Glazed Lincrusta in Master Bedroom

Glazed Lincrusta in Dining Room

Lincrusta Dado Glazed with Metallic Paints in Kitchen

Glazed Lincrusta Dado in Upper Hall

Lincrusta is a heavily embossed wallcovering, which was launched in England in 1877. It was invented by Frederick Walton, also the inventor of Linoleum. Since that time, Lincrusta has found its way into some of the finer homes all over the world. Today, it is often used in historical restoration projects, or to add a “period” charm to vintage homes. It is intended to be painted and can be glazed to further highlight Lincrusta’s beautiful designs.

Our house painting company was recently hired to install and decorate four different Lincrusta wallcoverings, as part of a much larger staining, painting and decorating project in Chicago. The owners were converting a one-hundred-year-old two-flat to a single family home. They had also built a substantial addition to the rear of the house and made sure all the materials used and the work done in their house was respectful of the “period” of their house. After noticing those concerns, when they were still at the stage of deciding on whom to hire for their house painting project, I thought of asking them if I could send them a link that I thought might be of interest to them – it was a link to the Lincrusta! After checking out the link, they fell in love with the Lincrusta designs. We not only got their entire painting and decorating project, but we were also commissioned to install and decorate four Lincrusta wallcoverings.

This two-flat was originally designed for the owner to occupy the second level of the house – it was therefore more upscale. After deciding to hire us and selecting those Lincrusta papers, they had me take a look at the front staircase leading to the second level of the house, which I had not been shown to me until then. There it was: a Lincrusta imitation from the late 1910’s below the chair rail! No wonder the clients bonded with the idea of having Lincrusta wallcoverings in other parts of their house!

Listening deeply for the needs and concerns of our clients and coming up with decorating ideas that meet those needs is what we are about as a house painting company.

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Burrows’ Honeybee Pattern in Powder Room – Detail 1

Burrows’ Honeybee Pattern in Powder Room – Detail 2

As painting and decorating contractors in the Chicago area, we recently did extensive plaster restoration in preparation for the redecorating of this century-old house in one of Chicago’s rejuvenating old neighborhoods. For the project, we used several historical colors and historical wall coverings. The client referred to her wallpaper selections as the “Jewels” of the house.

The wallpapers she chose for the house were all from the J.R. Burrows collection of American Arts and Crafts designs and patterns from the 1880s – 1920s. All the wallpapers are untrimmed and made to order. Before installing the wall coverings, we first hung liner paper to ensure a proper bond to old plaster walls.

During the past week, we installed he first wallpaper in the powder room adjacent to the kitchen, using the Honeybee pattern. We also cut out the edge pattern of the frieze version of this Honeybee pattern and used it to frame the arched opening for the pedestal sink and mirror.

We are looking forward to installing three more Burrows wall coverings in the next few weeks, as the papers are delivered to us. They will include: the Coleman Bower style in the Dining Room, the Pervis wallpaper and its companion frieze in the Vestibule and The Stag border in the Upper bath. You can expect to see more pictures soon. We enjoy helping clients give a “period” look to their vintage houses.

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