Painted versus papered walls?

[ThornhillMike]

We have a mixture of painted and gloriously (but tired) wallpapered walls through Thornhill. A recent thread on paint colours provoked the thought of what people's thoughts were on painted versus (decorative) papered walls? Let the period / style dictate or go with personal preference / taste?

In older properties (by this I mean 1800s/1900s) I do tend towards paper, but this a heap of work to do well. Thornhill has been empty for some years so there is also the thought of papering walls that, although dried out may be prone to damp and therefore could lose adhesion to paper over time (I can already tell the very wet walls; the paper has fallen off in perfectly clean strips as the walls dried - as per attached!),

Just interested in views...

 

[Lacan07]

Well I really like the idea of a period style wallpaper for a bit of drama. The william Morris designs are exquisite. But I have to say whilst they often look great in the photos as a former hand printer in the days of analogue photography I'm none too impressed by the quality of 'some' of the samples I've gathered over recent months, especially when you think how much they cost per roll.

Wallpaper hides a multitude of sins that might otherwise have to be 'skimmed' out. I won't be able to use wallpaper on my ground floor though as I want the walls as breathable as possible and I don't see the point in going to the expense of lime only to paper over it. Having said that there are breathable wallpapers and paste, others on here will know more about that than me.

 

[LadyArowana]

No decorative wallpapers here, just very subtle colours. I flirted briefly with the idea of some chinoiserie paper for the dining room but we had lots of pictures to hang and I felt that wasn’t going to look good. I suppose it would have been ok with gilt framed oil paintings of ancient ancestors, but that wasn’t what we had to put up. My friend tried to get me to take out a second mortgage to have this from de Gournay and do the bathroom in similar style to the one illustrated, and for a moment I was tempted, in fact everything on the de Gournay site could turn a girl’s head, but there’s the pesky need for a Euromillions win first …..
elephant wallpaper

 

[a twig]

I wish you hadn’t shared that site, I’m now wandering around the house trying to work out where I could do something similar

 

[ThornhillMike]

Thanks for the replies. I believe we have original lime plastered walls on the ground floor, perhaps above as well, most of which are already papered. The paper that has peeled off by drying out has lining paper underneath, perhaps to even out the wall or aid adhesion, not sure which. The exposed plaster up the stairwell is perfectly smooth though. I might post a photo when I'm next up; to be fair I'm too inexperienced to spot the difference between lime plastering and old (not the glaring modern pink) gypsum plaster.

 

[Toby Newell]

We have a mixture of painted and gloriously (but tired) wallpapered walls through Thornhill. A recent thread on paint colours provoked the thought of what people's thoughts were on painted versus (decorative) papered walls? Let the period / style dictate or go with personal preference / taste?

In older properties (by this I mean 1800s/1900s) I do tend towards paper, but this a heap of work to do well. Thornhill has been empty for some years so there is also the thought of papering walls that, although dried out may be prone to damp and therefore could lose adhesion to paper over time (I can already tell the very wet walls; the paper has fallen off in perfectly clean strips as the walls dried - as per attached!),

Just interested in views...

View attachment 10712

Elegant staircase.

Whatever is most breathable, wallpaper in dry areas. Maybe paint communal areas, kitchens and bathrooms and paper receptions and bedrooms if not damp. Lining helps with painting, depends how bad your plaster work is.

 

[LadyArowana]

I wish you hadn’t shared that site, I’m now wandering around the house trying to work out where I could do something similar

I know! It's dangerous, should come with a trigger warning. I suppose I shouldn't mention the Inigo Estate Agency, source of much longing for other houses https://inigo.com/

 

[a twig]

just seen a small 3 bed cottage in Larkhall for £535k on that site! Clearly the gentrification of Bath has extended out more towards the A46 in recent years…

I find sites like that quite reassuring as anything I actually like is always so completely unattainable on our finances it’s amusing rather than depressing

 

[Lacan07]

No decorative wallpapers here, just very subtle colours. I flirted briefly with the idea of some chinoiserie paper for the dining room but we had lots of pictures to hang and I felt that wasn’t going to look good. I suppose it would have been ok with gilt framed oil paintings of ancient ancestors, but that wasn’t what we had to put up. My friend tried to get me to take out a second mortgage to have this from de Gournay and do the bathroom in similar style to the one illustrated, and for a moment I was tempted, in fact everything on the de Gournay site could turn a girl’s head, but there’s the pesky need for a Euromillions win first …..
elephant wallpaper
View attachment 10715

Nah, I think you made the right choice. As lovely as those wallpapers are do those patterns really belong in an old British house? Even if its trying to replicate the past its all too modern for me, the kind of thing you'd find a penthouse flat in the city.

