Residential Winners Commercial Winners Specialty Winners WWWW Entries (PPT)

Members of the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers have recognized nine exceptional wallcovering installation projects with 2007 Winning Walls with Wallcoverings awards. The Zinsser Company, makers of wallcovering installation products, proudly sponsors the NGPP’s Winning Walls With Wallcoverings program.

The program is open to any NGPP member who has completed a wallcovering project during the calendar year. An independent panel of judges assesses each entry by assigning point scores to fifteen different project factors, including creativity, special challenges, materials, time constraints, and the quality of the entry presentation. The awards were presented at a luncheon held during the 2007 National Guild of Professional Paperhangers Convention and Tradeshow in San Diego, California, September 5-7, 2007.

First place award winners were Scott Mulhern, Scott Mulhern Custom Papering, Hopewell, NJ, in the Residential Category; Carolyn Greene, Carolyn’s Professional Wallpapering, Northridge, California,in the Commercial Category; and Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California, in the Specialty Category.

Second place awards went to Glen Olsen, Jr., C.P., V & G Services, Woodbridge, Illinois and John Damme, C.P., Exquisite Interiors, Hickory Hills, Illinois, in the Residential Category; K.L. Conner, Conner Wallcovering, Bogart, Georgia in the Specialty Category; and to William White III, Robert J. White Company, Cincinnati, Ohio in the Commercial Category.

Receiving honorable mention recognition were Shelly Wilkins, C.P., Walls, Etc, Westminster, Maryland in the Residential Category; Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcoverings, Oceanside, California, in the Commercial Category; and Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California in the Specialty Category.

Residential
1st Place Winner
Scott Mulhern, Scott Mulhern Custom Paperhanging, Hopewell, new Jersey

2nd Place Winner
Glen Olsen, Jr. C.P., V & G Services, Woodbridge, Illinois and John Damme, C.P., Exquisite Interiors, Hickory Hills, Illinois

Honorable Mention
Shelly Wilins, C.P., Walls, Etc., Westminster, Maryland

Commercial
1st Place Winner
Carolyn Greene, Carolyn’s Professional Wallpapering, Northridge, California

2nd Place Winner
William White III, Robert J. White Company, Cincinnati, Ohio

Honorable Mention
Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcoverings, Oceanside, California

Specialty
1st Place Winner
Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California

2nd Place Winner
K.L. Conner, Conner Wallcovering, Bogart, Georgia

Honorable Mention
Michael Baughman, C.P., Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California

Entry Descriptions

Residential First Place Award

A beautiful bed and breakfast was a dream coming true, except for a glaring hole in a large entry ceiling. The owners had very little money to work with so the installer, who was also a friend, creatively improvised. He took money and went to Lowe’s and bought a number of in-stock papers. With no fixed plan, the installer gathered what stock papers Lowe’s had and brought them back to the Inn. Each border indicated what the next layer would be and corner details were just what seemed to work best. The zigzag happened because he had only two double rolls of the white paintable tin ceiling paper. The borders within it were small pieces of large borders from the outer layers. There were hours of figuring and crisscrossing lines until the pattern emerged. He sprayed paper with a shiny gold and whitewashed with a can of paint found in the basement. The front cover of the bed and breakfast’s new marketing brochure is a photo of the entry ceiling. Even with larger and more expensive projects in the last 35 years, this project was an incredibly satisfying project for this paperhanger.

Commercial First Place Award

Two other paperhangers had walked off the job. The office hours were Monday through Friday so the installation had to be done on weekends so the equipment had to be moved in and out every weekend. The job took four weekends with 24-30 hours per weekend. This was a remodel of a children’s dental office to look like a space station.

When the installer started the project the walls that were supposed to be prepared were not ready (surprise!). Removing old vinyl caused considerable damage and the walls needed to be smooth for the installation of the new silver-gray material, which is unforgiving.

After the prep came the details - boxed soffits and casement windows, the seating area which was a step-down, round pit with an enormous skylight for a ceiling; arched entry ways, and so on. The project also had several private offices and secretarial stations with half walls, taking into consideration all the details around built-in desks, computer desks, cabinets, sinks, x-ray and dental equipment. All of these things took time in engineering and labor time. Walls varied from 16 feet to 8 feet including some 4 foot half walls and an 8 foot high by 20 foot wide free standing, circular wall, separating two areas in the same room.

The end result was a dentist office that became a space station…a truly challenging job that turned a fantasy into a reality.

