Cross The Border Bold New Designs Give Wall Borders Many Creative Decorating Uses

Fri., March 3, 1995

Elaine Markoutsas Universal Press Syndicate

Skinny or fat, they make a big impression. They can go solo or be piggybacked with others of their kind. They can be textured or threedimensional, patterned in everything from fruits and flowers to geometric elements and fool-the-eye architectural details. They can be elegant or bold, subtle or colorful. Wall borders and the ways they are being used are vastly expanding.

Borders no longer are just around the perimeter of a room where the ceiling meets the wall. Today, the decorative wall accent might even be on the ceiling. Borders may frame a window, a skylight or a door. They can serve as a chair rail, and some people are even decorating their baseboards with borders.

Even those with no-frill interiors are considering adding a border - or two. People are using borders made of paper and vinyl, wood, synthetic material or tile moldings. They’re stenciling on borders or even creating freehand painted designs that range from opulent to whimsical.

“One reason borders are so popular today,” says Jill Waage, editor of Window and Wall Ideas, “is that today’s consumer really wants to be involved in the creation of a home’s personality. Borders make that very easy.

“They’re less intimidating than a large roll of wall covering and less costly. They can add pattern to a room without overwhelming it. Borders offer a chance to be creative, have fun and solve problems.”

What’s new with borders is that manufacturers are doing what homeowners used to do themselves: cutting purchased wallpaper borders, creating scallops or outlining flowers or animals. This spring, Eisenhart Wallcoverings is introducing lasercut borders with scalloped and curved edges with its Garden Life collection. The collection’s roses, lilacs and peonies are reminiscent of an English garden, the curves lending an undulating dimension. And the scalloped shapes separate from the border as easily as a postage stamp from a roll.

Nine-and-a-half inches at its widest point, one border is $20 for a 5-yard roll. A smaller 2-inch border is $2 less. A companion striped wall covering is $17.99 per single roll; a floral pattern is $20 per single roll.

Another Eisenhart Garden Life border has curves at the corners, which allows more distinctive “picture framing.” Curved corners dress up the frame, which is especially dramatic against a solid neutral ground. The rich roses depicted suggest fresh flowers of the season, gathered in a vase below.

The border is 5 inches long and $18 per 5-yard spool; the widest point in the corner is about 10 inches. The striped wall covering shown is $19 per single roll; a floral pattern is $20 per single roll.

The application of much fatter borders - from 10 inches to a friezelike 30 inches - also has become a hot decorating trend. When the thick borders are placed against a solid color or paper with subtle patterning, they are dynamic.

Giant-scaled sunflowers, for example, bloom year-round to add cheer to a room. Carey Lind’s design from the Kitchen & Bath Collection for York Wallcoverings was shown in a dining area furnished with a pine table and a crisp green-and-white plaid box-pleated slipcovered chair. Below the border is a paneled wall painted green for a rustic effect. Above is a companion paper that depicts scattered sunflower petals. The 10 1/4-inch border is $16.99 for a 5-yard spool; the companion is $19.99 per single roll.

Picture framing helps create the illusion of architectural interest where none exists. Positioning a border slightly below a tall ceiling also can change the architectural look of a room, creating a warmer, more intimate feeling. A contrasting border right at ceiling height visually changes the proportion and character of a room.

Using a border to outline a door or window is another effective decorating tool. For a library that an outdoorsman might love, York Wallcovering’s Beaver Creek Collection is a good choice. Its trout border is pictured around a window, the fish running vertically and across the middle of the wall. The border costs $19.99 for a 5-yard spool.

Borders can be combined with other decorative moldings for drama, once a device reserved for very expensive homes. The richness of a layered look is epitomized in one dining room: Egg-and-dart crown molding painted tan, a wallpaper border in terra cotta that looks as if it has been sponged, another vinyl molding, a striped paper and a contoured chair rail.

