Making your own wallpaper

[Nigel]

Has anyone tried making their own wallpaper borders? I want to copy an old scheme I have discovered in the future living room of my 1840s house in the UK. Getting it done professionally is likely to be prohibitably expensive.

www.fitzwalter.com/house/wallpaper.htm

Nigel

[TDHofstetter]

I thought I'd bump this one back up to the top because it sounds interesting, yet nobody has responded to it yet.

I don't have any good answers; none, in fact, beyond perhaps the use of a computer & printer with some kind of special printer paper. BUT - with your post nearer the top, maybe someone else'll spot it and come up with a good idea.

-- Tim --


May your mind's eye
never
blink.
...unless you're contemplating feeding a troll...

[Lou_williams]

Nigel,

I don't know about making it yourself. but the leading producer of restoration wall paper is located in this general area SF bay. I have a friend that has papered most of her Victorian home with the stuff. Yes it is expensive, but It might cost more to do it yourself.

What they do is silk screen and each patern may have as many as 10 different screens with color, gold, ect. The paper is done on very long tables 40' long with resistration pegs that are set at the same size as the screens. This allows a continous patern to be developed.

To do this you need to learn how to slikscreen, Develop the patern screens, find the location to do this, Mix the colors and learn to apply the colors. The tables are long because you need to apply a color and let it dry before the next. If you have short tables it will be almost impossible to get it done in a reasonable time.

Good luck

[Nigel]

Thanks Lou.

Its good to know that these things can be done. Over here in England there is a firm which still prints papers by hand using wooden blocks, which I guess must be hand carved. Getting a besoke design from these guys requires serious money.

This is what I need to copy:

[T_Connor]

Nigel,

Beautiful house.

There are some custom wallpapering shops in the United States. I am an Arts & Crafts nutjob, and I've seen (in my non-woodworking magazines) articles about folks offering to do custom, papers. Seems to be a bit of a niche industry, but maybe the US would offer competitive advantages over the sometimes cottage industry oriented UK.

There is also a decent wallpaper message board (I've learned a thing or two from this one on hanging, seems they might know about custom reproductions):

http://www.wallpaperinstaller.com/forum/index.php

Cheers,
Tim

[TDHofstetter]

Nigel, are those GILTED?

-- Tim --


May your mind's eye
never
blink.
...unless you're contemplating feeding a troll...

[rrich]

Nigel,

"I have painted the outside of my house in what I believe to be somthing close to the original. Most of my neighbours disapprove but are too polite to really say what they feel. "

Why not just invite your neighbors to a painting party? You supply the beer after the job is done and the neighbors supply the paint. ;)

Rich

[Sonny Edmonds]

We are transgressing the terible two's into the trying three's and find crayon art boarders now and then with the Grandson.
I'd imagine simular boarders were made in the 1800's. I know I did in the 1950's, 'cept I used Mom's red lipstick.
As I recall my butt almost matched it afterwords. :o ;) Mom didn't much care for red on the walls, 'twernt her idea of "decorator colors". Nor was the Craola collors I tried neither.
Now that I'm older, I more or less learnt to ask first. Less pain that way. "Cept the pain moved from my butt to my ears over the years. Guess it's a part of growing older. Pains move. ;)

I just don't know what to tell Ya Friend. Betty's eldest Uncle in Hawaii has a bussiness of walpapering the hotels over there. He gave her a bunch of cool boarder pieces for our home when last we saw them. But I dought it is near what your askin about.

Say.... you want to borrow a Grandson for your project? He's about 90% potty trained and a really sweet feller. The other 10% of the time he might drop his drawers and just go on your rug, #1 or #2, whatever strikes him at the time. He sometimes forgets about the toilet part of the equasion.
You too could have custom walls AND customized rugs.
Might not be quite the cup of tea you had in mind, but it is unique. :7 And I'll pay half of the airfare to fly him over.
Such a Deal!

:D

[link:www.sonnyedmonds.com | Sonny Edmonds]
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
God Bless America !
One Nation Under God!
"I was raised around lead based paint.
It ain't an excuse, just a fact."

[Nigel]

Attachments didnt work - try again

[Nigel]

Third time lucky?

[Nigel]

Tim

Thanks for the tips, which I will follow up.

As far as I can tell this wallpaper border is printed in flat colours for the darker shades but in a kind of glaze or varnish for the highlights. There is no gilt as far as I can see. The whole thing, apart from the dark red colour, is an attempt to imitate oak. Even the skirtings (baseboards I think you call them) and architraves seem to have been painted in imitation oak, and the man who is currently steam cleaning the plaster cornice reckons that may have been painted with an oak-coloured distemper.

Because enough evidence remains to recreate the scheme in the room(which may date from around 1850) I am keen to try. I have already done some painting in imitation of mahogany on the landing doors (see below).

I have painted the outside of my house in what I believe to be somthing close to the original. Most of my neighbours disapprove but are too polite to really say what they feel.

www.fitzwalter.com/house/colours.htm

Painting or papering surfaces to look like another material seems to have been very popular in the early 19th C. Pugin and the gothic revivalists of course reacted against this and branded it dishonest, an attitude continued by the Arts and Crafts movement. Most people in my street prefer to decorate their houses in safe neutral colours. Some even strip the pine woodwork back to the wood and varnish it - something which would have horrified and puzzled our Victorian ancestors.

Nigel