When developing a room’s decorative scheme, I am usually inspired by a rug, painting, or fabric. This time, I fell in love with a bathroom on Pinterest and decided to install similar sage green grasscloth wallpaper in a bathroom makeover. Check out the inspiration room by Schloegel Design:
You may be wondering, “What is grasscloth?” It is a wallpaper that is made from natural fibers such as seagrass, raffia, sisal, bamboo, and other similar plants. The strands are dyed and hand-woven. Each wallpaper roll is subtly unique, so the installed panels don’t line up next to each other the way other wallpaper patterns are designed to do, and that is part of its charm. The paper is somewhat fragile and requires specialized tools and knowledge for installation, but the resulting texture and visual color variations provide an up-scale look that envelopes the room.
A close-up of the texture, weave, and color variations of grasscloth wallpaper
For this bathroom makeover project, I originally had grasscloth wallpaper installed from floor moulding to ceiling. I used a Thibaut paper, Shang extra fine sisal in colorway flannel, and loved the color and texture it brought to the room.
The bathroom already had amazing marble tile floors, a Carrara marble sink vanity top, and a marble-tiled walk-in shower. The existing white trim complemented the light green hue. I changed out the mirror for one with more decorative edging, swapped out the hardware for the hand towels and toilet paper, added a beautiful painting of lilacs, and painted the black vanity in a green shade that matched the wallpaper.
Oil painting by Kseniya Volosyanaya
After several months of usage, it became clear that this bathroom wallpaper project was turning into a lesson-learned situation. The grasscloth wallpaper, it turned out, was not compatible with water and it left watermarks and changed colors when it got wet. Not a good scenario for a water closet! There were water splashes from wet hands around the sink and towel hooks and some “water” damage from a newly trained little boy near the wall by the toilet. I was disappointed that I hadn’t considered this earlier and spent money on the paper and its hanging. Despite this, I decided all hope was not lost for this wallpaper. I realized that a more practical solution was to install wainscoting that matched the style of the other bathroom and dining room of the house. This solution also brought the bathroom closer to the original Pinterest inspiration room that I’d liked so much. The wainscoting can be easily dried and cleaned, as necessary, and the grasscloth still brings color and texture to the upper half of the room. Lesson learned!
The results:
Wedgwood Jasperware pitcher in sage green
If you are considering using grasscloth wallpaper (and I highly recommend you do!), I’ve now learned more about its finicky requirements. Note that in addition to water issues it can also be tempting for cats to scratch, can absorb odors (kitchen spices, smoke, etc.) and make them linger, can fade quickly in direct sunlight, and needs to be lightly vacuumed to clean. It works well in a bedroom, office, or dining room. Don’t let these details scare you off, but instead, know the ins and outs to avoid more lesson-learned situations.
For more inspiration, check out Grandeur on Grove’s Grasscloth Wallpaper board on Pinterest. While you are there, follow all of Grandeur on Grove’s Pinterest boards.
