Who needs wallpaper?

These images were taken on a recent visit to the Franconian Open-air Museum (Fränkisches Freilandmuseum) in Bad Windsheim, Germany. They show recreations of stencilled decoration used on the walls of rural buildings which have been moved from their original locations to the museum.

Stencilling was widely used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in place of wallpaper in buildings of this type. In many of the houses in Bad Windsheim several layers of painted distemper decoration can still be seen, showing that rooms were stencilled and re-stencilled regularly.

Some of the patterns use two, three or more colours and must have called for some skill in applying them to the walls. Although it was something that an enterprising house-owner could do, it seems that the patterning was mostly carried out by specialists.  Particularly appealing is the way the pattern flows across irregularities such as exposed timber framing.

These buildings are nearly all substantial timber-frame constructions, with the walls plastered with a clay/sand mix. Apart from being inexpensive, stencilling in distemper was more appropriate than paper, which would have been difficult to fit into the beautifully irregular nooks and crannies of these wonderful homes.