Green Leaf Pattern in 1930’s Home

I adore this home – a cute, yellow-brick bungalow directly across from Rice University (Houston). It has been updated, yet kept mostly authentic to its 1930’s roots. I papered several rooms in the main house a few months ago, and was back today to paper the bathroom in the garage apartment.

Originally, the homeowner wanted wallpaper from Hannah’s Treasurers, which would be the real-deal old wallpaper from the 1930’s or 1940’s. https://hannahstreasures.com/ But for various reasons, she ended up choosing this more modern, yet timeless, pattern of ginger foliage. One deciding factor was that the colors coordinate perfectly with the green subway tile in the shower.

The wallpaper has a vinyl surface (resistant to water splashes and light stains) on a non-woven backing (much superior to the paper backing used on lower-end pre-pasted vinyls – read more on my page at the right). It was nice to work with, and should hold up well over many years.

The wallpaper is by York, in their designer line by Antonina Vella. It was purchased from Southwestern Paint on Bissonnet near the Rice Village.

How the Vintage Paper in My Entry Turned Out

I hung some Hannah’s Treasures authentic 1930’s paper in my entry a week ago. Finally got the Deco curio cabinet in place, and hung the Deco mirror. There is a black panther figurine in the cabinet, and two panther and impala lamps on the floor on either side of the cabinet. Not shown, on the right, is a cooool ’20’s-’40’s little rack with a small mirror, hook for hanging keys, and a trough for one’s gloves or cigarettes or wallet.

Vintage Wallpaper for My Own Home

I just picked this up from the Post Office today.  This is the real deal, actual paper from the 1940’s.  This is from Hannah’s Treasures, an on-line site that sells vintage papers, from the ’20’s through the not-so-vintage-in-my-eyes ’80’s.

This is going on one wall in my entry.  I have a “new” circa 1930’s/40’s curio cabinet that will go in front of it, and that will hold a collection of 1930’s/40’s panther statuary and mantle clocks.

Need I say, in another life, I think I lived in the 1930’s & ’40’s.

When we had our wallpaper & paint store in St. Louis (now decades gone), the basement was full of rolls and rolls of paper like this.  And my father and uncles would rewallpaper my grandmother’s apartment above the store again and again, with gorgeous patterns and rich colors like this.

The paper is somewhat brittle from age.  I have previously used a wheat paste, which is pretty much what was available back when these papers were made, but friends in the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers (NGPP) have hung similar papers using modern pre-mixed clear vinyl paste.  I’ve not decided yet what I will use.

The selvedge edge is still intact, meaning that the paper has to be hand trimmed before hanging.  You can see the unprinted selvedge in the photos.   Again, in the past, I have trimmed only one edge of the paper, and overlapped the other.  This eliminates the chance of gapping if the paper shrinks, but it leaves a raised area along the length of every seam.  But that’s how it was done “back in the day,” and back then they were often hanging on a sort of cheescloth tacked over ship lapped wooden walls – which is not the case in my house!

I will probably hand-trim both edges and butt the seams instead, which is how modern papers are hung, and which will eliminate the ridge along the seam.  I don’t expect shrinking with this paper, and see no reason why butted seams would not work.

Along the selvedge is printed, “Water Fast.  Union Made.”  The paper is from Hannah’s Treasures, which is definitely worth a look, if you like vintage.  http://www.hannahstreasures.com/servlet/StoreFront