REMODEL - Paper Rolls and Paste: Master Bedroom
Don’t touch the wallpaper! Out of all the rooms, the one wallpaper that has always loomed in my brain and was the quickest to transform. Was the master bedroom paper. When hunting for wallpapers for the master bedroom, I really wanted to make this room more mature, and dare I say more sexy for us. Ok, with all the wood details and fixtures, we were leaning more towards luxurious. That’s even evident in terms of my plans for the furniture. All of the fabrics I am looking to recover our master bed, are decadent and bit of whimsy. The wallpaper on the other hand was a different story. I knew that I was going to have artwork up on the walls so using a pattern was going to be very tricky. This was also true for the sitting room And playroom.
My search originally was looking at samples in person at a store that mainly carried sisal or grasscloth. As I was searching for colors. I was looking at a lot of greens and reds and blues. I fell in love initially with a green grass cloth wallpaper from grassclothandmore.com . After I rewrite, they were after the sample arrived, it was pretty evident that the texture was too rough into severe for what I was trying to achieve. I started getting more samples and kept running across on sites like Grasscloth and More fabric wallpaper that had descriptions like nodded thread or even silk. I began ordering samples of these fabric wallpapers, and at the same time talking to my wallpaper installer about what is the right choice, and what kinds of Textures to avoid.
My installer, was extremely helpful in pointing out certain wallpapers that were going to be problematic, papers with heavy textures can prove to be problematic. Then their is size of the rolls sold, and repeat number of patterns. The important lesson was to share anything I was leaning towards to make sure she is okay to work with it. These installers get the science behind hanging, I’ve done wallpaper once, and it was a complete nightmare.
This is swatch photo on grassclothandmore.com - a photo of the real color is below.
During the hunt, it shifted it away from the greens and moved into more blues and neutral colors. I explored all the high-end wallpaper, fabrics, and even talk to one company about providing the fabric to turn into wallpaper. I do recommend the latter option because of the ridiculously inflated cost. I probably spent about two years going through wallpapers, and I saw a trend happening as the construction market was seeing fluctuation in costs. Wallpapers just like wood or even other construction materials, were all fluctuating in that two year period. All in all I probably ordered about 30 to 40 wallpaper samples for the master bedroom and boil I was able to boil that large number down to two styles of silk wallpaper by grassclothandmore.com. As I worked with the installer to figure out measurements and numbers. I started conversations with the manufacturer about ordering and working with the wallpaper.
In the end, we went with a nubby blue string wallpaper. That’s called Slate Blue Vertical String. The one thing our installer mentioned repeatedly, is how delicate the wallpaper was to touch. Fabric wallpapers, pick up oils from hands and even moments with cleaners touch the fabric can easily stain it or leave a residue. After it’s installation, a cleaner accidentally touched the wall while cleaning around the windowsills and framing. Thankfully, the residue Was somewhat clear and was easily brushed off.
Installation went really fast for this room. The installer even painted the joints at the bottom that connected to the wood along the crown molding and baseboards. What’s amazing about this wallpaper, after it’s installation, you could easily fall into how rich the color turns the room into a moody but relaxing atmosphere. It almost wanted me to restrain the floors, a dark color just to emphasize the color and richness. Honestly, I think the light white oak floors compliment the wallpaper perfectly, making the room less weighted. I am even entertaining the idea of have no rug around the bed.
The close up shot of the real color of the wallpaper.
One of the best surprises about this wallpaper was how it interacted with light. In the evenings, when you are mostly dealing with overhead lighting. The knots in the silk create a rainfall effect along the walls. As the light moves or as you move, the knots in the fabric look like drops of water coming from the ceiling. Pricing on the wallpaper in this room wasn’t too bad. Initially we were looking at brands like Ralph Lauren and while they are not extremely high like de Gournay. They can add an additional cost for the paper anywhere from $10,000-$25,000. Personally, I love waking up in this room. Historically I’ve always loved giving our bedroom a dark contrast wall or wall colors, to create a mood. This is amazing nodded silk paper achieves that 10 times fold.
It’s truly amazing how wallpaper can transform an entire room. Even if it’s just one wall or all of the walls. In my next post, I’ll talk more about how we chose to do a different option free trim, but only to change it in the end. What do you think?