wallpaper or paint and it's influence

chic

chic

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U.S.
When you were growing up were the rooms of your house covered by wallpaper or by paint? Did that influence how you feel about wallpaper and paint now?

With the exception of a painted wall behind the kitchen stove and a painted stucco wall in the den, when I was growing up, all the rooms in our house were decorated by wallpaper.

My first painting was a copy of a fountain pictured in the wallpaper of our foyer. I used to see worlds of beauty in wallpaper and always helped my parents and grandparents with those huge wallpaper books from the hardware store when wallpaper changing time came around.

To this day I prefer wallpapered walls to painted ones. It's very old skool now, but I still like wallpaper.

What's your preference?
 

Still have a lot of wall paper and it's nice. But I wish it were all gone because its scratched and torn in several places
and impossible to repair.

Painting is easier and more practical. If you want pictures on a wall, HANG THEM! Not PASTE them.
 

Gave up wall paper years ago, you hardly see it in todays new homes. Like most people you get tired of seeing the same old wallpaper but with paint you just cover it up with another fresh coat.
 
Grew up with painted walls only. The two houses I've bought on my own have had some ugly wallpaper that we had to remove, not an easy job. Like Karen, I'll happily go with a fresh coat of paint instead.
 
My paternal grandfather (who we lived near) was a painter (outside and inside) and paper hanger. Needless to say, our houses were painted and/or wallpapered to a fare-thee-well. He would give us girls his wallpaper sample books each year when he got new ones, so we were always doing crafts with wallpaper.

He was a small man, about 5'3" and probably didn't weight 125 pounds soaking wet, but he would toss those heavy wooden extension ladders around like they were toothpicks. Back then, there were no vinyl-backed wallpapers; you brushed the paste onto the wallpaper and you'd darned better get that paper up fast and right the first time because there sure wasn't going to be any pulling it off and rearranging it. That man was the Michelangelo of wallpaper and wall paint.......to watch him in action was to watch an artist.

I still have his folding wallpaper table and his heavy wooden yardstick that he used to tear wallpaper on. Every time I see them, I remember a man who put love and honor into everything he did and who worked an 8-hour day the day he died at 73.
 
First thing that comes to mind is my grandfathers bathroom. It was wall papered in an old Chinese garden kind of pattern. The walls in the rest of the house weren't in the best shape, but I always wanted to save some of the bathroom paper to reproduce.
 
I remember some ugly wallpaper in a kitchen from long long ago in an old place we lived in for a short while. I've removed wallpaper from one apartment I lived in, I was a lot younger and stronger then, what a hideous job that was. So now its paint. A tiny bit of wallpaper might be nice on a very small wall though, not ruling it out completely.
 
When I was a kid Avocado Green and Yellow with Burnt Orange were colors used in wallpaper patterns our parents would hang in the Kitchen, and the Dining Room. It didn't bother us as we were young, but before our parents passed they would always bring those colors and weird patterns up in conversation and they would laugh. When us kids moved out and on, my parents had the paper removed and would always paint and use an accent color on one wall. We like paint, no paper here...
 
Kitchen "Wallpaper"

Anybody remember what we always called "oil-cloth"? I'll bet Quicksilver does; Chicago area's old homes had it used most frequently in kitchens and bathrooms, where "stuff" was likely to collect here and there from cooking oils in the air, splashes, and the like.

It had a glossy-smooth surface, easily washed without damaging it, as plain wallpaper would be. Sometimes, it was painted over with enamel paint. To remove it from a wall, you loosened it up at the top, slit through vertically with a knife into workable strips, and pulled it right off the wall! It had a woven cloth-like backing. It was pretty durable material.

Now, cleaning plain old wallpaper: that was a trick!

magic%20Ball%20absorene.jpg

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~haefner/absorene/

We always used a product named "Wall-vet", which was a dough-like stuff having a faint hydrocarbon odor. You simply rubbed it over the wallpaper surface and it cleaned it like magic! I have been unable to find any reference to Wall-vet. imp
 
I prefer paint in my own home but I love looking at wall paper in older homes. One thing I don't care for are those wall paper boarders that were so popular, in the 80s I think it was, that people would put usually around the upper walls of a room.
 
Grew up in a house with all paint. My house now has 3 rooms in wallpaper. Reason: covers up flaws in the plaster, like QS said.

Two reasons why I won't be adding any *more* rooms with wallpaper: WAY too expensive and too difficult to change later.

I think the borders around the ceilings were popular in the late 60's. My bedroom at home about that time was pale lavender with a cute border just below the ceiling. I remember because it was the first time I got to choose the paint, and I asked for the border and got it, even though it was expensive. I felt guilty.:)
 
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jujube said:
My paternal grandfather (who we lived near) was a painter (outside and inside) and paper hanger. Needless to say, our houses were painted and/or wallpapered to a fare-thee-well. He would give us girls his wallpaper sample books each year when he got new ones, so we were always doing crafts with wallpaper.

He was a small man, about 5'3" and probably didn't weight 125 pounds soaking wet, but he would toss those heavy wooden extension ladders around like they were toothpicks. Back then, there were no vinyl-backed wallpapers; you brushed the paste onto the wallpaper and you'd darned better get that paper up fast and right the first time because there sure wasn't going to be any pulling it off and rearranging it. That man was the Michelangelo of wallpaper and wall paint.......to watch him in action was to watch an artist.

I still have his folding wallpaper table and his heavy wooden yardstick that he used to tear wallpaper on. Every time I see them, I remember a man who put love and honor into everything he did and who worked an 8-hour day the day he died at 73.
Click to expand...

Great story Jujube. Thanks for sharing. My maternal grandfather was very handy around the house and he could hang wall paper and remove old wallpaper too. They used to use a steamer and it would smell awful while it was peeling off. I was fascinated with wall paper because it was so much prettier than paint. It was artistic the way professional paperhangers could match up sheets of paper around tricky corners so seemlessly and even mix paint especially to match the paper they hung. Those wallpaper tables were awesome. So big and fun for kids to play under and so practical for the workmen. It's great you still have yours.
 
Growing up we had paint but some wallpaper. My great aunt had wallpaper and I thought it was cool, especially with the antiques and old photos and paintings.

We have both now, but when it comes to putting up or taking down wallpaper, it's hubby's job.
 
WE had wallpaper in every room in our house growing up,.

I've had my fair share of stripping wallpaper, and being the helper at the end of the pasting table..

I had Wallpaper in every room in this house until about 20 years ago...and then decided that it's time to just have paint and tiles...depending on the room of course.. :D

That said...I have one feature wall papered in the livingroom...it's an expensive classical design wallpaper..and very elegant...but the rest of the room ..and the house, is painted in pastel and warm colours...
 

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