Some years ago we stripped several layers of wallpaper (including some painted layers!) from the small lobby area next to our back door. To our surprise, underneath them we found a wallpaper that was so correct for the period that we believe it to have been pasted there when the house was first decorated, circa 1897. It is very damaged and discoloured, so we can’t rescue it, but with my love of history I haven’t managed to make myself cover it over with anything else.
In October 2019 we had a family holiday in Northumberland during which we visited Cragside, a beautiful stately home built in the Arts and Crafts period. Inspired by the reproduction wallpapers used to re-create the original appearance of Cragside, I came home determined to re-create our lobby wallpaper. (Countless searches have not found a commercially produced reproduction wallpaper in the design of our lobby wallpaper).
It has taken me hundreds of hours to perfect the artwork, using vector art drawing software. However, my re-drawing of the design is now complete and ready to go to print. I’ve found and spoken with a company that prints bespoke wallpapers, so we are go!
Due to discolouration, I don’t know exactly what colour the original wallpaper was, and it was clearly quite a dark paper. I’ve therefore used some artistic licence in my re-creation. I love it, and think it will brighten our very shabby lobby wonderfully.
That is a labor of love, well done! It will be beautiful in your soon-to-be lovely lobby.