PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Documentation of the work on the Puurmani Manor
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION:
Process: –
Performer: –
Date: –
OUTCOME OF THE CONSERVATION/RESTORATION PROJECT:
During the project 53,6 m 2 of wallpaper was restored. Large losses of wallpaper on the
walls 5, 6, 8 and 14 were filled with wallpaper removed from behind three overdoors.
Walls 1, 2, 7a, partially 8, 11 and 12 were partially completed with reconstructions.
Original borders were remounted on the walls 3, 4 and 5. Fragments of an original border
were used to complete the border of wall 14.
In order to give the room a visual unity, the one-coloured paper strip was replaced
throughout the rooms with reconstructions. The originals weren’t removed, but covered
with reconstructions.
Since the original wallpaper had been preserved only up to the height of 172 cm above
the floor, the rest of the wall needed to be covered with a wallpaper of neutral tone. One
chose a beige wallpaper with slight texture from a Finnish manufacturer, OY Pihlgren &
Ritola. The separation line of old and new was covered with a narrow strip cut from the
reconstructed border.
Reconstructions were left tonally slightly colder than originals to recognize new part from
old. The result restores the visual unity of the original wallpapers and presents the threepartite
wall-decoration scheme. Although less than a half of the wallpaper has preserved,
it still gives an idea how the room originally looked. Restorers wish to make a digital
reconstruction of the whole three-partite wallscheme, present it in the old dining-room
of Puurmani manor nad add it to the documentation of the restoration project.
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