dragonflies and cityscapes

I’m freshly inspired to narrow down my wallpaper favourites because I’m going to get some as a present for Christmas: thanks Mum and Dad! I’ve decided to plump for the chimney breast wall in the music room first, because that room really needs some care and attention. I haven’t shown you pictures yet because, frankly, it’s a bit of a dumping ground — piles of framed pictures and photos, a languishing ex-computer and redundant Christmas decorations are getting friendly with the remnants of a huge eBay sell-off we recently undertook. And there are five huge boxes full of CDs which Tim is gradually pensioning off to retirement websites like Music Magpie. The floorboards are a lot clearer than they were a few weeks ago, but I think we’ll wait a little before the big reveal. I promise I will take before and after pictures though, so that you can see the scope of the transformation.

So, I bring you the shortlist.

One of my first loves was a cityscape.

Endless source of interest: Londinium by Graham and Brown £22/ roll

I think this design sparks the imagination because you can never quite be sure what is behind all those buildings, and the busy jumble of city life is evoked so well. I’d never get bored working in front of this. But maybe I would get distracted.

Stepping up a price bracket is my favourite city view, made originally by Piero Fornasetti in the 1940s for the entrance hall in his own home in Milan.

Glorious and measured: Fornasetti’s Meditteranea now supplied by Cole and Son £82/ roll

This stately roofscape features gold accents and beautiful stately ink drawings. The regular buildings and formal layout bring an entirely different sense to the wall. A visual representation of Classical music: order and form.

Since the room is a working space, we were taken by the trompe l’oeil papers featuring bookshelves: there is even a Penguin paperbacks version. But we have a wall of books already in the room, and I do think that they are striking enough, without pretending we actually have a whole new set elsewhere. I haven’t ruled out the possibility of including this sort of paper on a door somewhere: possibly the one to Caspar’s room, which we haven’t yet painted.

There are other images, though, such as faux wood, plants, trees and other matter. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Old Wood from the Ginger collection by Esta Home £195/roll

Yes! I know! £195! Before you choke on your mince pies, I can console you with the news that in fact this is a photo mural wall covering which comes complete in a roll of four 2.79 metre drops. So the price is for the overall mural, not simply a roll of wallpaper. But still, I don’t pretend this is a cheap option.

Bamboo from the Bluff collection by Galerie £44.95/ roll

A nice bold photographic representation of vertically stacked bamboo poles. I like this for its simplicity and modern Japanese feel. I’m not sure where I’d put it in our house though, unless I could find a spot in our ensuite shower room?

A little trend I have noticed of late is for displaying plates on a wall. These are often unashamedly kitsch and twee, but placed in a block or along a mantelpiece are strikingly modern. Little surprise then, to find you can skip the charity shop searches for suitably ironic plates, and simply deck the walls with illustrated platters instead.

Cargo from the Museum collection by Andrew Martin £69.90/ roll

Then, we come to the range with which I have become so smitten. Scion’s designs are vibrant and clever, their patterns are bold but not too confusing on the eye. I dearly love this for its simplicity and style:

Dragonfly in the Melinki collection by Scion £32/ roll

These delicate insect sketches in rich indigo would make a fantastic statement on a big wall.

But Wabi Sabi is the collection which is inspiring me the most. This is their collection header illustration:

Wabi Sabi collection highlights

The brilliant white woodwork partners perfectly with the teal and mid-blue geometric patterns. Best of all was when I noticed that the horizontal-lined design in the centre (and right) seems reminiscent of the shadows between shutters. Apparently it’s a rectangular grid pattern created by an ancient Japanese dye-resist technique:

Shibori from the Wabi Sabi collection by Scion in sapphire blue £32/ roll

Part of the reason why I think this pattern will work so well in our music room is that we have white wooden shutters at the large window, and they are directly opposite the wall I’d like to decorate. So creating an abstract ‘reflection’ seems quirkily apt, yet in keeping with the clean lines of the rest of the room, and the expanses of white painted woodwork.

I’ll get work started in the New Year. How about you? Do you have any walls calling out for a bit of colour or character?

mural compass

When my dad was a little boy, he lived in and around a lot of stately homes because his parents were in the staff of various country gentry. He had a view of what post-war life was like in these big houses, from the icicles formed on the inside of his enormous billiard room bedroom window, to sitting on his dad’s lap and steering the family Daimler aged just four. His mum, who we called Nanny, told us of the time that “Mr Sanderson himself” came to paint the wallpaper. A team of craftsmen arrived with their ladders and created a unique design, according to the wishes of the lady of the house. The Sanderson company still exist, of course, though I am not sure they still offer an insitu painting and gilding service for their more affluent clients.

I found some beautiful examples of Edwardian era wallpaper when we were at Lanhydrock – not hand painted, but certainly rich and luxurious — and surprisingly modern.

Geometric design seems fresh despite its vintage

The gentleman’s bathroom presented in the latest styles

The lady’s chamber with more delicate colours

Not only pattern but texture…

Touchy feely: paper with a soft side

Up close and strokable

I remember homes when I was younger featuring that soft damask wallpaper, and although for a few years any sort of deviation from smooth and flat was desperately un-modern,  in various ways it is beginning to grow in popularity again. Words like Anaglypta, wood chip and damask still evoke plenty of bad taste memories for some, but time marches on and those sartorial nightmares fade. The future of wall coverings may well be 3D.

You can still get hand-painted wallpaper today: stunning works of art for customers with deep pockets. If that is your situation, take a look at the opulent de Gournay or Griffin and Wong for some silk based Chinoiserie. Cole and Son offer hand printed papers, where the old fashioned block printing is done painstakingly by talented craftsmen.

But should you want the personal touch without having to spend extreme amounts of money, there is another way. Printing has changed hugely in the past few decades: now the computer takes the strain of image and ink proportions and with a little technical help you can pretty much specify any pattern or picture for your space. There are plenty of companies out there who will customise your walls with a mural. I have used Wall Factor, who have a link with the huge photo library Shutterstock, so that you can pick an image, and arrange to have it printed on wallpaper at exactly the right proportions for your wall.

World map mural in words available through Wall Factor

We actually used the above design in a colour version for Jonas’s room. It is such a clever image, and perfect for a child’s bedroom as it’s fun but not childish, so will grow with him. I’ll show you one day when I give you the full room tour.

Next time we’ll be making a final round-up of my favourite designs. As a teaser, I can tell you that Scion features heavily….