Photo Pool Challenge: Installing Unpasted Wallpaper

Brownstoner commenter, filmmaker and historic decor consultant Reno Dakota has finished one of the last remaining projects in his Bed Stuy house: decorating the bedroom in the extension at the rear of the parlor floor. Until recently a white box, now it’s papered in the Persian Roomset from Bradbury and Bradbury. This bedroom is not the only room in the house to receive the wallpaper treatment; the front parlor, dining room and parlor hall sport historic papers from Carter & Co., Clarence House and Charles Rupert Designs. “I think these houses look pitifully unfulfilled without [wallpaper], so I’m glad for any converts we can win over,” said Dakota. Although the Bradbury wallpapers tend toward historic interpretation rather than strict reproduction, they, like other historic papers, are screen printed and must be pasted and cut by hand on site. This makes them trickier to install than modern papers, which come already trimmed and with adhesive. To cut the papers, Dakota uses a big surface, an antique folding wallpaper table that once belonged to his grandparents. Friends assisted by lending extra hands for the ceiling and borders. “It took a week to paper that little room because the paper is complicated and a few angles in the room were off by a few degrees, which makes papering very difficult,” he said. Has anyone else attempted DIY with historic papers? Please post photos and stories here. Also, if anyone has a project they’d like to share, please email cate at brownstoner dot com. Thanks!