Create a Feature Wall (by Clarisse Camborde, Unik Home Staging)

When decorating a room, always start by deciding what will be the “focal point”. In fact, each setting must have a main point of interest: a painting, a fireplace, furniture, a wall…That is the starting point of any setting. One technique is to create a feature wall: by using color or texture, it becomes the spotlight of the room.

Which wall to choose? This may be a wall facing the entrance of the room or a wall that shows off an architectural feature that you would like to highlight, such as a fireplace, a partition or even a wall that links various open space areas. In the bedroom, we generally choose the one with the headboard. Follow your instincts to decide which one to highlight.

The various techniques:

Paint: choose a contrasting color from the other walls in the room.

Source: journalhabitation.com

Wallpaper: very trendy and offering many possibilities, wallpaper gives a lot of personality and originality to your décor.

Source: designmag.fr

The textured wall: whether it is a brick, wood or stone wall, your wall gives character to your decor.

Source: homedzine.co.za

The 3D wall: another trend, the 3D wall.  It is more than a texture; it adds volume to your decor.

Source: decor-touch.com

The mural: increasingly popular in decorating techniques, it offers many possibilities: landscape, brick, wood or concrete wall aspect, metallic finish, geometric shapes … Let your imagination run wild!  It installs like wallpaper, and lets you create, at a lesser cost, a unique decor.  For example, by using a landscaping image, we can highlight the room’s perspective and increase the sense of space.  We find murals of all kinds of styles and dimensions. Dare to try it! 

Source: muralunique.com

You are now equipped with the tools to create your feature wall. Get to work! Clarisse Camborde, www.unikhomestaging.com (514)707-2824

How to Remove Wallpaper

Market research shows that 9 out of 10 people who have had to remove wallpaper will never use wallpaper again. Yet with some simple steps, there is nothing easier. Here’s how to remove wallpaper, step by step, no matter what type of wallpaper it is.

1-Some wallpapers are dry removable. Do a test by pulling the corner of a strip from the bottom on a 45 degree angle. If it rips into small pieces, go to Step 3.

2-If the wallpaper is a quality vinyl, the vinyl part will be dry removable but the paper backing will stick to the wall. Then jump to step 4 and 5 and then to 8.

3-You must understand that if the wallpaper is not dry removable, we must find a way to reactivate the glue behind it. This is the secret.

4-Before beginning Step 8, cover electrical outlets with duct tape to prevent any infiltration of water and place old towels on the floor near the wall.

5-Fill a bucket of warm water mixed with a little vinegar.

6-Then do a test to see what kind of wallpaper you are dealing with. Moisten a corner section of the wallpaper with a sponge and wait 10 minutes. If the section comes off easily, you have managed to reactivate the glue and can now go to step 8. If it doesn’t come of easily, you are dealing with a waterproof vinyl or coated vinyl. Then go to step 7.

7-With a sandpaper number 40 or 60,the surface to allow the water to penetrate. A quick back and forth sanding motion will be enough.

8-Use a paint roller (with long hair if you have one) and soak it into a bucket of warm water mixed with a little vinegar. Then from the bottom up, liberally apply as much water as possible as if you were painting the wall.

9-Wait 8 to 10 minutes and then try to remove the strip as you did in the first step. If it still rips in small pieces, repeat step 8 and be patient. The glue has probably hardened over several years.

10-In some cases, you may have to use a scraper, but in principle, you should be able to remove the strips almost in one piece.

11-Once the wallpaper is removed, it is important to remove any residual glue (if you intend to repaint or use wallpaper). A little baking soda in hot water will help dilute the glue. In the case of very abundant glue, you will need to use to use a scraper. 

Link on our website: http://www.muralunique.com/how-to-remove-wallpaper.html
You can contact us if you have any questions: www.muralunique.com/contact

Wallpaper Trends 2014

People often ask us what are the latest trends in wallpaper. It is easy for us to have the “pulse” of the market as we are in continual contact with our customers, designers and the leaders in home design.  Although classic images such as landscapes or city scenes are among the most popular, people are now very interested in “textures,” such as brick, wood, concrete, stone, etc…

With current technology, we can print wallpaper murals of absolutely extraordinary resolution (400-to-over-600 megapixels). To achieve this resolution, an image has to be photographed numerous times (20-to-140, 36-megapixels images), in a grid pattern and then stitched together to form a complete image.

Here is an example of a mural with a resolution of 430 megapixels, our wall mural “Something Concrete” (photography by Donn Petelka). Donn Petelka is our photographer specializing in very high resolution images and textures. His images are of such quality resolution that the mural looks “real”. If you saw us at the SIDIM (Montreal International Design Show) or at the Home Show in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa or Toronto (IDS, National Home Show, Green Living Show), you’ve probably seen our wallpaper murals and understand what we mean. To view his images, go to the section “Search by Artist / Donn Petelka” on our website. You can also go to the “Textures” section: www.muralunique.com/textures.

Remember that if you have any questions, you can contact us at any time at the following e-mail: info@muralunique.com or from the contact page of our website.