In addition, the walls have been punctuated with floral petal rosettes, again painted to complement the color scheme and attached to the wall like appliques. The Finishing Touches line of vinyl decorative moldings and medallions is available from Armstrong World Industries Inc. The egg and dart is $3 to $3.75 per foot; frame, $2 to $2.25 per foot; contour, $3 to $3.50 per foot; and floral rosette $10 to $12 apiece. The striped wall covering is from Imperial from Gear’s Neoclassic Collection, and the border is a wall covering that was cut to the 10-inch width. The wall covering collection starts at $30 for a single roll.

Another luxurious layering shows the impact of trompe l’oeil and existing molding. An opulent wall covering collection called Napoleon’s Empire from Seabrook Wallcoverings Inc. combines a wide border that includes a fool-the-eye wood molding, one that mimics the real stained wood molding below. The papers feature wreath, star and bee motifs in regal blues and golds. The wall covering sells for $23.99 per single roll and the 20 -inch border is $23.99 per 5-yard spool; the 54-inch fabric is $33.99 per yard.

But even in a muted or neutral color scheme, this piling on of borders can be distinctive. A Waverly Greek key border in an ivory on soft taupe looks terrific in a formal living room, run on the ceiling and below existing moldings. A skinny striped paper on the walls adds dash. The 5 -inch wide Odetta border is $26.99 per 5-yard spool; the Blaze striped wall covering is $26.99 for a single roll.

Ceiling treatments can be even more elaborate. Certainly there is historical precedence. In 18thcentury Europe, vivid, graphic designs were the rage. The French favored elaborate landscapes, florals and the Neoclassic elements popular during the Napoleonic era. In the 19th century, the florid style of William Morris was popular, and Victorian fancies at the end of the century prompted all sorts of detailed embellishments in papers and borders.

Bradbury & Bradbury is active in the reproduction and reinterpretation of papers reflecting Victorian, Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and Neoclassic styling.

An unusual treatment takes the borders up across the ceiling and combines several patterns to create a distinctive design. Several Bradbury & Bradbury papers are combined to achieve a stunning work of art in a dining room whose walls are a rich red with a wreath motif (Hadrian’s Wall), mated with organic and geometric borders that introduce orange, rusts, golds and greens.

Part of Bradbury’s Pompeiian color series, the look is exquisitely ornamental. The Findlay pattern ceiling paper has a gold leaf star pattern on a sky blue ground; a Roman corner fan is the half-circle pattern with trompe l’oeil pleats beneath. An Italianate border (9 inches; center 9-inch border contains decoupage circle and filigree 26 inches long) was used below, and to create another framed frieze.

Then there’s a Renaissance frieze, a scrolled vine around flowers on a gold ground that’s 12 inches wide. That’s framed by a pair of Olympia borders (2 1/2 inches) and Umbrian stripe borders (3 inches) as well as a fringe border (3 inches) that is capped in a narrow Greek key.

Bradbury & Bradbury borders range from a 1-inch pinstripe to 27 inches wide and cost $11 per yard to $51 per yard (for some friezes). None of the papers are precut; most of them stack several borders on a sheet.

The different looks in borders, according to Jill Waage, are due to improved printing technology that creates clean, crisp designs with so much detail.

And that makes a big impression.

Sources

Armstrong World Industries Inc., P.O. Box 3001, Lancaster, PA 17604; (800) 233-3823.

Borden Home Wallcoverings, 1280 N. Grant Ave., Columbus, OH 43201; (614) 297-6000.

Bradbury & Bradbury Wallpapers, P.O. Box 155, Benicia, CA 94510; (707) 746-1900.

Eisenhart Wallcovering Co., P.O. Box 464, 1649 Broadway, Hanover, PA 17331-0464; (717) 632-5918.

Freya Surabian Design Associates, 36 Church St., Winchester, MA 01890; (617) 729-4911.

Imperial Wallcoverings, 23645 Mercantile Road, Cleveland, OH 44122; (800) 245-2878.

Seabrook Designs Inc., 1325 Farmville Road, Memphis, TN 38122; (800) 238-9152.

Waverly Division of F. Schumacher & Co., 14th Floor, 79 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016; (800) 423-5881.

