The short answer
We install accent walls in Sky Lake homes, usually in a single visit since we are based right next door. Most projects involve smoothing older textured or plaster walls, priming, and hanging a few rolls of paper with clean, level edges.
Sky Lake sits practically on our doorstep. This unincorporated Orange County community is right beside our Orlando base, so scheduling a site visit, a measuring trip or a quick follow-up is easy. Homeowners here often live in single-story concrete-block houses with modest ceiling heights, long living room walls and bedrooms that could use a focal point. An accent wall is one of the most effective ways to add that personality without papering an entire room. Below we explain how we approach feature walls in this kind of home, what the walls themselves usually need, and how to pick a pattern that suits a lower ceiling.
Why a single wall works in a ranch-style house
Mid-century ranch homes were built with practical, horizontal lines. Rooms are often wide rather than tall, and long walls stretch across living and family areas. Papering one of those walls breaks up the length and gives furniture something to anchor against. It also keeps the project small, which matters if you are updating the house one room at a time.
Good candidates include the wall behind a bed, the wall facing the front door as you enter, a dining wall beneath a chandelier, or the wall around a brick or block fireplace. Hallway end walls, which you see straight down the corridor, are an underrated choice.
Avoid walls broken up by a window air conditioner, a wall heater, a thermostat and two doorways. Once the paper is cut around all of those, very little pattern remains, and the effect looks accidental. If the obvious wall is cluttered, the opposite wall is often the better pick, especially when it is what you see from your favorite chair.
Patterns that suit lower ceilings
When ceilings are eight feet or so, the scale and direction of the pattern change how the room feels. A few guidelines we share with Sky Lake homeowners:
- Vertical stripes and upright botanicals draw the eye upward and make the ceiling feel taller
- Medium-scale repeats tend to fit better than very large motifs that get cut off at the ceiling line
- Light backgrounds keep a smaller room open, while a dark wall works best in a space with good daylight
- Textured papers like faux linen or grasscloth-look vinyl add depth without a busy pattern
- Wide horizontal bands can make a short room feel even lower, so use them carefully
What older walls usually need first
Concrete-block homes from that era often have plaster applied over the block on exterior walls, while interior partitions may be drywall or plaster with a hand-applied texture. Over decades, these walls collect patched holes, settled cracks, several layers of paint and sometimes remnants of earlier wallpaper.
Before an accent wall goes up, we check for loose plaster, fill cracks with a flexible patching compound, skim heavy texture, and remove any old paper still hiding under paint. A coat of wallpaper primer finishes the prep. This part of the job decides how flat and smooth the final wall will look, so we never rush it.
Install day, start to finish
Because we are so close, we can often handle prep and hanging on back-to-back days with drying time in between. On hanging day, we protect the floor, remove cover plates, establish a plumb line, and center the pattern on the wall or on the furniture that will sit in front of it. Each strip is matched, smoothed and trimmed at the ceiling and baseboard with a sharp blade.
We finish by cleaning paste off trim and the adjoining walls, reinstalling plates and taking our scraps with us. Furniture can usually go back in place the same day.
Climate and timing
Central Florida summers stay hot and sticky from June through September, with thunderstorms building most afternoons. Older block homes can feel damp if the air conditioning is set high or turned off, and that slows paste curing. Please keep the AC running normally around install day. Mild, dry winters are an especially comfortable time for wallpaper projects.
Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30. If a storm is forecast to cause outages, we will simply move your date; since we are local, rescheduling is quick.
Neighbors we also serve
Beyond Sky Lake, we hang accent walls in Edgewood, Belle Isle, Windermere, Winter Park and Lake Buena Vista. Send a photo of the wall and the paper you are considering, and we will tell you how many rolls to buy and what prep the surface needs.
More services in Sky Lake
- Wallpaper Installation in Sky LakeLocal service & repairs
- Wallpaper Removal in Sky LakeLocal service & repairs
- Mural Installation in Sky LakeLocal service & repairs
- Grasscloth Wallpaper Installation in Sky LakeLocal service & repairs
