Happy first day of spring! Though as this is being written, the weather doesn’t seem to be spring like at all, but the calendar is telling us that it officially has arrived. My thoughts are about my flower beds coming to life, making Easter plans, and yes, even spring cleaning and possibly doing some re-decorating in a room or two.
As the new decorating magazine arrives in the mail, I eagerly search the pages to see all the latest ideas. Then one idea is viewed and quickly taken off my list of possibilities. It seems wallpapering is coming back into style for the home. One magazine section is titled “A Girl’s Guide To Wallpaper”...it adds, “say goodbye to plain white walls and get ready to transform your rooms!” Photos of all kinds of patterned and colored wallpaper are displayed on several pages. Though the recommendations are mostly just to paper an accent wall, it also suggests that papered walls in a closet, alcove, ceilings and on the walls of book shelves can brighten things up.
My minds goes back to the days of redecorating my Post Victorian house in my hometown, of working and sweating for hours and hours, pulling, scraping, and tearing off layers upon layers of wallpaper. The original wallpaper was finally found but too marked up to restore, and upon that were layers of wallpaper from the 1920s through the flowery 1950s. In wanting it to look like a Post-Victorian house once again, new appropriate pattern and color of wallpaper was purchased. My wallpapering skills were put into practice. After papering a large living room, a large dining room, an office and a kitchen, I was ready to throw away my wall papering tools. That was more than 25 years ago and I haven’t wall- papered since.
Years before that, I acquired my wallpapering talent while helping a close friend. She had been an area wallpaper hanger for a few years and it was her second job. She had another friend who worked with her as partners in the business but the friend moved away. So once in a while I would help her out. She taught me how to measure the walls, but she’d add that she had hardly ever found walls that were even.
When the wallpaper rolls were unrolled and measured to fit, sometimes the first paper put up on the walls had to be cut at the top or bottom to fit the uneven walls. Before the papering even began, the walls had to be prepped. Old wallpaper had to be taken off. If there were any cracks or holes in the walls, they had to be filled in. Two saw horses were placed in the room, with a piece of plywood on top of the saw horses. This was the usual working table where measuring the wallpaper was done and the smelly wallpaper paste was applied with a wooden handled brush.
Of course, it took talent to make the paste just the right texture as the powdered form was added to the water and mixed. It was important all spaces of the backside of the wallpaper sheet were covered equally with the paste, especially including the outside edges.
It became more challenging when patterned wallpaper was used and the patterns of each sheet of wallpaper had to match up with the patterns of the one just pasted onto the wall. After the sheet of wallpaper was applied to the wall, then came the expert use of the smoothing brush as it was moved from the middle of the paper to the outer edges, taking out all of the air bubbles and making it smooth. The lead wallpaper worker was usually stationed on a ladder. The helper would do the pasting and then hand the sheet of wallpaper up to the worker. Then the lead worker would place the paper on the wall and brush out the air bubbles. If there was a window or a door, a utility knife was used to cut the paper to fit. Most of the time the lead worker was called down to be of assistance in making sure the sheet of wall paper was measured just right. Then it was back up the ladder. Some of the wallpaper came pre-pasted and then the sheets were dunked into a made-to-size container filled with water.
It was a nightmare for the person hanging the wallpaper when she returned to continue her duties the next day to find some of the wallpaper sheets hadn’t stuck to the wall in places. Sometimes the whole sheet would be found on the floor. This made for extra pasting work and mostly losing one’s patience.
In working with this friend, there were some tears shed, a lot of laughter shared and lessons learned. I must admit that there were a lot of rewards when the room was all papered and the home owner came in to look the room over with approval and appreciation.
The wallpapering skills have not changed much through the years, but as the popularity of the wallpaper decorating returns, the price of the paper has sure risen. Back in my friend’s wallpapering days, the average cost of a double roll was from $3 to $5 but according to today’s decorating magazine, the price is $29 per roll upwards to $250 per roll. A 2’ x 4’ panel of wallpaper can go from $40 to $60.
My friend retired from wallpapering years ago, and I too hung up my wallpaper brush. Recently visiting with my wallpapering friend, she laughed when she told me she came upon her well worn, satchel that still contained her wallpapering equipment. She said it was hidden within her laundry room cabinet. It brought back a lot of wallpapering memories for her. She confessed she sometimes wished she could do it again.
I quickly added, “Girl, what are you thinking?”
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