York Wallcovering Inc., 750 Linden Ave., York, PA 17404; (800) 375-YORK.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Borders quick way to decorate room About 80 percent of Americans live with all-white walls, according to interior designer Linda Newman Brown, marketing manager for Eisenhart Wall coverings. But many are discovering, as Brown has advocated for some time, that borders are one of the best examples of “quick-fix decorating.” Technological innovation is drawing in a new group of admirers. One of Eisenhart’s spring launches includes a collection of children’s borders that are “peel-and-stick” and will sell for $9 to $12 for a 5-yard spool. “It promotes self-expression to kids of a certain age,” said Brown. “Children can even apply the border themselves. And as the child grows, a dinosaur scene might change to another theme. You can do a typical room for under $100.” Borden (the glue manufacturer) has received terrific response to its own short-cut, self-stick borders, some of which are suitable for children’s rooms. The company features two, a Peel & Stick Borderlines and a self-wind roll that unravels sort of like Scotch tape. Both borders may be removed and repositioned like Post-its, which is especially attractive to apartment dwellers and college students who can decorate without fear of leaving behind damaged walls when it’s time to move on. The self-wind product was introduced during the Christmas holidays with seasonal themes in a licensing program with Hallmark. These 5-inch borders sell for $5.99 for a 5-yard roll. Borderlines has some of the best designs from the company’s prepasted wall coverings collection in widths ranging from 4 inches to 6 inches. Suggested retail price is $14.99 for a 5-yard roll. Now that it’s getting easier to use borders, Brown has a few ideas for application: Using your headboard as a guideline, take a border and follow the line all the way up the wall on either side. Come up across the ceiling and form a rectangle, creating a canopy above the bed. Stair step a headboard, miter cutting the border as you inch up toward the center, for an interesting design. Create “panels” up the side of a staircase. You might use the rectangular boxes for a family portrait gallery. Frame the ceiling perimeter. Then add an octagonal border around the chandelier to lend a sense of elegance to your dining room. Decorate a window or a skylight with a border.

This sidebar appeared with story: Borders quick way to decorate room About 80 percent of Americans live with all-white walls, according to interior designer Linda Newman Brown, marketing manager for Eisenhart Wall coverings. But many are discovering, as Brown has advocated for some time, that borders are one of the best examples of “quick-fix decorating.” Technological innovation is drawing in a new group of admirers. One of Eisenhart’s spring launches includes a collection of children’s borders that are “peel-and-stick” and will sell for $9 to $12 for a 5-yard spool. “It promotes self-expression to kids of a certain age,” said Brown. “Children can even apply the border themselves. And as the child grows, a dinosaur scene might change to another theme. You can do a typical room for under $100.” Borden (the glue manufacturer) has received terrific response to its own short-cut, self-stick borders, some of which are suitable for children’s rooms. The company features two, a Peel & Stick Borderlines and a self-wind roll that unravels sort of like Scotch tape. Both borders may be removed and repositioned like Post-its, which is especially attractive to apartment dwellers and college students who can decorate without fear of leaving behind damaged walls when it’s time to move on. The self-wind product was introduced during the Christmas holidays with seasonal themes in a licensing program with Hallmark. These 5-inch borders sell for $5.99 for a 5-yard roll. Borderlines has some of the best designs from the company’s prepasted wall coverings collection in widths ranging from 4 inches to 6 inches. Suggested retail price is $14.99 for a 5-yard roll. Now that it’s getting easier to use borders, Brown has a few ideas for application: Using your headboard as a guideline, take a border and follow the line all the way up the wall on either side. Come up across the ceiling and form a rectangle, creating a canopy above the bed. Stair step a headboard, miter cutting the border as you inch up toward the center, for an interesting design. Create “panels” up the side of a staircase. You might use the rectangular boxes for a family portrait gallery. Frame the ceiling perimeter. Then add an octagonal border around the chandelier to lend a sense of elegance to your dining room. Decorate a window or a skylight with a border.