CityView Magazine

20 March 2023 "It was fantastic. It opened everything up, and the wallpaper is crisp, new and fresh. I loved the end result. It's peaceful," Fortson says. For the powder room, she went with a similar scale blue-and-white wallpaper. "It went from black with dark, large furniture to more functional and lighter. It's so much better," Fortson says. Fortson loves the look so much that she didn't want to stop. "I wanted to do the ceiling in the dining room, but my husband, Alvin, said no," she says with a laugh. Less mess, less stress As an interior designer in Fayetteville since the 1980s, Camille Tyson has seen wallpaper trends come and go. It has made a comeback in the past eight years or so, she says. Tyson says when she started in the business, the wallpaper, fabric and bedding all matched. Installers would paste wallpaper directly onto wallboard. "ere were large shapes, busy florals and country patterns, and when you tried to get it off, it would pull off the Sheetrock," she recalls. "People remember buying houses in the 2000s, and that it was a big hassle to remove it. You would have to get a contractor come and mud the Sheetrock because you couldn't repaint unless the walls were smooth. "at's really when wallpaper came to a screeching halt and wallpaper companies went out of business. People remember how hard it was to remove." Some people would skip steps and try to paint over wallpaper, but seams would show through the paint or wall coverings would bubble up. "It was just a nightmare. … But it is easier now," says Tyson. Wallpaper is now central to almost every decorating job for Tyson, who says a new wall-prep process has made all the difference. "e change is how the wall prep is painted on before the wallpaper goes on. When the wallpaper goes on, it stays in place but is very easy to remove," says Tyson. "e industry had to do this in order for wallpaper to come back." In the past year, Tyson has decorated two beach houses using wallpaper. She balances pattern and texture to add interest to plain walls. "In houses with 9- to 10-foot ceilings and open floor plans, it gets boring if you just use paint and don't incorporate texture or pattern. e wallpaper helps bring your eyes up and around the room," says Tyson. "I also put wallpaper on ceilings in smaller rooms like powder rooms. Powder rooms tend to be tall and narrow, so if you add the ceiling into the design of the room, it makes the room cozier because it brings the ceiling down," she says. "People don't need to be afraid of adding pattern to design." Texture and style For 40 years, Bobby Cruz has installed wallpaper. He agrees that it's more popular now because it's easier to handle. "In my beginning days in the 1980s, we were just jamming installing wallpaper," Cruz says. "We went through a ton of it in every bathroom and kitchen. I never really saw a drop-off because builders in condominiums would want it installed." Now aer years of declining sales, he, too, has seen wallpaper come back in favor. "When I first started installing wallpaper, it went straight on the painted wall. e paste from the wallpaper ate the paint, and then you had loose seams coming off the wall. Paint is just not good for wallpaper," Cruz says. "Now, wallpaper has a primer which gives it a good adhesion, but it releases, enabling it to come off without causing damage to the wall." Donnie Brewington, who has been hanging wallpaper since 1973, says wallpaper is popular again because it adds a splash of pattern or color without the work and time needed for faux finishing. "Faux finishes, though, became a short fad, but now wallpaper is very high-end and elegant. Wallpaper like grass cloth has always been big and is bigger than ever now. It's been around forever. It never went out of style. Texture is what people like that they can't get with just paint," says Brewington. "People are using wallpaper in unexpected places like the inside of a bookcase, an accent wall or even a ceiling. I've been doing this for 50 years, and people just got tired of the roosters and the tea pots," he adds. "And then faux finishes are a lot of effort for the result. When you can choose between marbleizing the wall or using a marble wallpaper, the wallpaper will be easier." Lee Ann Fortson added crisp blue-and-white wallpaper in her primar y bathroom.

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