Printing and Pasting a Taste of Ireland in New Mexico

Printing ceiling panels with an inkjet printerLaura Reynolds, owner of Print Write Now in Ruidoso, N.M., knew she had an unusual and exciting large-format printing project ahead of her when she was approached by someone with a thick Irish brogue about contributing her expertise to the decoration of a new Irish pub and restaurant.

Though Ruidoso is a worldwide destination resort town in southeastern New Mexico due west of Roswell, Irish accents are few and far between. That’s about to change as Grace O’Malley’s Irish Pub prepares to open in Ruidoso with décor that channels a traditional Irish village. The new pub was designed by Thomas Farrell of Ireland, who is also a co-owner with Shari Smith of Ruidoso.

The design team that created the custom paint finishes for the new pub, and known for its upscale design work at five-star properties, was searching for a five-star print shop to handle some of the finer printed details at the pub and Print Write Now fit the bill.

The design team wanted to replicate hand-painted panels with a distinctly Irish flair to be applied to the ceilings of the gaming area in the pub. After consulting with her LexJet customer specialist, Jen Hepner (or JenHep as she is fondly referred to as at LexJet, or maybe just by me), Reynolds decided to print on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene with her Canon iPF8100 44-in. wide inkjet printer.

Installing inkjet printed ceiling panels
Installing one of 18 ceiling panels printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene for Grace O'Malley's Irish Pub in Ruidoso, N.M.

“The main reason we used Water-Resistant Polypropylene was the combination of the different adhesives and finishes they were using on top of the prints. We didn’t want the water-fast inks to be damaged or lift off the surface,” explains Reynolds. “The media printed beautifully. They commented on how this installation went so much more smoothly because the media didn’t wrinkle during installation, particularly since they were applying it on a ceiling upside down. Sometimes when you’re handling paper media or common wallpaper, you may have issues with it where it folds over or sticks back to itself. They didn’t have any issues with this media because it was so flexible to work with.”

Flexibility during and after the installation was especially important since the material was applied like wallpaper, adhered to the ceiling with wallpaper paste, sealed with adhesives along the edges and then finished with brushes for a painterly effect and a wash to give an aged look.

“They are incredible craftsman. The interior is nothing but high quality throughout. I was so impressed with how quickly they did the installation and smoothed it out so that there weren’t any wrinkles. They’re very good at what they do, and with the help of what we do well, we were able to make this happen within 24 hours,” says Reynolds.

Reynolds printed 18, 40 in. x 40 in. panels for the installation, all of which received rave reviews from the design team and the pub’s ownership. The project, and the word of mouth its sure to generate in both Ruidoso and across the Pond, should bode well for Print Write Now and its ability to handle just about any type of printing and graphic design job from small format to large format.