Specialty First Place Award

“Do the work but not be seen” were the paperhanger’s instructions.  The project included the undulating S-shaped wall of the large format digitally printed canvas mural with an original Disney Artwork of the Disney Castle. This wall was located at the top of the main escalator to the Convention Center in Downtown Disney. The wall shape alone made the project creative. The location added intrigue and surprises during the length of the project. The artwork on the mural itself made it very important that the placement and appearance of this mural in such a well traveled location would be precisely what the Disney imaginers had envisioned.

Disney likes the work done now and does not want guests seeing the actual work being done. A partition drape was used to shield the work from the guests, which made for very tight working conditions, with not much room to move up and down, let alone be able to stand back and view the alignment and progress of the large format mural.

With skill, the handling, trimming, pasting, smoothing and cutting was done to perfection, resulting in a very visible piece of art for the world to see.

Residential Second Place Award

The task was to wallpaper a stair hall and entry foyer with a hand painted silk made in China. Then comes reality- a sloped ceiling on the main wall of the stair hall with stairs that made a 90 degree right turn at the halfway point and the scene was to turn with the stairs.  Keep in mind that the installers were never given a sample of the actual stock. The goods were 36” wide paper-backed silk.  This installation required two installers with a total of 87 installer hours. There were flaws to be covered such as pinholes from the artist. A pinhole could cause leakage of adhesive through the paper and stain the silk. The backing was too fragile to paste and wet trim so dry trimming was the only option. Another point of interest is that on the drawings a butterfly flying to the left would actually be flying to the right on the panel. A vine that trailed this way, actually trailed that way. A bird flying right was actually in a dive.  Using experience, creativity and expertise, the results from 3 or 4 people half a world apart, is a great portion of the wonder and amazement this project demonstrated.

Commercial Second Place Award

The scope of this project was very intense at times. The project involved two separate areas, the main lobby/ticket booth area and the theater area. A big concern was a doorway across from the ticket booth that was very unforgiving to the project. The door was removed at the installer’s suggestion. Using the right materials and the right cleaning methods were essential. The results speak for themselves.

Specialty Second Place Award

It was an old custom scenic mural that had been rolled up in an attic for 10 years. The previous owner wanted the mural reinstalled in her new house but there was no time to send it for restoration. It was amazingly brittle and damaged with pieces of the sky and overall scene constantly falling off. The installer drew a sketch of each panel and created a number system for the fallen pieces so they could be reapplied later. The project encountered a few bad moments where the area that the homeowner wanted the mural installed was not the right dimensions and it was feared the inks may not withstand the moisture from the adhesives.  However, the original installer had signed and dated the back of the panel “J. Hollingsworth, Nov. 1932”. It had been almost 74 years since it was first installed. After learning this, the installer was determined to get it back on the wall.

With loving care, the walls were primed, cleaned, muslin installed, blankstock installed and then the damaged pieces of the mural repaired by various means. The end result was a joyous Thanksgiving with old memories that came to life.

Honorable Mention Residential Award

 There were three different wallcoverings used in three different ways; one a mural, one a normal vertical install and one a horizontal install. Each wallcovering had to be custom trimmed, inlaid, double cut and/or all of the above. All the wallcoverings were purchased at a “big-box” store and although not expensive, created a very believable illusion of a quaint mountain cabin with an incredible view out of a large picture window - all  underground.

Honorable Mention Commercial Award

 The company that had the contract for the exhibit at the US Grant Hotel needed someone to install custom printed commercial size murals on the alcoves at the historic hotel. Numerous other paperhangers had passed on the job. The challenge was a tight concave back wall with a quarter sphere on top. The material was canvas that was also black and would show all relief cuts and double cuts. There were electrical problems and specialized cleaning issues to contend with before the two sizes of murals could be installed. Alcoves #1 thru #9 were 37 ½ “wide by 41 “high. Alcoves A and B were 47 “wide by 64 “high.  The end result was a perfect backdrop for the Indian artifacts housed in this display.

Honorable Mention Specialty Award

There were 1,260 panels each 20 inches by 30 inches of hand made wallcovering that is translucent requiring special priming and treatment for shading. There were soffits and a cone shaped ceiling in a round staircase. The installer ran into a problem with replacement of some product, causing some delay and frustration.  He found scaffolding, lasers, cleaning techniques, and engineering skills were all put to the test on this project, resulting in a project that the owner and designer will show off in an upcoming article for Architectural Digest.

2008 Contest

Entry forms for the 2008 Winning Walls With Wallcovering contest will be available in the Spring of 2008. Bring your camera and start taking those photos before during and after as you never know when that one project may turn out to be a winner.