Indigo Blue is by Graham & Brown. It is a nice-quality non-woven material, and was nice to work with. It should hold up very nicely as this young family grows.

Non-wovens are also designed to strip off the wall easily and with little-to-no damage to the walls when it’s time to redecorate.

Bringing Dull Grey to Life

This homeowner in the Galleria / Highland Village area of Houston is from Madrid, and had this wallpaper in her home there. She loved it.

When the family moved to Houston, she brought the paper with her. Well, first there was a detour to London, England, to pick up the paper from where it is made.

The new house is beautiful, but it was dark, with lots of grey and grey-based colors everywhere. The kitchen even had a wall painted in chalkboard paint – an oppressing mass of solid black.

The new wallpaper, called Madam Butterfly (by Designers Guild), adds a happy feel of uplifted cherry buds and blossoms, and a cherry color palate of both light and bold pinks.

The colors work together beautifully. There is just enough pink to compliment the grey cabinets, without being too cartoonish or girly. The design looks like swoops of water color paint – like a Japanese painting. And I love the upward movement of the tree blossoms.

In addition, the adjoining rooms all have accents of the hot pink color, from sofa pillows to artwork to vases to a divine hot pink divan sitting center stage in the family room.