Susan Connery began The Wall Works, an organization that focuses on tremendous paint and wallpaper software in 1988, and greater than 30 years later she finds herself extra in demand than ever.
Whereas wallpaper can seem to be a adorning development of the distant previous, societal adjustments within the final two years have led to extra folks spending extra time at dwelling. The pandemic, the provision of distant work and the need to spend time in environment which might be each lovely and cozy have mixed to present wallpaper a brand new life.
Previously wallpaper was like wedding ceremony china, in response to Connery. “You picked your sample. It went with the instances,” she stated. “Now it’s greater than only a background.”
Now, clients have “trillions of selections,” Connery stated. These selections is probably not simply discovered at a favourite retailer, however on-line sources like Cole and Son have huge galleries to select from and the Phillip Jeffries web site brags that it has “1,000,000 yards able to ship.” Skilled inside designers have entry to what Connery calls “depraved cool” wallpapers as effectively.
“The papers I’m placing up now are totally different, not simply gingham and checks and tiny little flowers,” she stated. “It’s fish and jellyfish. It’s thrilling … totally different. Folks need one thing that’s not going to be in another person’s home.”
One shopper had Connery paper a room with New Yorker journal covers. She has used nautical charts prior to now and stated the shoreline of Maine makes a very nice presentation. There are textured papers with patterns pressed in aid to imitate tin ceilings. There are hemp wallpapers, wooden veneers and straw.
“There are paint folks and there are wallpaper folks,” Connery stated. Paint could present a crisper look and is definitely extra impartial, a priority for these excited by promoting their houses. Wallpaper, nevertheless, is visible sweet, Connery stated.
In keeping with Connery wallpaper can crowd a room however a big room with a number of window mild can take it. Some purchasers are deliberately choosing that extra immersive expertise. A job at a Bristol dwelling in April featured an workplace with an underwater sample in a darkish blue-green. Fish shifting throughout the design contributed to the sense of being inside a saltwater aquarium.
Left: Jellyfish wallpaper continues an underwater theme at a house in Bristol on April 19. Proper: Susan Connery fastidiously matches a design to excellent the alignment of wallpaper in a nook at a shopper’s dwelling in Bristol. Credit score: Bisi Cameron Yee / Lincoln County Information
Shoppers are additionally having her paper single partitions, indulging in an exquisite design as an accent to a room. Connery stated she really does extra single partitions than full rooms.
The skilled software of wallpaper is a vanishing ability. It’s not unusual for Connery to get calls from determined householders as distant as Connecticut, she stated.
Paint firms within the space have reached out to Connery, wanting their workers to be taught from her. She stated she has toyed with the concept of operating workshops, however so as to take action, she would want a room to paper.
Connery is methodical and detail-oriented in her method to a room. She makes use of a combination of vinegar and scorching water to strip any outdated wallpaper and makes positive the partitions are easy by sanding or scraping them. Then she paints the partitions the identical coloration because the wallpaper to make sure that the seams will look proper.
“Should you’re paying for costly papers you wish to have good prep completed,” she stated.
Any paint particulars or trim are accomplished earlier than the primary sheet of wallpaper is put in.
When Connery’s prepared to use she pastes the wall, not the paper, utilizing a clay paste with a chalky texture that helps the papers adhere.
There are challenges. Some papers will be pretty heavy, such because the grass cloths and material silkscreens. Colours can bleed on specialty papers if care will not be taken within the software course of. Connery saves scraps to deal with any points that come up or to the touch up corners and seams the place wallpaper can sometimes misalign.
Connery finds the work difficult and stimulating. She enjoys being a part of the bodily expression of all the gorgeous patterns she hangs.
When Connery determined to maneuver away from extra labor-intensive portray and deal with wallpaper, she was involved that it will not be sufficient to maintain the enterprise. She discovered that the surge in demand and a brand new line of ground cloths have saved her a lot busy.
Ground cloths are one other development steeped prior to now. In previous years the brightly embellished cloths had been put down in spring and summer time when the thicker wool rugs had been put up.
In keeping with Connery, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had ground cloths of their houses, and a few will be seen by strolling by way of Monticello, Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia.
“I like that a part of it — the historical past of the ground material,” Connery stated.
Connery pulls sample inspiration from public area designs and typically from wallpapers. She makes ground cloths to order too, collaborating with purchasers on measurement, design and coloration.
They’re normally small, most frequently used as accents instead of mats or ground runners.
The cloths are made from heavy canvas primed on either side with a 2-inch hem. Two coats of paint are used to finish the design, and 5 coats of polyurethane are rolled on. A rubber backing is added to forestall slipping.
Connery donated a ground material of the unique Maine flag with the pine tree and North Star to Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta. After a season of snow and a season of mud, she retrieved it for a cleansing and returned it in virtually pristine situation.
There are any variety of houses in Midcoast Maine and past which have benefited from Connery’s meticulous work with wallpaper. There are lots of kitchens and loos and halls made brighter by considered one of her ground cloths.
“I found out a very long time in the past my job on this planet is to create magnificence,” she stated. “It fills me. It provides me such pleasure to make these photos.”
For extra data, go to susanconnerydesigns.com or fb.com/mainewallworks.
This text seems by way of a media partnership with The Lincoln County Information.
