One little scrape was all it took to let my curiosity get the better of me...my large VERO has been apart these past few months, patiently sustaining the workings of my paint stripper as I attempted to reveal its original papers. I am pleased with the results, but not without a fight on my part!
First, a refresher...here is what the house (and its wallpapers) looked like when it arrived from Germany last year:
The previous owner did some lovely restoring of the house, but I did not care for the flowered and somewhat plain cream papers. I scraped off a corner in the upstairs bedroom and then never looked back. I could see the original papers underneath and wanted to see if I might be able to repair them.
Here's what I found in the bedroom:
Nice, right? I carefully scraped off the new papers and then used an eraser to reduce the appearance of some of the darker smudges. The partition wall papers are in great shape and needed no repair, which was great.
The papers in the bathroom were unfortunately very damaged, as you can see:
I debated for a very long time what to do and tried a few different things, including scanning the green tile paper and trying some hexagonal tile paper. Neither worked. Then, I decided to use some of the vintage 1:1 papers I bought a few months ago (and blogged about here), and I think they work.
What do you think?
The papers in the kitchen downstairs were too damaged to keep on one side; the partition wall was salvageable:
So, I used some of those great scans from Annina's VERO for one wall there, and also used it for the other side of the partition wall, which was also too damaged as you can see:
Now covered!
The other living room wall is pretty beat up, but I could not bear to cover it. I carefully scraped on and off for a few weeks and decided to keep it with its rips and other scars. You can see the before and after here:
I am happy to have my little gem shining a bit brighter!
Credits: Bedroom furniture is a vintage German set that came with this house, and the clock is also vintage German, but purchased separately; the plant in the corner is vintage TOMY. The bathroom sink is an eBay find; the bath is a dish from Crate and Barrel (the tap in the tub is actually a funnel from the "Mike the Mechanic" set by Mighty World); the shelving unit is by Paris Renfroe; chair is vintage Petite Princess; side table is AG Minis; cowhide rug and book on table are handmade by Oese; white wooden rug is from a window treatment card sample from Lowe's; plant is vintage TOMY; light is vintage Lundby. Accessories are AG Minis, Tynies, Re-ment, made by me, Playmobil, Manor House Miniatures, and from France.