MAXIMAL LIVING: WONDERFUL WALLPAPER
Wallpaper is an exceptional thing. Gone are the sad old days on the seventies where people remember having to almost hack off gold and brown palm leaf paper from their walls to get rid of it. For many years, mentioning wallpaper was like mentioning a sad aunt who drank way too much at every dinner party. It’s around but you’d rather not talk about it. Ouch! Sad but true.
Thankfully nowadays, wallpaper is stunning and absolute if you intend to make any one space sing its greatest tune. I really encourage my clients to consider it, and for all the right reasons. In this article I want to show you examples of how you can use wallpaper for many different effects, and to many triumphs. Stay with me! Hopefully you’ll see what I mean in the below collection of fabulous stills AND a couple of my own videos that show how I’ve used wallpaper with great results.
Making A Statement
Above: Maximalist design is about complimenting patterns and textures to make it feel tactile and interesting to the eye. Above, we have stunning wallpaper by Zoffany. Beautiful herringboned floors run horizontally, whilst the line of the wallpaper runs vertically, which is always a great way to deal with line. The vignette looks perfect for an aperitif before dinner or enjoying a morning expresso with a good book.
Above: Here we have a wonderful green and blue palette that inspires with its watercolour texture and relaxing vibe. There’s a relaxing sense of wonderment in this space, largely due to the colours used and the layers of figurative, watercoloured lines running over top of one another.
Above: If you are a person who feels very comfortable creating a space that commands attention, you’ll love the below cement and gold tile by Zoffany. As Zoffany states this range ‘encapsulates the sophistication and decadence of the 1920’s’. This one feels like it could be in a sitting room scene from the 1927 German film ‘Metropolis’. This is maximalism at its finest, and not necessarily for the faint hearted! The home is a place for self-expression in every sense, and the boldness of this look will speak volumes about its owner.
Above: This is a powder room we finished for a client a couple of years ago, and the ‘Peoples’ wallpaper by Harlequin, makes an expressive and quirky impact. The pooch art from Designer Boys I had to fight to get in there, but it went up in the end. It’s fun but with a very grand gold starfish ceiling lamp in the centre of the grey ceiling. Grand design, but on a teensy scale. Funnily, I believe it’s been used mostly by trades people ever since we installed it in 2018. I hope it’s a happy pitstop when they use it!
Check out the video below as I talk about the powder room and entry transformation around it.
Above: Back in 2016, I used a wonderful wallpaper from UK label Harlequin for the Breakfast Point apartment. I love the striped appeal of the wallpaper and the way it elongated the room. The clients are still happy here in this light filled home by the water that they sold their holiday home after it had been completed. They just loved living in their everyday home, that they didn’t need the respite of a coastal getaway.
Below: Please view the video of the apartment, filmed about 4 years ago. Please forgive my wooden scripting and delivery about decorating with fake flowers. Gosh! Who wrote this script? Ouch! That would be me...!
Truly Finished Rooms
Below truly is a finished room. Getting back to sophisticated but liveable, organised pattern but with a sense of tranquillity. This room from Sedgwick and Brattle really has an evocative feel, with its Herringbone pattern connecting with varied other textures. Superb and original.
Grasscloth Grandeur: There’s nothing like wallpapering a bedroom in wall to wall grasscloth. Feature walls are nice, but they just don’t have the impact that a fully wallpapered room will have. This lake blue Philip Jeffries grass cloth makes a serene statement and transforms this into an exceptional bedroom.
Keeping It Calm
So serene: Wallpaper can be understated, it doesn’t need to jump out at you. This one is from US designer Thom Filicia. I love that your direction just sails across the wonderful soft lines within this printed paper. The credenza, gallery wall and furniture sing to a blissful beige beat. Whether you take you maximalist approach to the details on a serene trip or an eclectic one, wallpaper is here to stay and puts the big ‘T’ in Transformation.
Above: The picture of serenity, with a fabulous paper textured wall that transcends just paint alone.
AS