Alexandra Jürgens started Vintage Tapeten, an online vintage wallpaper shop, 10 years ago. When we were looking for groovy floral wallpapers to include in frankie Evergreen, our gardening magazine, she was just the person to turn to – she has literally thousands of rolls. It was a whole load of fun looking through them, but pretty painful having to narrow our choices down. While we were deciding which ones to grab, we stopped and had a chinwag with Alex to find out more about her world of wallpaper.

First, please tell us a little bit about yourself. As well as having the vintage wallpaper shop, I’m an architect and also work part-time in interior design. I love having two jobs – it’s very varied and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My husband Stefan supports me with the shop – at the moment, he’s doing more there than I am. We’re very flexible, and divide the work up as it suits us.

Can you tell us about Vintage Tapeten? That’s the label under which we sell original wallpaper from the ’50s to the ’80s. It’s very important to us that we only sell original wallpaper rather than contemporary wallpaper with retro motifs, which seems soulless to us. Selling only the original means when it’s gone, it’s gone. We have our warehouse in a small village near Hanover, and currently have about 8500 rolls in stock.

How did you get into it? It all started when I bought a large stock of wallpaper on eBay around 12 years ago. I actually only wanted a few rolls for another project, but the stock contained several thousand rolls and suddenly they all belonged to me. I ended up with around 5000–6000 rolls, and was just totally fascinated by the great motifs and the evidence of the past. I had to set up an online shop, which took about a year to get ready. That was in 2014. It’s crazy how time flies.

How old’s the oldest wallpaper you would be interested in, and how about the newest? Our oldest wallpaper is from the early 1950s. Of course I would like to have even older wallpaper, but it’s very difficult to get hold of and you pay horrendous amounts for it. The newest wallpapers are from the ’80s. After that, it becomes uninteresting for us.

Where do you find them? We buy up old stock from owner-operated paint companies. We have discovered a lot of great designs – velvet wallpapers, wallpapers with lots of gold applied, crazy ’70s patterns. But sometimes I’m also amazed at how abysmally ugly a design can be.

What do you love about vintage wallpapers? It’s the history that is immediately noticeable in each of our original wallpapers. I especially love photographing “new” wallpapers. The moment when I open the roll and can explore the pattern is always something special for me. With our original vintage wallpapers, the charm of the past is palpable, not only in the design, but also in the material, and even in the smell. It is the old printing processes and the choice of paper that, in addition to the good design, make each individual wallpaper unique.

Are there any wallpapers you particularly love? Yes, I always have ones I’m in love with. I used to have a hard time selling my favourites, but today I’m happy when they find a home with someone who appreciates them as much as we do.

As we’re showing some of your floral wallpapers, could you please tell us what’s so special to you about them? What I particularly love about them is that the floral motifs are so diverse. There are geometric-floral or flowery motifs that are very romantic. Subtle, small-format and large-format wallpapers that really pop. There’s something for every taste.

Who buys your wallpaper? About half the wallpaper stays in Germany and the rest goes all over the world. We have delivered to every continent and almost every European country. Our customers vary a lot. Of course, we have a lot of private customers who wallpaper a room or a single wall, but also use our wallpapers for smaller projects, e.g. to liven up a cupboard. We also have a lot of commercial customers; theatres and film companies buy our wallpapers for their productions, and they’re often used in small shops or cafés. It’s interesting that private customers and commercial customers buy completely different designs.

Are any of your walls at home papered in vintage wallpapers? No – we like art and so white walls are a perfect background for us. But, of course, we can’t live without wallpaper. So we hang a few favourite motifs on poster rails and change the patterns from time to time.

To find hundreds of Alex’s wallpapers, visit vintage-tapeten.de. To see our selection (and find out about the flowers in them), grab yourself a copy of frankie Evergreen now.