Chuck finished the bamboo flooring treatment in the master bedroom. What a transformation! We love it. With about $200 in materials, some specialized tools, and Chuck’s design and fabrication expertise it all came together.
Now the whole room is a warm, cozy retreat. I love how the how the wood tones are reflected in the orange and brown wallpaper, along with more accents of orange and blue in the pillows, lamps, upholstery and carpet.
Chuck just pasted the new wallpaper in the master bedroom. Isn’t it fabulous?
It’s the Graham&Brown pattern called “Trippy” and we’re so excited to see it up. It’s a bold splash of color and pattern on one accent wall and really enlivens the space.
We thought it looked familiar and what do you know? Set designers on at least three TV shows love it too! Here it is on Mad Men:
And 2 Broke Girls:
And Shameless:
Our wallpaper is everywhere! Can we get a cut of the royalties?
Chuck has been very busy with many projects lately. The house is really coming together. Remember the atmospheric blue Graham&Brown wallpaper he picked for the guest room?
Here it is on the wall!
It coordinates perfectly with the other three painted walls, and it’s a beautiful contrast with the white trim and oak floor. What’s not obvious in the picture is the rich texture and hint of metallic shimmer. The recessed lights rake across the walls at night, highlighting the effect.
This will make a perfect guest room, especially with the comfy and chic new sleeper sofa that’s coming this week from Room&Board. The turned walnut legs add just the right mid-century touch.
Remember my post about our wallpaper? Well, Chuck is pasting it now. Whenever we tell people we’re using wallpaper in our mid-century modern house we get double-takes. And I understand why. We’ve all suffered through way too many sad, florid, hyper-ornamental patterns covering every conceivable surface in the 70s and 80s. I had a cousin who even papered the electrical outlets to match her mauve rose trellis pattern. Some things can’t be unseen after you’ve seen them.
What’s different today? Modern wallpaper has bold, graphic patterns (not tiny florals or watery pastels) and we never paper an entire room—we limit the paper to a single accent wall in a room. And there’s no such thing as a modern wallpaper border; we carry the entire pattern floor to ceiling. To refresh your memory, here are our patterns, from English manufacturer Graham & Brown:
Chuck is starting in the dining room, where the subtle white and silver “Darcy” pattern is a perfect backdrop for an art gallery wall. White paper also brightens this ocean view space by reflecting even more light around the room. For professional looking results, you have to make sure the surface has been prepared. The original walls were so heavily patched and rough (from the amateur kitchen cabinets that had been roughly glued and screwed into the walls) that we had to install brand new sheetrock to get a smooth surface. The next step is a coat of wallpaper primer. It seals the drywall and improves the adhesiveness of wallpaper paste.
Chuck then carefully aligned the panels, matching the pattern on each strip precisely, after applying all-purpose adhesive to the wall. Check your wallpaper before buying the paste. Some papers require specialized vinyl-to-vinyl adhesive, while others come pre-pasted. Other papers may require you to apply paste to the paper instead of the wall, which is much harder to handle correctly. Chuck loves that the Graham & Brown paper is made with a special “Paste-the-Wall” technology; that type is easier to install. Even so, any wallpapering is a painstaking process, because you have to watch everything to make sure the patterns are exactly aligned and press out any unsightly bubbles quickly before the paste sets. And then enjoy the results!
Somehow I think there won’t be many people reading my blog just this minute. Here’s some counter-programming: our wallpaper. Chuck is an amazing designer, and he picked these gorgeous patterns from Graham&Brown. Graham&Brown is a British company that’s been making wallpaper since 1946. They’re not cheap, but the quality and patterns are top-notch.
I know what you’re thinking. Wallpaper? Isn’t that a bit, well, old? After some terrible childhood memories from the 70s I wanted nothing to do with the stuff for years. But many of the new patterns out today are handsome and modern. And to avoid a dated, claustrophobic effect, we’re using paper as accent walls, not to cover every surface in a room.
Here’s the dining room, in “Darcy.” The restrained white and metallic silver palette will be a fine background for the art gallery wall.
And here’s one bedroom in “Lucid.” It has a lush velvety texture and a hint of metallic glimmer.
And for some drama: “Trippy.” We decided to pull out all the stops to brighten a room with the warm orange and dark caramel tones in a bold graphic design.
And now for a preview of our color scheme. Our views are of ocean, hills, and sky so we’re going with watery cool blues and grays in the tiles, paint color, wallpaper and countertops. The wood tones in the original hardwood floors and new cabinets, along with some accent wallpaper will warm it up. We’re getting the cabinets and countertops from Chuck’s C W Quinn Home showroom in San Luis Obispo, of course. It’s very convenient to be married to a kitchen and bath designer for a project of this scope.
930 Stratford 