CHIC AND CONTEMPORARY Olivia + Poppy wallcoverings make a bold statement in Houston’s design world
Jamie Graney pulls out her cellphone to find a photo of a new drawing that will be turned into wallpaper. It’s a series of full and crescent moons in black and white that will be repeated and scaled to cover whole walls.
So far, it’s just a line drawing, but production teams will tile the sketch and print it onto paper that could end up on your bathroom, living room or even office walls. It’s the newest tale in the year-old Olivia + Poppy modern wallcovering business launched by Graney, who spent 16 years working for local wallpaper manufacturer Foxmark in Katy before launching her own firm a little over a year ago.
Just a handful of weeks ago, Graney and her collegestudent son took Lumenbrite Photoshop and Illustrator classes in Austin to learn more about the creation side of her business.
There’s plenty of work for her to do on the administrative side, and she’s got longtime pal Tina Silvestri — her creative director — for input, too. But both Graney, 40, and Silvestri, 43, want to learn more about turning their own ideas into products so they’re learning computer programs that designers use.
As they sit in Silvestri’s chic new living room — in the Memorial home recently finished by Laura U Interior Design — they’re even more inspired.
Even as they talk about plans for the future of this newish company, they’re also thinking about the April 22 VIP party at Silvestri’s home that will kick off 2018 Texas Design Week events that run April 23-27. Speakers in five days of panel discussions, workshops and book signings include some of the country’s top designers and stylemakers, including Gen and Benjamin Sohr of Pencil + Paper in Nashville, Alexa Hampton of New York City, Corey Damen Jenkins of Detroit, and J. Randall Powers of Houston.
During Olivia + Poppy’s research-and-development phase, Graney wallpapered the halls of her offices over and over and over, winnowing out materials that didn’t quite work. Now, Silvestri’s home serves as a showcase for the company’s edgy black-and-white wallpaper designs. A bar’s ceiling is papered in “Torn” and upstairs, her teens’ media room has an accent wall in “Graphite Marble.” Other patterns, including a custom design with line drawings of women’s breasts, are
found in other rooms.
For the VIP party, the two women will have a step-andrepeat installation set up, and wallpaper from their newest sketch — which they’ve just decided to name “Coexistence” — will be the backdrop. Their papers will adorn display windows at Neiman Marcus during Texas Design Week, when Laura Umansky — Laura U’s founder and principal — decorates the luxury department store’s windows with Olivia + Poppy papers and clothing that she personally selects.
Most of Graney’s clients are on the East and West coasts, and one of their most highprofile was Cosmopolitan magazine, which installed their “Torn” pattern in its lobby and their “Bubble Stroke” pattern in its Snapchat booth.
Olivia + Poppy wares have caught the eye of home design media, featured in Elle Decor and on HGTV Canada.
After working at an advertising agency for a number of years, Graney went to work for Foxmark, a commercial design and marketing company in Houston. There, she worked as an account executive, working side by side with production and design people for 16 years.
Realizing that plenty of wallpaper manufacturers in today’s $2 billion wallpaper industry in America produce beautiful classic wallpaper, they also knew that offerings are few and far between for the increasingly popular contemporary and modern design niche.
“If you’re looking for something for a home like this, it’s hard to find,” Graney said, holding her arms wide in Silvestri’s sophisticated contemporary home. “Tina was going through papers, and she wanted to have something creative, something different. She couldn’t find a fit.”
The two women hope this young company’s bold and artful designs have an impact on contemporary and modern home design.
“We felt like the market was saturated with classic papers, and they’re done very well. We wanted to do our own thing very well. Our forte is definitely black and white,” Silvestri said.
Their offerings include dozens of patterns, many of which are in black and white, but also include metallics, bright colors and even artful floral designs in their Water + Color collection. While Graney’s offices are located at her former employer, Foxmark, on Colonial Parkway in Katy, you can shop her wallcoverings on her website, oliviaandpoppy.com.
The wallpaper starts at $288 per 50-square-foot roll; metallic and pearlized papers run more — up to $388 a roll. And while there’s a line of easily removable, stick-on papers, any wallpaper they make can be done in the self-adhesive style. In addition to making custom wallpaper, they can customize any existing pattern, changing the color or pattern size.
The women are busy with their next collection, which should be out by the end of 2018 for the fall/winter season.