20,000 Pounds of Wallpaper

– That’s a “truckload!”

I was talking to my father last night (Happy Father’s Day!), and he told me that back when we had the South Side Wallpaper and Paint Company in St. Louis, Missouri, his grandfather, who ran the store a looong time ago, used to order wallpaper by the “truckload.”

How much was a truckload? It took 20,000 pounds of paper to fill up that truck! And the shipping company wouldn’t ship until it had a full load. So, that’s why they bought 20,000 pounds.

Of course, back in those days, they were selling wallpaper left and right … people papered every room in the house – and not just walls but ceililngs, closets, etc.

A Historical Tour of Previous Wallpapers

I did a bid in a house in Bunker Hill Village that was built in 1958. The original owners still lived in the house.

When I arrived, the homeowner had left over rolls of the papers that had been used to decorate the home over the years. First she told about how the original paint all over the entire house was green, green, green. I know that green exactly – it’s called River Oaks Green, according to one article I read, and was quite the rage back in the ’50’s. People painted it on walls, woodwork, cabinets – everything! A murky, muddy, dull, medium green, to me it’s pretty. But very dark and depressing, I would think, to have on every surface.

While the wood work in woman’s entry were RO green, the walls had been papered in a plain pattern of blue and green (RO Green!) speckles on a white background, with flecks of metalic gold. I loved seeing this paper, as it reminded me of the rolls and rolls of paper we had stashed in the basement of our family store in St. Louis, South Side Wallpaper and Paint Company, where I started working when I was 12.

Anyway, back to wallpaper – The homeowner said that she loved her original choices for 20 years or more, but eventually wanted a change. Now it was the ’70’s, and MOD was in full swing. The paper she chose for the living room was MOD – REALLY MOD. It was a dark navy background, with BRIGHT flowers all over it, about the size of a baseball, in red, yellow, blue, orange, white, and green. Really a wild pattern. She said she loved it, and lived with it for many years.

Then, come the ’90’s, she had the paper removed, and had the living room painted a quite neutral color. Now, in 2012, she is redecorating again, but will only freshen up this time, repainting with the same colors.

I really loved this reminisce, and was especially happy to see the rolls of original papers.

The painting contractor, by the way, is CertaPro http://central-houston.certapro.com/ The homeowners were so pleased with them several years ago, that they are using the same company for this latest re-do.

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