LK Marketing and Real Estate

Wallpaper Accents

Designer: Maria DeGange of Chroma Home
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
Size: 62½ square feet (5.8 square meters); 12½ by 5 feet

Homeowners’ request. Convert an original 1970s guest bath into a practical, easy-to-care-for bathroom, on a budget, with a soaking tub and safe access to the shower for the homeowners’ visually impaired son. 

Great idea. Wallpapered partial walls (Aquarium by Osborne & Little). “It presents images of colorful fish made out of crochet-like stitches,” designer Maria DeGange says. “As the house is in Florida, and the wife loves crochet and a bit of whimsy, I knew that was the perfect choice. The paper comes in three colorways, but the black makes an amazing effect, especially contrasting white surfaces, which I had in this case.”

Other special features. DeGange placed the faucet controls on the long wall to make it easier to turn on without getting sprayed by the shower head. The controls sit amid cascade-style accent tiles that form a stripe, creating a focal point in the room. Other special features include ceramic subway tile for the main wall areas, a mercury glass pendant for the toilet area, wood-like porcelain floor tile and a mother-of-pearl vanity mirror. 

Designer secret. “This wallpaper has a pretty big-scale pattern, which could be a scary choice for most people for such a small space,” DeGange says. “Sometimes big-scale items make a small space look bigger, so I took that risk.”

“Uh-oh” moment. “When we gutted the old shower, we found a huge hole on the wall that you could see outside,” DeGrange says. “Ants were coming through. We had to seal and fix the wall from the exterior and also add insulation from the interior part of the wall. That was not part of the budget.”

*Info provided by Houzz.com

Next time….Shower Wall Feature Tile