Its a bit like clothes, the staple classics will always be in fashion no matter what, the rest will come and go.

 

[Stevers]

I really miss the Coloroll marbled papers that you could buy in the late 90's. We have examples here of the green, soft pink and salmon pink varieties, plus a pale yellow with blue grey dotted pattern. They are I suppose more akin to rag rolling than marbling - the pattern is subtle, amazingly there is no repeat to offend the eye and I have looked for one! The rolls were cheap as chips and there were some nice borders in the range too. Current wallpapers, even those apparently intended for period homes, have large patterns, usually in hideous colours with migraine inducing repeats.

As a child I used to stay in a lovely Arts and Crafts (Tudorbethan) house in 45 acres of Sussex woodland, complete with a Sir, Lady, Housekeeper (my relative) and Gardener. It retained it's original decorative scheme of pastel coloured - wait for it - woodchip. It was a very fine chip, was only on the walls up to picture rail, and it really suited that house. Chateau Mendip was Artex free when we arrived and is (so far) woodchip free, but I did like it in my last house, and I could be tempted again.

Anyway I'd love to know, who were Coloroll and what happened to them?

[Edit] Apparently it was a huge conglomerate that went bust in 1990. One of the management buyouts from the collapsed company included John Wilman as shareholder and designer with rights to the Coloroll name, so I think that was who made the papers I liked so much.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...nds-strength-among-the-survivors-1505777.html

 

[Drayton]

They seem to have bought everybody up and then gone bang! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloroll. The name looks to still be going for home textiles.


ETA Beaten to it while I was sorting my spelling out!

 

[Lacan07]

I really miss the Coloroll marbled papers that you could buy in the late 90's. We have examples here of the green, soft pink and salmon pink varieties, plus a pale yellow with blue grey dotted pattern. They are I suppose more akin to rag rolling than marbling - the pattern is subtle, amazingly there is no repeat to offend the eye and I have looked for one! The rolls were cheap as chips and there were some nice borders in the range too. Current wallpapers, even those apparently intended for period homes, have large patterns, usually in hideous colours with migraine inducing repeats.

As a child I used to stay in a lovely Arts and Crafts (Tudorbethan) house in 45 acres of Sussex woodland, complete with a Sir, Lady, Housekeeper (my relative) and Gardener. It retained it's original decorative scheme of pastel coloured - wait for it - woodchip. It was a very fine chip, was only on the walls up to picture rail, and it really suited that house. Chateau Mendip was Artex free when we arrived and is (so far) woodchip free, but I did like it in my last house, and I could be tempted again.

Anyway I'd love to know, who were Coloroll and what happened to them?

[Edit] Apparently it was a huge conglomerate that went bust in 1990. One of the management buyouts from the collapsed company included John Wilman as shareholder and designer with rights to the Coloroll name, so I think that was who made the papers I liked so much.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...nds-strength-among-the-survivors-1505777.html

I totally get what your saying with regard to large patterns, it's all a bit in your face. You really have to hunt for the subtle patterns, and even with some of the classic William Morris & co designs it feels a bit 'modern' for me. I had a good rummage through the little greene designs the other month and a fair few samples seemed totally washed out in terms of colour and depth.

 

[skybloo1]

We have a mixture of painted and gloriously (but tired) wallpapered walls through Thornhill. A recent thread on paint colours provoked the thought of what people's thoughts were on painted versus (decorative) papered walls? Let the period / style dictate or go with personal preference / taste?

In older properties (by this I mean 1800s/1900s) I do tend towards paper, but this a heap of work to do well. Thornhill has been empty for some years so there is also the thought of papering walls that, although dried out may be prone to damp and therefore could lose adhesion to paper over time (I can already tell the very wet walls; the paper has fallen off in perfectly clean strips as the walls dried - as per attached!),

Just interested in views...

View attachment 10712

Well we opted to wallpaper the external wall in our hallway as we couldn’t cope with the thought of trying to plaster it (previous owner had used cement to replace the old plaster…). Narrow space so insulated with 20mm wood fibre boards. Casein filler to smooth any dodgy joins than lining paper. We found this paper from St Jude’s that is supposed to be breathable. Fingers crossed we did the right thing - time will tell. Anyway we like the result.

