Matching old wallpaper - any good websites or businesses?

[Flyboytim]

You probably know the situation - for example, a hallway and stairs has been papered with an embossed paper, repainted several times with emulsion, and still is in generally good nick - except for that bit by the front door that always gets rubbed against, wetted when you come in from the rain, knocked and generally abused.

What should be a cheap, simple Sunday afternoon repair job has become a total redecoration of the hallway stairs and landing, just because you don't have a roll of the old anaglypta left.

Are there any old wallpaper remnant specialists out there that have stocks of a few rolls of paper from bygone days? Does anybody know of a website, or a firm, or a carbooter that deals with this sort of stuff? Is anybody interested in setting something like this up, a "Wallpaper Exchange" - like there are companies that specialize in supplying the odd cup, saucer or teapot for an old, out-of-production tea service?

It could be worth £20 or more for a 2.5M strip of matching paper, when you compare that with the cost and disruption of completely re-papering and re-coloring a room.

Here's the paper I'm looking for to hide a settlement crack under a window on the side wall of the stairway:

Untitled

• Flyboytim
• 2 Mar 2012
• 1

It was already on the wall years ago when we moved here, and there were no leftover rolls in the loft or shed, so I don't know the manufacturer, pattern number, or anything else.
The pattern is overlapping fan or shell motifs, with a 2.5 inch pattern repeat, with a 23" drop needed for the repair, so a 30" or 75cm length would do me.

Can anyone help?

If I need to repaper the wall - over the stairwell, landing and entrance hall, it would be a major job, possibly with re-plastering involved, and major disruption, since the only loo is upstairs.

I'd be happy to pay a tenner plus postage for the end of a roll of this if anyone has a remnant. I'd also be willing to share any of the leftover rolls of other papers I have.

I'd also be willing to discuss setting up a website as a clearing house for people with spare rolls in the loft, shed or garage - all that would be needed is either the pattern number and manufacturer, or failing that, an image of the pattern and colour and a brief description, the available number of rolls, or part rolls, contact details, and an approximate price per roll or metre required. The website would act as go-between the supplier and customer like Ebay stores do.

Any thoughts?

 

[misterhelpful]

The idea of a wallpaper exchange/remnant service is good but, even if you have the manufacturer and pattern number, the batch number will undoubtedly be different. If you use paper from a different batch then the pattern can often run out of line (up to an inch over a full drop) or the colour shading can be different. Some people will live with this but others won't. The idea is good but, in practice, it may not be very successful.

The only real way to guarantee a match is to keep a piece from the original paper for patching up. (Obviously not your fault in this case.)

If you go to a Decorator's merchants, they will have catalogues of all sorts of old papers that you can trawl through and you may be lucky enough to find that what you require is still available.

 

[deanibusmaximus]

In have had customers with similar problems. Last time, I went into focus (May they rest in peace) and tore off a sample of something similar to what I was trying to match. I then spliced it into the wall, matching up best I could, let it dry, and then modified it with some caulk and a stanley knife.
Sounds like an absolute hack job, but totally nailed it. Very tricky though.

 

[Flyboytim]

Thanks for the replies - I hadn't thought about samples books as a source of patches!

Yes agree that patterned wallpapers vary by batch, colour and stretchiness. Even within a batch there have occasionally been rolls that I have had to return. I've patched areas of pattern with a fine artists paintbrush and some artists oil colours thinned with white spirits, or acrylics in water in the past, just to make the discontinuity look acceptable.

Still , I probably won't need a patch - the worst problem was the overfilling which drew attention to the crack - so I damped it down, and scraped off most of the filler on either side of the imperfection, mostly with fingernails, since I don't have a fine or sensitive enough scraper.

Fortunately, the historical layers of paint protected the underlying embossed paper, which appears none the worse, unlike my fingertips!

Now, I am in the process of filling just the crack with several coats of paint, and blending in the surrounding area:

Untitled

• Flyboytim
• 4 Mar 2012
• 1

Already a big improvement from my point of view.

 

[springclean]

Have the same paper in hall,think your's maybe by Graham and Brown of Blackburn, its Super Fresco luxury white paintable textured vinyl pattern number 15018. Hope this helps