Last night we had dinner with some friends who recently purchased their first home. One of their first projects after moving in was to strip the wallpaper off of their new kitchen walls. Once they started ripping, they were fascinated to discover layer after layer of old wallpaper - each a little more amazing than the last.
Look!: Layers of Old Wallpaper
We found ourselves totally fascinated by all the layers - it's a sort of design time capsule right there in their kitchen, and left us wondering what's under the (obviously painted over) wallpaper in our own home.
Oh, and we wish we could find some paper or fabric with that pattern our friends have dubbed "balloon tree" - any readers out there recognize it?
Comments (17)
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whoaa, that's like five different patterns! i remember when we tore up the layers of kitchen vinyl flooring...seeing the original floor brought back a flood of memories from when we first moved in here when i was a kid. me and my brother both were in disbelief that THAT was the floor for ten years before our mom covered it. memory is cute like that ;)
view kdkaboom's profile
that balloon tree pattern is fantastic!
view dosergirl's profile
If this were my place, I'd absolutely leave the room like that, with all its layers of decorating history intact, although I'd use a coat of fresh paint on the trim to let people know that the room is finished and that, yes, it's supposed to look like that.
But whatever these folks decide to do, at least they had the foresight to document what they found. All they need now is a few more fragments and, with Photoshop, they can recreate any of those patterns and have them printed. And I agree about the balloon tree pattern: very cool.
view magnaverde's profile
I love the balloon tree pattern! I haven't seen anything like it before, but you could recreate the pattern and have it printed on fabric at www.spoonflower.com. In fact, I may do that now!
view HandyC's profile
I hope they pick out a spot to keep and hang an "empty" picture frame over it.
view Fontessa's profile
Ooohh, Fontessa, love that idea!!
view Amymj's profile
Fontessa, that is such an awesome idea....I will have to remember it if I am ever in a similar situation
view hanako66's profile
I came here just to post the same idea Fontessa has. Leave an area as-is and frame it, maybe using crown moulding.
view sarahisaghost's profile
HA! My mom just redid her kitchen and she had that same chicken wallpaper underneath! How funny!
I repainted my bathroom a while back and found some navy blue and gold bamboo printed wallpaper behind the wall heater.
view valleyval's profile
Oh! The first photo of the dear little posy bouquet!! The chicken paper..Hey..Anthropologie, lookie!! New patterns for you!..Of course..frame it..Great idea!!
view keeks's profile
Maybe www.secondhandrose.com can identify the patterns for you?
view ohjodi's profile
Oh lawd, this reminds me of when we bought this house ... hideous 70s wallpaper in the kitchen. But that balloon tree is neat ... I'd never have covered that up!
view madampince's profile
wowza. cool stuff going on under there. this reminds me of when i lived in base housing at Andrews AFB in DC. We were re-wallpapering the downstairs bathroom when we uncovered a bunch of cartoon naked people. We were all like, umm. ok. This is the GUEST bathroom, downstairs, and on a military institution. Naked cartoon people. We had a good laugh--this was the late 80s.
view animalhouze's profile
oooh, balloon tree definitely reminds me of something Orla Kiley would do. also kinda reminds me of my own Dotswold wllppr from Anthropologie. it's so cute!!
view my little apartment's profile
Even better than empty framing part of the wall would be to salvage large fragments of individual wallpapers and frame them. Against a plain painted wall they could look very dramatic... plus you could move them easily if you got bored with them.
view Blandwagon's profile
Love the 'chickon' paper!
view gryt's profile
The baloon tree pattern is actually a bit unsettling : bright clown-like circles but spooky haunted forest-like trees.
view nobhillbilly's profile