Yates and crew needed to "let go of perfection" when installing borders on walls and ceilings that were 3-4 inches out of plumb. For paperhangers who specialize in historic renovation and routinely install reproduction wallpaper, they're accustomed to working on stately job sites-grand estates, historic ballrooms, grand Victorian homes and the like. Jim Yates of Historic Wallpapering Specialties in Johnson City, Tenn may have had similar images in mind when this job was first described-"Historic restoration of the 19th century Tays House, listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties." Sounds grand indeed. But then came the kicker-"It's a miner's cabin, 9,000 feet up in the Colorado mountains." Better bring your lunch, Jim.

The two-story wood frame house was built near Crested Butte, Colo., in 1889 by George Tays. In its time, the house included amenities not found in neighboring structures; most notably, its plank walls and ceilings were covered with tacked muslin, which was then hung with machine-printed wallpaper and border patterns.

Tays' great grandson, Rob Anderson, now owns the building and directed its renovation. Fortunately the original wallpapers and borders remained on the walls under several layers of other papers. The papers were given to longtime Bradbury & Bradbury employee Burt Kallander in California to be reproduced. In the meantime, Kallander advised Anderson to call Yates to handle the installation. Fifteen months after that initial contact, reproductions of the original papers hung on the walls, and the process makes for a fascinating Top Job. To assist him on this most delicate project, Yates turned to two fellow members of the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers-Bill Kelsey and Lillian Weist, both from Nashville, Tenn.

Simply reaching the job site proved to be a challenge. The three paperhangers made the 23-hour drive, but their two-wheel drive truck could only get them as close as seven miles away. For that last leg they loaded up a flatbed trailer and a 4WD vehicle hauled them in.

With no electricity, no phone and a lengthy trip away from any forgotten supplies, planning took on heightened importance. As for accommodations during the job, the threesome made use of a small log cabin with running water, propane stove and an outhouse. The paperhangers didn't want for nourishment though...Anderson and his family delivered three home-cooked meals each day, complete with freshly baked cookies and cinnamon rolls-definitely Top Job!

Yates was hired mainly for his experience with muslin. However, while Yates had installed a great deal of muslin when pasted to plaster walls, he had never installed it as a tacked and suspended foundation over planks to receive wallpaper. As a result, Yates thoroughly researched the process and discovered it was a common practice up until the 1950's. Yates says his best information source was "old-timer" and fellow NGPP member Bill Reimers of San Antonio, who drew on his own past experience with the process. Armed with this research and the assistance of Kelsey and Weist, Yates was ready to begin.

"Walking into the cabin for the first time we were all overwhelmed by how rough the structure actually was," Yates said. "Some of the ceilings were just joists, some of the corners and planks had gaps of more than an inch, and virtually every wall, ceiling and floor was out of square." The spirit of the job can best be summed up by this comment of Yates: "The exacting standards we are so used to for contemporary houses actually works against an accurate historic installation. I had to encourage Bill and Lillian to let go of perfection."

Case in point-the owner asked Yates to mimic the original ceiling papers by allowing them to sag several inches. Likewise, Yates and crew overlapped seams by a half-inch, and each edge was intentionally scissors-trimmed to be wavy so as to duplicate the crudeness of the original installation. Also with authenticity in mind, the muslin and wallpaper were allowed to assume the shape of the corners, however rough they were.

Another obstacle: Parts of the ceilings were as much as six inches out of plumb, yet they were to receive patterned wallpaper and border. Should the borders be applied on a slant and cut into primary motifs, or should they be hung perfectly horizontal? With "how would have it been" in mind, they opted to hang horizontal. (A water level was needed to determine exactly what that was.) The six-inch gap above the border was resolved by allowing the ceiling paper to wrap down on the wallcovering.