Reprinting a 90-Year-Old Damask From a Late Father's Childhood Home

In September 2023, Sara DaSilva sent us a note about a wallpaper with a family story behind it:

“This is vintage wallpaper that was found in my late father’s childhood home in Columbus Ohio. It is approximately 90-95 years old.” — Sara DaSilva

The house had changed hands long ago. When its current owners renovated, they uncovered the old paper on the walls, and when Sara visited, they kindly let her take a sample home. She wanted to bring it back to life in her own house, and her interior designer loved the idea of working it into the room.

The sample as it arrived: an ornate damask on beige parchment, in pieces, in a zip-lock bag.

What Was Left

The sample came to us in a zip-lock bag, in pieces. It was an ornate damask on a beige, parchment-like ground, and it was in rough shape: stained, brittle and torn. The pieces were so delicate that we handled them with gloves so they wouldn’t crumble.

It was also the most incomplete sample we’d worked with. More than half of the pattern simply wasn’t there. What saved the project was the design itself: a damask is symmetrical, so where one side of the motif survived, it could tell us what the missing side looked like. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was possible.

We scanned the largest piece in house and kept the smaller ones for color matching.

Project Specifications

• Client: Sara DaSilva, from her late father’s childhood home in Columbus, Ohio
• Source: wallpaper fragments roughly 90 years old, with more than half the pattern missing
• Service: Precision Archival recreation, with 2 rounds of press proofs
• Colors: 6, including the background, each on its own layer
• Material: DreamScape Nolar Smooth, a traditional paper with no adhesive backing
• Printing: Mimaki UCJV300-160, UV-cured CMYK inks
• Pattern repeat: 7.75″ vertical
• Total: 280 sq ft: six 52″ × 124″ panels, for three walls
• Timeline: first inquiry September 2023; proofs in December; final order sized with the installer in early 2024

Cleaning Up a Century of Wear

Before rebuilding what was missing, we had to make what survived look its best. Dust, stains, rot and tears had worked into every inch of the paper, and cleaning them out by hand in Photoshop took our team several days.

Left, the scan; right, the same section with the damage removed.

Rebuilding the Missing Half

With the source cleaned up, I took the lead on the reconstruction myself. I’ve been drawing in vector software for 30 years, and this pattern needed every bit of it. The damask’s texture is organic and gritty, the look of ink pressed onto old paper, and recreating it convincingly took thousands upon thousands of points, lines and shapes.

About two inches of the design, rebuilt shape by shape so the printed texture reads like the original.

Where the motif survived, I redrew it. Where it didn’t, I mirrored the surviving half, then reworked the details so the copy didn’t look copied, and checked every curve against the fragments.

Six Colors, Separated

To match the original, each color had to be completely isolated. Most people never see this step, but it’s what makes color matching possible: with every color on its own layer, our color team can adjust one without disturbing the others.

Six layers, background included, ready for matching.

Matching, Then Lightening

Sara wasn’t sure at first whether to match the paper as it was or change it. As she wrote early on:

“I’m still mulling over whether I want to change the original color or leave it as is.” — Sara DaSilva

So our first round of press proofs matched the fragments as they looked today, faded and darkened by ninety years on the wall. The match was close, but seeing it printed helped her decide: she wanted the wallpaper as it might have looked when it was new, cleaner and lighter.

Round one matched the aged sample; round two lifted the palette.

For the second round, we worked from professional color books and paint-brand swatches to build a fresher palette that kept the damask’s character: the same blue-gray and the same warm ground, without the decades of grime.

Checking the new palette against paint swatches.

Seen together, the proofs show the whole journey, from the original fragment to the approved color.

The proof progression, next to the largest surviving piece of the original.

It’s the opposite of what the family in our 1905 Dutch Colonial project chose. They asked us to keep every bit of their wallpaper’s grit and age. Both are right. A recreation doesn’t have to pick between the original and a fresh start; proofs on the real paper let you see both before you decide.

Planning the Rolls

When it came time to order, Sara was careful. Our panel plan showed the darker first-round colors, and she wrote to make sure we’d print the most recent, lighter version. (We would: the final rolls always match the approved proof.) She also waited for her installer to confirm the measurements before giving the green light.

The plan covered three walls, two 75″ wide and one 155″ wide, all 118″ tall, with six panels of 52″ × 124″, each overlapping its neighbor, for 280 square feet.

The panel plan we sent for Sara’s installer to review.

With the measurements confirmed, we printed the rolls on DreamScape Nolar Smooth, a traditional paper with no adhesive backing, in the lighter palette she approved.

For Sara, the wallpaper was never only a pattern. It was the backdrop to her father’s childhood, and now it’s part of her own home. Projects like this are some of the most rewarding we do, because the work connects people to their roots.

What This Project Taught Us

• Symmetry can save a pattern. With more than half of the design gone, the damask’s mirrored structure showed us what was missing.
• Clean before you rebuild. Repairing the surviving pieces first gives the reconstruction an honest starting point.
• Separate the colors early. Six independent layers made it possible to lighten the palette without redrawing anything.
• Match first, then decide. A proof that matched the aged sample is what helped Sara choose a lighter one.
• Let the installer confirm the plan. A schematic checked before printing means no one comes up short on install day.

Questions We Hear About Reproducing Family Wallpaper

Can you recreate wallpaper when most of the pattern is missing? Often, yes. Symmetrical and repeating designs give us a lot to work from, and a photo of the wall can fill in more. See our incomplete pattern service.

Can you make it look new instead of aged? Yes. We can match the paper exactly as it looks today, or clean up the palette. This family chose a lighter version; the 1905 Dutch Colonial family kept the age. Printed press proofs let you compare.

My sample is falling apart. Can you still use it? Yes. Fragile, torn and stained samples are common. We handle them carefully, scan them in house and repair the damage digitally. See our damaged wallpaper restoration service and our guide to sending wallpaper samples for restoration.

Can you reproduce a wallpaper from a family home? That’s one of our favorite kinds of project. See how we recreate nostalgic and family wallpapers, including a Victorian pattern rebuilt from a family photo.

Should my installer check the order before you print? Yes, and we encourage it. We send a panel schematic first; Sara waited for her installer to confirm the measurements before giving the go-ahead. We print, and your installer hangs it.

Bring a Family Wallpaper Home

If a piece of your family’s history survived in a drawer, an attic or behind a wall, even in fragments, we can rebuild it for your walls. Learn how we restore historic wallpaper, or send us your samples and photos.