KALSOMINE

Here’s a sample of the wallpaper we’ve probably selected for the dining room at the farmhouse. I say we selected it, but out of hundreds of designs, this was the only one that was appropriate and appealed to me. (Well, there was another, but it turned out to be discontinued.) Big Mike the Contractor said he had never worked with wallpaper and he would leave it to us to replace it. I asked a niece, an interior decorator, if she knew someone who would hang it for us, and she said, “No one who’s alive.” The Sherwin-Williams store said they knew of only one person who might still do it. Mike is contemplating doing it himself, as he has in the past, with his faithful assistant (me) at his side.

Today’s subject is “kalsomine,” however you spell it.  My grandmother Ina wrote the following to my dad in July 1933:

Available kalsomine tints, c. 1930s

Well, the week before June 25, Earl kalsomined the two big rooms and the “north room.” That was done in canary yellow walls and light cream ceiling. The living room the same tone as before when you were here, and the dining room walls canary yellow and below the chair rail a jersey cream in flat paint, --- not done yet, no time. There are gold-colored grenadine curtains with the design in white, said by the “World’s Greatest Store” to be the latest thing. They are very pretty. The new living room curtains are grenadine with flowers, etc., in green and orchid. These improvements came from my Mother’s Day dollars. We all worked hard that week to get ready for a friend of Earle’s and Bernice’s who was driving through to Coeur d’Alene with her friend. They were to manage a camp there for undernourished children. One is a trained nurse and the other a teacher. Their plan failed, and we were disappointed but had the satisfaction of fixing up anyway – and that lasted.

As luck would have it, I found in other family ephemera this brochure for “Dekorato Wall Tints – A Sanitary Cold Water Kalsomine,” manufactured by W. P. Fuller & Co. It’s undated but probably from the ‘30s. So amazing what people will keep! [See tints above.] Here’s an excerpt from the brochure – “Directions for Mixing:”

Add sufficient water to the Dekorato dry powder to make a stiff paste, stirring until all lumps are dissolved, then add sufficient water to make it of the proper consistency for brushing. After mixing, Dekorato should be allowed to stand at least one hour before using. Best results are obtained when the mixture is allowed to stand overnight. If it appears to have jelled too stiff for brushing, simply stir well and it will return to its former consistency without the addition of more water. A five-pound package requires about four pints of water and will make about one gallon of Dekorato ready for use. One pound of Dekorato will cover about one hundred square feet on a smooth hard surface. When the walls are rough or porous it will take from 20% to 40% more. KW