Beacon Hill: Wallpaper

The thing that I have learned with dollhouses, is that you have to plan WAY ahead in some things.  I don’t even have all the walls up yet, but I need to start thinking about wallpaper before I put the stairs in… and I have to put the stairs in before I can put up all the walls.  It’s easier to put the wallpaper behind the stairs than it is to try and cut around them once the whole house is finished.

I know.

I’ve tried it.  (Don’t try it.  It’s frustrating for you and it never looks as good). I probably also want to paint all the ceilings and make sure I’m getting into all the crevices while I can still see them and they’re not obscured by railings or light fixtures.

So… that means that I have decisions to make.  I hate making decisions.

The first thing I did was some research.  Google says that Victorians liked to keep their hallways in neutral tones to create a break between heavily decorated rooms.  Also, that way the hallways matched everything beyond.  They liked to have highly patterned sitting rooms with lots of nick-knacks, and dark, cozy dining rooms.  Back in the day, coal and soot covered everything.  Anyone who could afford to would use wallpaper even on their ceilings because you could wash soot off of the paper of the times, but not off of the paint. Bedrooms were typically nature themed.

I also learned that Mansard roofs came into vogue between 1850 and 1870.

Now that I know what I’m looking for, I can make choices.  Right?  Well, theoretically…

I’m in love with the Broadnax wallpaper.  I’ve been drooling over it for years now, and they have a ton of things that match each other.  Since it’s a dollhouse and you’ll be seeing all the rooms at the same time, I want to pick a color-scheme for the whole thing.  I figured that I would go to their High Victorian page, pick papers, and call it a day.

The only problem was, I don’t like enough of the High Victorian papers to pick 9 rooms worth.  What I liked were the arts and crafts papers.

So I did some more research.  William Morris started making papers in the 1860s.  It was totally possible that a new house would have a Mansard roof and arts and crafts paper.  After all, Dovie (the lady of the house) is a progressive gal.  The only thing left was to pick which rooms got which paper.

Well, the long and short of it is that I couldn’t do it.  I ordered a slough of wallpapers from Dollhouses and More online.  They’re a little more expensive per sheet, but they don’t force you to buy 6 at a time.  I think I’ll be able to tell a little better where everything should go once I see it in person.  I’m hoping to pick all the rooms at the same time, and then order more paper as needed.  I got one sheet each of all of these:

I’m not certain where I’m using them yet, or even if they’ll all get used.  But I hope to be able to narrow down some things once I can see them and put them into the house.  Wish me luck! I’m going to need it…