If you want a new look for your room, and you want more than “just paint” consider the beauty of wallpaper. After all, if you think of wallpaper as clothing for your walls, you will soon realize that there are endless possibilities found in this versatile wall covering.
Just a short time spent in your local home improvement store and you will soon discover the wallpaper choices available today range in price from very low to truly over the top. And when it comes to patterns, colors and quality you could spend several days looking at all there is, and still not find exactly what you want, simply because the choices are so varied.
But what is it about this wall covering that has kept it around for years? For some it is the elegance it offers with just a bit of work, for others it’s a form of artwork, and for others it is a way to combine all the colors in the room into one focal point. With the many ways that wallpaper is used today, one has to wonder if the inventors of wallpaper had any idea that what started off as a way to duplicate hand painted walls would still be around centuries later. Consider these interesting facts about the origins of wallpaper.
- Wallpaper was first used in China in 200B.C. As the Chinese passed this knowledge to other cultures, the uses and methods of making paper improved with each generation and as other cultures added their own touches.
- In 1841 Jean Bourdichon painted 50 rolls of paper with angels on a blue background for Louis XI of France. The paper was used to decorate his various residences. Other of the elite set, soon began hiring painters to create these painted paper wall coverings for them.
- The oldest known pieces of European wallpaper still in existence are from 1509 and were found on the beams of the Lodge of Christ’s College in Cambridge, England.
- In 1675, Jean-Michel Papillon, began making block designs in identical, repetitive patterns on rolls of paper and wallpaper as we know it today was born.
- Americans began using wallpaper in 1739, when it was introduced by the Philadelphia printer, Plunket Fleeson.
- In 1778, Louis XVI issued a decree that required the length of a wallpaper roll be about 34 feet.
- Around the turn of the 20th century wallpaper pasting machines were invented.
- During the 1920s nearly 400 million rolls of wallpaper were sold, resulting in the decade being dubbed the Golden Age of Wallpaper.
- After WWII, wallpaper was improved with plastic resins which made it more durable, washable and stain resistant.
- The United States Guild of Professional Paperhangers began in 1974.
Wallpaper has definitely come a long way from being painted by hand. Today technology has added to its durability, design and uses. So, if you are looking for a new look for a room take some to check out some wallpaper.