The property - spanning more than 500 acres of rolling courntryside in Somerset County in central New Jersey - was once home to John DeLorean, the brilliant and unconventional automotive engineer, inventor, and automobile executive. DeLorean was well known for his work at General Motors and as the founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, and for his stainless steel dream car, the DMC-12, made famous in Stephen Spielberg’s 1985 movie Back to the Future.

In the 1980’s, DeLorean purchased the estate from the Morgan Cowperthwaite family for $3.5 million. DeLorean and Ferrare lived there for 19 years, until financial troubles forced the sale of the property.

In the 1980s, DeLorean and his wife, Cristina Ferrare, hired Parish Hadley, the legendary design firm of Sister Parish and Albert Hadley, to decorate their home.

Parish Hadley’s influence on American interiors is hard to overstate, and Sister Parish is widely considered to have originated what became know as American country style, known for her ability to blend elegance with comfort.

The firm gained fame for decorating high-profile residences, including the White House during the Kennedy administration.

For this commission, Scenic Wallpaper designed the room, including having our carpenter create custom moldings to frame the panels, surrounding them with a lustrous blue lacquer wallpaper from Scalamandré/Stark. Gold tea paper was installed on the moldings, and the ceiling was wallpapered with hand-cut gold squares. The result was a jewel box of a room, alive with color, light, and history.

When we learned that the same set of panels had resurfaced, it felt almost fated. The paper was in need of care once again, and so we began the delicate process of reinstallaion and restoration for the second time.

This time, some of the panels were mounted directly on the wall and some on boards so they could be hung as works of art - part installed wall covering, part independent piece - allowing the painting to breathe and be appreciated in a new way.