 |  | A few years ago, we did this really cool historic restoration paperhanging job. At the time, the only documentation that I was able to take was videotape of the job in progress. Recently, we found ourselves back at the site for some repair work, and I was able to snap an unlimited number of photos. The site is called Walnford, and it is a well-preserved, historic farm property founded by a Quaker family. It was in private hands until about 15 years ago, when the Monmouth County, NJ Park System acquired the land and buildings for use as a historic park site. The house was restored to its original decor, including wallcovering in the center hall. There were pictures taken in the early part of the century which showed paper borders applied over a plain, white wallcovering in a manner that imitated raised-wood panelling. Scraps of the actual wallcovering were found during the renovation, and historically-accurate goods were hand-produced specifically for this job. The strie border used for the panels had to be hand-trimmed, and the Egg and Dart border at the foyer ceiling had to be cut out by hand with scissors and blades. The walls were blankstocked, then the plain, white-ground wallpaper was hung, and finally the borders were applied. The layout of the borders was the coolest part of this job. All that we had for placement guidance were the two pictures of the original installation (shown at the bottom of this page), and the park-system's guess-timation of the placement measurements. The heavily-inked borders were pulled through a Tapofix border paster with a 50/50 mix of clay and VOV, and then booked in Ziploc bags for about 15 minutes. All of the corners were mitered by double-cutting. As we made progress with the panelled borders, I began to experience an out-of-body feeling, as though it were 100 years ago, and I was the original installer figuring out how to make this job look right. We did this without laser levels, mind you. I bought a new chalk line, and we filled it with yellow chalk, instead of the customary blue, so that we could strike some guidelines on the white, ground paper without ruining it. Then came a lot of math, along with a little intuition. It was one of the most interesting jobs I've ever done, and I hope the pictures do it justice.
This is looking down into the foyer from the stairs.
Here's a closeup of the egg and dart border. It was very tedious to cut out.
All the panel corners were doublecut. The clay/vov mixture was chosen based on experiments of different pastes and combinations of pastes done on a sample board using the actual materials, of which the County bought plenty extra.
The back end of the foyer.
Looking down the stairs to the foyer.
Looking up the stairs from the foyer.
The landing between first and second floors.
Landing up to second floor.
Second floor center hall.
Looking from the second floor up to the landing between the second floor and the attic level. This was the trickiest trapezoid to figure out. But as I said, I experienced some sort of a mind-meld with the original installer, and the logical geometry eventually presented itself.
Looking up to the landing leading to the attic level.
An original print that survived through the years.
Another surviving print. These hang in a room downstairs.
This was part of the household collection. I can only surmise that it was an early mammography device.
"Goin' to the country,
Baby, don't you wanna go?" | |
