“Wallpapers have become amazing,” said Garrison”™s Julie Otto, who travels nationwide papering for the elite.
The “greening” movement has caused popularity of natural fibers, the wallpapering artist said. “High-end papers had formaldehyde,” she said of some past selections. “We”™re getting grass, bamboo, silk cloths, basket weaves and cork. Some papers are imported from England, Germany, Korea and Japan, and some are manufactured in this country.”
A real challenge to the paperhanger, Otto said, are the hand painted silk, glass beaded wallpapers and papers fashioned from mother of pearl. “At $100 a sheet, you can”™t louse it up or you”™re buying it,” she quipped.
“Some papers have more than 23 screens of colors in them and have to be hand trimmed before installation,” she added. “Each color makes the paper more expensive. They can go for $400 a roll.”
Otto has done ceiling papers that look like gold fleck paint. She engaged helpers to keep her propped up as she installed eight different designs, including cut-out birds, on a single high brownstone ceiling.
In happier days for the Christopher Reeves family, she did the wallpaper for the nursery in the celebrity”™s Bedford home when the couple”™s son was a baby. When Reeves became disabled and used a wheelchair, the floors were raised. “Dana called and wanted me to return to paper other rooms,” Otto said.
Back in Garrison, Otto installed cork wallpaper in the Hudson Highlands Land Trust headquarters. “I ran it sideways,” she said. “They can use it as a bulletin board.”
Her high-end clientele has brought Otto into contact with some eccentric personalities. Decorating a penthouse, a wife requested entirely white wallpaper. “When I was pressing the bubbles out, she stopped me and said she wanted the bubbles retained,” Otto said. “Then she took a red magic marker and drew all over the paper. I couldn”™t do anything wrong on that job. Her husband refused to move in. They later divorced.”
Murals are back and popular, Otto said. She recalled also doing a canvas job for a couple that wanted to be able to take it if they moved.
Mood is important, Otto pointed out. For example, funeral parlors seek papers that create an aura of calm, she said. Houlihan Lawrence, one of her commercial clients, opted for a grass cloth for the warmth it exudes.
“I also have had homeowners as clients, and they can choose from an almost confusingly broad array of colors, designs and textures.”
She said she believes wallpaper to be a better investment than paint. “Wallpaper can go for 15 years, whereas a paint job is good for about four years. Also, wallpaper adds something that paint can”™t do.” She once persuaded a friend to paper a refrigerator that needed a coat of paint.
“To make wallpapering work, we have to take into consideration the condition of the walls, planning layout, deciding which paste and primer to use,” Otto explained.
Otto was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, coming to the United States as a bride in l974. After a divorce, she settled in Garrison, where she lives with two cats.
She was originally a certified dental technician. She began working with her husband, a painter; met a woman paperhanger and enrolled in a now defunct wallpaper school. She started working with painters and paint stores.
A member of the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers Inc., she participates in its charitable projects. The guild was contacted by a New Orleans paperhanger who, concerned about retaining police in the city, targeted police homes for refurbishment. Otto was among 40 paperhangers who converged on New Orleans. Major companies donated the supplies, she said.
“We just lost work and time,” Otto said, expressing satisfaction with the work done.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
