This custom deGournay wallpaper was originally installed in a pre-war apartment in New York City. It’s a lovely, delicate Chinoiserie pattern on a pale lavender background and it was custom color keyed to the interior.
When the client later a subsequent move, she decided to take the wallpaper to her new, more modern building.
She planned to remodel the new apartment, and worked with the contractor to have another bedroom built out to match the exact specifications of the old bedroom. Ceiling height exactly the same, walls the same width, doors and windows in exactly the same place, etc.
Essentially, the room was built for the wallpaper, so that the entire room could be recreated to duplicate the old room.
It’s an unusual challenge to remove wallpaper and then to reinstall it exactly as it was first installed. There can be no trimming at all and with no edges, the wallpaper hangers must be deliberately painstaking.
John Nalewaja and his assistants were able to successfully remove the paper, preserve it during the buildout of the new space, and then reinstall it exactly as originally installed.
Once the new space was refurnished, it looked exactly the same as the original room.
See more reinstallations here and on the Antique Wallpapers page.