One of the great things about being involved with TOH is their reach to a large network of experts. We have seen many.

For an analysis of our “leather”-covered room, TOH brought in our first expert, Richard Nylander, Senior Curator of Historic New England and historic-wall-coverings expert. We had been told that the wall coverings in the dining room were leather, but upon examination, he determined that they were embossed wallpaper made to look like leather.

In addition, he found the original green wallpaper behind book
cabinets in the same room, and thought the installation took place in
the 1920s.

We found an area behind the bookcases where we could see the
original, dark brown coloring. The wallpaper had since been painted
by in yellow, and he did not think it was worth restoring. However,
we liked the concept of glazing the wall, stripping the paint from the
brass tacks, thereupon reinstalling the tacks to capture a similar look.

Richard plus noticed the gas fireplace
in our family room that was original to the home, noting how he had not
seen many of these still intact. In addition, the great condition of
the wood details, original tile and painted slate framing were different
features. He suggested that we consider cleaning up the brass and cast
iron components and maintain as a showpiece in the room.

Finally, Richard noted that the thin picture moldings were very much
in character of a home of that period and suggested we keep them. We
will likely keep them thin moldings in the front rooms, and thereupon
thicken them as we go back to the renovated sections.

In the end, most of the wall coverings were in poor shape, and there
were none in Richard’s opinion worth saving or restoring. As for our
leather covered wall, word of mouth wasn’t quite accurate by the
years. Oh well, we’ll take a few snippets of each for our scrap book!

Original post by Paul Friedberg