The Upcoming Wallpaper Reunion

Since moving into the house, I have grown more and more fond of the painted wallpaper in the upstairs hallway. Not the color, but definitely the pattern. It has a classic style that I find really appealing. Then we did the master bedroom remodel and added the new attic stairs. Wallpaper casualties ensued in the hallway, several panels were damaged beyond repair and could not be rehung. And of course the wall underneath is in the same fantastic shape as the bathroom and kitchen, with lots of peeling lead paint.

I started searching for the same pattern online, finding a lot of similar patterns but nothing exactly the same. So I emailed the woman we bought the house from, the niece who inherited the estate of her beloved aunt. I had assumed that the wallpaper was put up in the hall to hide imperfections on the walls when the house was repainted this past winter. It turns out that the wallpaper was put up several years ago by the Aunt herself, and so of course by now the pattern is discontinued.

The good news? The niece has an extra roll of paper that she saved and generously offered to give it to us! While she lives far away, she has business here in a month and is willing to drop it off. Combined with the 3 sheets I saved from the closet that I carefully peeled off, I will have enough to repaper the hallway. Hooray!

So in a matter of weeks we'll be having a wallpaper reunion here at the little yellow house. In the meantime, in anticipation of the carpet installation tomorrow, we've painted the trim and attic door white and surviving panels of wallpaper Edgecomb Gray. We even painted all of the stairwell that we could reach without a giant roller extension (which we're hopefully borrowing instead of buying).

Tonight we're ripping up the carpet in the hallway and on the stairs to save on installation costs. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I think it will be...?