Moody and dark. A great, snug place to hunker down and spend the day on the computer , working from home . But maybe a little too much dark ? An accent wall brightens the space and adds interest . Makes a day at work more inviting. BTW, those windows with their bull-nosed edges / rounded corners are a bear to hang wallpaper around, requiring special techniques. I won’t go into details, but, after applying my wallpaper primer, just this one wall took me about six hours. Surprise! Look closely and notice the jungle theme , with palm trees and leopards . I centered the pattern between the windows , for a balanced look. Close up. See the fibers on the torn edge of the wallpaper strip ? This is a non-woven material , also called paste the wall , and has a 20% polyester content . Thus the fibers. This stuff is simpler to hang than traditional wallpapers . Also more washable and stain-resistant , and will strip off the wall easily and with no damage to the wall when you redecorate later. These days, most people don’t use land lines or phone jacks . So I removed the wall plate , and stuffed the connector into the wall . Then I hung the wallpaper over the hole / box . It’s right above the head of the cat on the left. If the homeowners ever want to access the phone line , they can easily cut the wallpaper to open up the box , then reconnect it and then screw the wallplate back into place. The wallpaper is by York , under the designer Ronald Redding . The label says it’s a paste the paper installation method , but in actuality, the instruction leaflet enclosed inside the roll is correct – it can be hung via the paste the wall method . Usually I prefer to paste the paper . This is a newish townhome in the Sawyer Yards area of Houston .
The owners love the large home office in their new house, and it’s been a real boon while they are working from home during the COVID pandemic.
But they learned real quickly that wild wallpaper in the background doesn’t make for a professional meeting experience on Zoom!
So I stripped the paper off, and they will paint instead. This was a non-woven material, and stripped off the wall fairly easily by simply pulling – carefully. That’s exactly what non-wovens were designed to do.
Rather than try to strip the whole panel off the wall, which does put quite a bit of stress on the wall surface below, another option is to separate the top, inked layer from the backing, as you see in the second photo. The white is the backing left on the wall. This is pretty easy to do, in most cases.
Then all you need to do is to use a sponge and bucket of water to soak that backing until the paste becomes soft and reactivated. Then it’s easy to peel the backing away from the wall. This puts virtually no stress on the wall and usually leaves you with a perfectly intact surface underneath.
There are more detailed instructions on my “How to Strip Wallpaper” page link to the right.
Before. Original chalkboard paint sealed off with KILZ Original to block any oil residue from chalk that might bleed through the wallpaper. Then primed with Roman 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer. Finished. Airy, floral, fun place to work!First strip goes up, lined up against the red light of my laser level. I measured and plotted the placement so that the center of that dominant black flower would drop along the vertical center line of the wall (about 8″ to the right of the laser line). Detail. I like the shadows in the background. Close-up shows pen & ink, and water color look of this design. Manufacturer is York, one of my preferred brands. http://www.yorkwall.com
Working from home these days, the homeowner wanted an office that was bright and encouraged creativity. The black chalkboard paint scrawled with slogans and proverbs had to go!
Almost exactly a month ago, I prepped the walls and started to hang the paper – only to discover printing and trimming defects. See my post from May 26, 2021. The on-line vendor, Burke Decor, was quick to ship out replacement paper from a different run. The new paper was fine.
The new light sconce plays off the black and gold colors in the wallpaper.
This refreshing yet peaceful abstract floral pattern sets the perfect tone, when your office is in your home.
The home is in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.
I was working in the remodeled living room of a home out in the Memorial Villages (west Houston). I had the space to myself, even with a private water supply (wet bar). The family was in the rear of the house.
I had spent two days smoothing and priming the walls, and on Day 3 had set up my table, unrolled two bolts, and was plotting the layout of the wallpaper pattern.
The homeowner, who has been working from home, just happened to wander past at that time. (keeping 8′ distance) She noticed that the paper I had spread out on my table was not the same shade as the sample she and the designer had chosen.
Sure enough – the paper was the wrong pattern number – two digits off.
Whew! I had not cut anything yet. So there should be no problems in sending the material back and exchanging for the correct colorway.
So lucky the homeowner was there – or I would have had two walls up by the end of the day.
The issue now is, with the virus crisis, shipping is bollixed up, and so is manufacturing and warehousing. So it’s not certain when that replacement paper will be here.
I got a call from a gal this morning, who is currently working from home.
She said that since she is locked in the house, she has been staring at bland, boring, grey walls – and has concluded that wallpaper will be her salvation!
So once we are free to move around again, I hope to pay a site visit and then help her get some rooms beautified and un-grey-ified. 🙂
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