Picture Hanging

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The World of de Gournay

Welcome Back Blog Readers,

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Samantha Heard, the Senior Project Manager with de Gournay, and the New England representative Michelle Arsenault for Webster and Company, located at the Boston Design Center. For those who are unfamiliar, de Gournay Wallcovering is rich in history. The company was founded in 1986 by Claude Cecil Gurney in the efforts to search for artisans to restore the antique wallpaper in his own home. He had realized that this sort of restoration was a lost art. Traveling to China he sought out artists whose families had generations of experience, thus creating de Gournay, a design firm best known for its incredible and luxurious hand-painted wallcoverings.

The company has showrooms spanning from New York, Europe and China. These hand-painted murals are created today by artisans who have more than fifteen years of training. The wallcoverings, which I had the pleasure of viewing were created on different unusual backgrounds such as silk and metallics. Some of these panels incorporated hand-stitching to enhance the dimension of the mural. It is fascinating to see the eclectic images that appear on each mural. I had asked Samantha how long it takes to create one panel. She had told me that sometimes it takes over a hundred hours with several artisans working on just one panel. Truly in my opinion de Gournay murals are timeless, elegant and sophisticated, and if you are lucky enough to incorporate them in your home you are actually owning a fine piece of art.

My many thanks to de Gournay, Samantha Heard, Michelle Arsenault and the fine showroom of Webster and Company for sharing these incredible works, which the Four Walls is honored to show its clients.

Best,

Always,


Robin