Farmington, located in Louisville, Kentucky is a 14 room Federal-style home built in 1815. Its unique architectural plan includes two octagonal rooms embedded in its center, which along with other evidence strongly suggests the influence of Thomas Jefferson. This house derived much of it's historical significance when, in the summer of 1841, an up and coming politician named Abraham Lincoln paid a three week visit to Farmington's owner and closest friend, Joshua Speed

that the first and last strip join perfectly with no mismatch. Complicating this goal, was the fact that a set border accompanied the sidewall. A set border requires that a repeating feature within the border, and with this border that feature is a medallion to which a double swan swag appears to be attached, coincide and align perfectly centered over a three inch wide column within the sidewall strip. Thus, in the attempt to avoid a mismatch, any adjustment in the matching of the sidewall would also entail an equal adjustment for each repeat of the border.

Further complicating this scenario and essential to the success of the installation would be an effort to perfectly balance the double swan swag beside and between three focal windows. So with all that in mind I embraced the challenges and made the room my own. The goal, to install the sidewall and set border selection within an octagonal room, without a mismatch, while striving to aesthetically balance the double swan swag and sidewall columns around three focal windows. A goal which unfolded and evolved into the most challenging installation of my career to date.

Realizing that mismatching the first and last strip was out of the question, the first task was to find out if hanging the strips to match resulted in a mismatch and if so to what extent. The strips had a definite match but test hanging revealed that it would be possible to hang slightly off match without a noticeable mismatch. Determining the expanded width of the sidewall was the first step in determining how the first and last strip would end up. Then that width was parleyed onto a dry piece of paper. Since the ceiling height was 14 feet, the testing was accomplished on a scaffold carefully marking near the ceiling where each strip would fall. Once completely around, strip #42 overlapped strip #1 by 9 and 1/2 inches. Mathematically, it was determined that by moving each strip off match and inward by 7/32's the 9 and 1/2 inch mismatch would be eliminated, thus rendering all 42 strips in apparent full width. To be certain the expanded spacer was reduced as such and another trip around the room proved the measurement to be exact. Since a historically accurate overlapped seam was being used the strips could be moved slightly inward without re-trimming. However, while this worked in theory for a solid room, it did not take into consideration the necessary adjustments required for balancing the sidewall to three focal windows. Thus the 7/32's adjustment, which was used to get the sidewall from the outer edge of window #1 around the room and back to the outer edge of window #3, was no longer effective. At this point the balancing at the windows took on a completely different strategy. If things could get any more problematic than they already were, the width of the spaces between the three focal windows was two inches wider on the left side of the center window than on the right side. So at this point the 7/32's approach was futile and it became a matter of adjusting each strip as needed yet at the same time not allowing any one strip to appear mismatched at a glance. As apparent in the finished photo my goal was to balance a full double swan swag between the windows and also have a column on each side of each window. Layout for just the sidewall, including pattern testing, vertical layout, horizontal balancing, physical measuring and then the specific balancing at the windows required more than 6 hours of planning.

At first glance the border installation appeared simple. It would simply be a matter of separating each repeat then positioning each medallion on center of the sidewall column. And since the sidewall had been moved inward 7/32 of an inch, it followed that each section of the border would also be overlapped on to itself by 7/32's. The first problem, or should I say challenge, arose when cutting through the complete border and overlapping resulted in an obvious mismatch in the top row of stars. When a section was installed the result was one star touched the next star resulting in what appeared to a large double star. At this point I was very dissatisfied with what was happening with the stars did not know exactly how to rectify the problem. Later that evening, during a discussion about the border the word appliqué came up. While it was not exactly the solution, it sparks an idea. Why not separate the row of stars from the border then install the row as an independent border in itself? The next morning this idea was given a try. Test trimming revealed that the row could only be partially removed using a straightedge because the medallion element tipped up upon the row. So a straight cut was made up to the medallion then it became necessary to hand trim around the element as not to lose the outline of the design. Once the trimming process was clear it became a matter of dissecting the border and then reassembling it repeat by repeat. First the row of stars was completely removed using the technique described above. Then, each double swan repeat was separated by careful hand trimming around the left side of each medallion element. The result, a full length star border and 42 separated swan elements.

During the initial engineering of the sidewall the top sidewall half moon swag had been strategically placed so that once the border was installed the double swan swag would cap over the half moon and appear resting on a row of curved stars. Due to the room height the scaffold length dictated that the installation would be done in spans of approximately eight feet. Thus, for each section an eight-foot row of star border and five double swan elements would be pasted and installed. The star border was installed first on a calculated horizontal caulk line. Once in place the double swan swag element were set in place. Since the medallion element had been trimmed on the left side the installation took place from left to right so that each element could be installed overlapping back to the left. The overlap was determined by simply centering each medallion over each corresponding sidewall column.

Thankfully, this method worked beautifully. Once all the pieces were installed each and ever medallion was centered over a sidewall column as all set borders should be. For tourist walking into this room, the wallpaper appears to have been made especially for the room. The double swan swags are centered perfectly between and beside the three focal windows and without a mismatch the sidewall and set border blind perfectly into the room's architectural features. Needless to say the curator. Carolyn Brooks, was ecstatic with the results for she had witnessed first hand the challenges as they arose. But most importantly she became very conscious that the experience and creativity of a paperhanger could sometimes verge on the realm of magic.