We were finally up at the farmhouse for a weekend!The first task I set for myself was a sort of archeological expedition through the layers of wallpaper in the living room. I could see next to the trim in one place that there were multiple layers that had been applied, with the occasional layer of paint thrown in for variety. Here you can see snippets of at least six different wallpapers, in various states of decomposition. Although some paper had been stripped off at various times, my current theory is that the pink and lime green patch in the bottom right is the oldest paper. I was a bit surprised to see that there is no finish coat of plaster on the walls; the original wallpaper seems to have been applied directly over the rough plaster coat. I'm happy to continue that theme, if I can find a wallpaper that won't be too overwhelming over the entire room.
Speaking of overwhelming... here is the "good" picture! Isn't this great wallpaper? This great stuff was only one layer down, under something reasonably modern that had been painted. I think the paint somehow made it easier to strip off the top layer, because I managed to get all this uncovered in only about a half-hour. Oddly, beneath this was a layer of wallpaper depicting ducks in a marsh... and beneath *that* was another layer of this paper, but this time upside down! I managed to find an edge piece that said "Made in Canada by Waldec", so now I'm hunting for old Canadian wallpaper catalogues that might show it.
In a farmhouse of your age, it was very common (and i bet much cheaper) to put the wallpaper directly on the brown layer rather than to put on the expensive finish layer, then wallpaper.
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