Scenic Wallpaper

John Nalewaja installed Zuber’s Views of America in a historic Victorian home on the coast of Connecticut. It was installed above a chair rail and a painted wainscoting. Ten years later, the home was sold and the new owner undertook a whole home renovation including substantial repairs and renovations to the original plaster molding which had sustained considerable water damage.

In order for the plaster moldings to be repaired, the wallpaper had to be removed completely. John’s assistants did this, carefully labeling each piece for reinstallation once the renovations were completed. Any paper damaged by the water leaks was repaired and/or restored and all the paper was wrapped and preserved for the next phase of the project.

Reinstallation in the same space is exceedingly difficult, perhaps the most difficult of all reinstallations. There is no ‘spare’ paper in this situation, no opportunity to ‘stretch’ the paper and no room for error at all.

John and his assistants painstakingly rehung each strip of paper exactly as originally installed. The reinstallation was so successful that only a minimal amount of artwork was required, mostly to repair water damage and some age-related wear on the 10-year-old paper.

As part of the reinstallation, the client also acquired Zuber's  Soubassement Blanc to be installed on the wainscoting below Views of America. Soubassements are wallpapers that look like architectural components: molding, wainscoting, columns, balustrades, etc.

John installed the Soubassement in an architecturally correct way, meaning that they mimicked woodwork as it might have been installed by a carpenter. In order to create a custom fit for the space, each component of the Soubassements had to be cut and trimmed by hand: individual pieces for each panel, each rail, and each cap, as well as individual pieces for each highlight and lowlight of every component. This room required more than 200 perfectly cut and trimmed pieces of wallpaper fitted and installed exactly.

When all the work had been completed, wallpaper removal, wall repairs, restoration of the plaster molding, reinstallation of Views of America and new installation of the Soubassement on the wainscoting, the room was more lovely than ever and should last for generations to come.

See more reinstallations here and on the Antique Wallpapers page.