 

[88v8]

In older properties (by this I mean 1800s/1900s) I do tend towards paper, but this a heap of work to do well. Thornhill has been empty for some years so there is also the thought of papering walls that, although dried out may be prone to damp and therefore could lose adhesion to paper over time (I can already tell the very wet walls; the paper has fallen off in perfectly clean strips as the walls dried - as per attached!),

Depends on the house.
In our C17 cottage with its wonky unflat walls we have little scope for paper. I have been able to paper one room, or rather two walls in one room, two rolls each costing >£100.... arrgh

In our 1920 house, I papered every room other than the kitchen.
Paper below the picture rail, embossed paper on the ceiling and freize.

I'm afraid that in any house from mid C19 onwards, I tend to regard painted walls as a copout, and certainly in any house with formal architecture.

Your falling off paper could be because the lining paper was not sized. The walls should be sized, then the lining paper when dry, should be sized. I am especial lary of pre-pasted papers.

Our 1920 house.... destroyed by the ... people... to whom we sold it... dining room, sitting room, hall.

 

[Cubist]

Paper below the picture rail, embossed paper on the ceiling and freize.

Ivor reminds me...

In our first house I was, after much protestation and against the advice of saner souls, persuaded/cajoled by a very determined Fist Lady to use an embossed paper to cover the lounge ceiling. Much against my better judgement I found myself on a rickety plank trying desperately to use a soft sweeping brush to push the long and, after pasting, heavy paper out as neatly as possible. After many manful attempts, and at least one near tumble from the plank, said paper, in a fit of pique, ended in a scrunched up ball in the corner as I decided to make tracks to the pub!

It didn't help of the course that the first First Lady had by then collapsed in a fit of uncontrollable giggles and belly laughs despite my extremely fervent and voluble grumbles of "How many times did I tell you that anaglypta paper would never stick to an artexed ceiling!"

 

[Gothichome]

This is an interesting debat, one upper management and I have had many opposing discussion. I like paper for the ‘as it should be’ argument but proper period paper is dam expensive as you all probably know. Finding a suitable look alike modern (almost victorIan) paper is also hard to find, modern designs seem to miss out on the Victorian esthetic. Upper managment likes the freedom of selection that paint provides and the relative cost compared to paper. As it stands today, we have another bedroom to restore that awaits the winner of the debate.

 

[LadyArowana]

Finding a suitable look alike modern (almost victorIan) paper is also hard to find, modern designs seem to miss out on the Victorian esthetic. Upper managment likes the freedom of selection that paint provides and the relative cost compared to paper. As it stands today, we have another bedroom to restore that awaits the winner of the debate.

At the risk of tempting people with yet more goodies….. https://watts1874.co.uk/

 

[Cubist]

As it stands today, we have another bedroom to restore that awaits the winner of the debate.

It'll be paint.

 

[Gothichome]

I’m fighting the hard fight for paper. We painted one room in a period colour but never felt comfortable with it. Our walls have never been painted. But here is another paper suppler, you folks there may know of.

Bradbury & Bradbury Wallpapers | Historic Wallpapers

Historic wallpapers by Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers: Victorian, Craftsman Style, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco and Vintage 1920s through 1960s designs.

bradbury.com

just wish I had the funds

 

[mims&pip]

I love those Bradbury & Bradbury wallpapers, Ron

We've used several period style wallpapers here at the old mill - although I'm afraid that (mainly due to the prohibitive cost) we've succumbed to the not-so-recent trend of just papering a feature wall

We have William Morris 'Strawberry Thief' in indigo on the upstairs landing, Abigail Edwards 'Briar Owl' (sage green with gold owls!) in the guest room, Liberty 'Quill' in jade - one of two papers in the kitchen - and my favourite Trustworth Studios 'Fool's Parsley' by Voysey in the dining room.

I've got a bit of a wallpaper stash going on too, all ready for the next house

My best wallpaper story dates back to the early noughties when our friends chose some stunning green/burgundy/cream/gold gothic patterned paper from Zoffany for their living room. I was rather envious as it was one I'd been eyeing up for ages. Fast forward a couple of months and I was reluctantly being dragged round a carboot sale one Sunday morning by Pip, when I spotted a table with a pile of the very same wallpaper (identical colourway and everything!). I asked the seller how much they wanted and received the reply "£5". There were seven rolls and I assumed he meant a fiver per roll which would have been a fantastic bargain...but no, I got all seven (sufficient to paper a small bedroom) rolls for the princely sum of £5

Mims x