Remodeling with Wallpaper

In a house reno update that has been a looooong time coming, I want to share our whimsical office/guest bathroom! The pandemic put this room on hold for a bit as things were backordered and contractors were booked, but we’ve finally finished it. 🙌🏼

This bathroom is a little odd-it has a full shower in it, but isn’t connected to a bedroom.

It sits between our office and the main bedroom near a door to the backyard. Perhaps the original owners had plans to put in a pool, and this bathroom would be the closest to rinse off after a swim. Since we are doing major renovations to our entire home, we decided it wasn’t budget friendly to remodel a shower that will likely never be used. It was updated by the previous owners around 8 years ago in the Spanish style popular at the time, so we decided to work with that vibe. Also, this room has NO natural light, so we had to take that into consideration when deciding what to do.

We knew this space was begging for a “look at me” wallpaper….what better place to try something outside the box than a guest bathroom, right? I began searching online and on Instagram for wallpaper referrals. I came across Milton & King wallpaper and was drawn to how bright and fun their prints are. I checked out their website and began narrowing down the prints that could work with the existing shower. I have to admit; I was bummed that we were having to choose a print based on the colors and print of the shower, but that’s life on a budget. However, Milton & King had SO many gorgeous choices that worked with the shower colors that I ended up having to ask my Instagram followers for their input to help us decide!

Let me say this: wallpaper isn’t inexpensive, but it looks incredible. It adds so much eye candy to a room! If you are making the investment to do it, here are my recommendations:

1. Use a company with amazing reviews and stellar customer service. Getting the right samples and someone who is an expert to answer your questions is invaluable. (If you choose wrongly, it can be super costly to fix a wallpaper mistake.) Milton & King has the best customer service of any company I’ve every worked with, and that’s saying a lot. They responded quickly to every question, sent my order out in a timely manner (even in a pandemic!) and even sent extra samples they thought could work based on my photos of the room. I rarely experience such thoughtful, kind, and helpful service from a company.
2. Get multiple samples if you aren’t 100% sure. Sometimes the print you think will work best doesn’t wow you in person, and sometimes the light (or lack of it,) will point you to a better choice for the room. Milton & King sent me a handful of samples and it helped tremendously.
3. Hire someone who specializes in wallpaper to hang it for you, especially if you have a room with unusual angles, cabinets, etc. We used a wonderful guy who used to be a painter and now only does wallpaper installs. Our bathroom had some tricky corners with the shower and built-in linen cabinets, and he did a beautiful job. We couldn’t have done this ourselves-no way. It ran us about $300 to have it hung. A fair deal considering this is a fairly large guest bath and he primed our walls beforehand.

After all the samples and Instagram polls, my husband’s wallpaper choice of Milton & King’s Pineapple Harvest was declared the winner! Although I fought hard for Kingdom Palm or Jungle Fever, the votes for this print were overwhelming. My husband loved the traditional pineapple print and wanted to pair it with some of the Slim Aaarons photography we collect.

(This print comes in four different colors, but we went with a creamy white.) We tried to channel the old Racquet Club of Palm Springs by adding a George Kovacs vanity light (recommended to us by fashion designer Valerie Garmino) above a large brass mirror, and we kept the vintage brass hardware on the pedestal sink. Then we chose a small corner table to house toilet paper, fun reading material, and a candle that smells like you’re in balmy Palm Springs.

We are thrilled with the wallpaper and how unique this little bathroom is. When you come over for a visit, just ask to check out the pineapple powder bath!

Photography: S. Jackson

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