This is the ‘back’ end of our living room. It’s a 30s semi and the room is quite big and bright (on a good day!) with big south facing square bay window at the ‘front’ end. In the 70s someone knocked down the wall between the front and back rooms, and then in the 80s someone else extended further out the back and re-instated the dividing wall, but further back than the original, leading to the interesting arrangement of walls you see here!
Planning decoration for this room, we’re going to have a teal/green/blue paint under the dado rail, and also the entire left/west wall as that has the chimney breast on it and eventually we will have a full run of built-in shelving/media unit either side of the fireplace, going right into the other side of this alcove as well, all painted the same colour. I’d like some bold contrasting wallpaper in this alcove above the dado rail, but my question that I can’t decide is.....how much to wallpaper?
I’ve labelled the walls
- Back wall
- Right/east wall inside alcove
- Funny ‘front’ of alcove wall that goes along the front of the beam as well.
Would you put wallpaper:
A. Just on wall 1 (but then it is only a small amount will it have much impact? Could I maybe wallpaper both above and below the dado?)
B. Walls 1 and 2 (but how does that work at the corner between 2 and 3?)
C. Walls 1, 2 and 3 (but then is that massive in-your-face overkill?!?)
Any wall we didn’t wallpaper will be bright white above the dado for now (aside from the entire left/west side you can’t see in this angle).
And yes, I know, bold paint + bold wallpaper + dado + shelving + fireplace + odd walls is A LOT (should I mention the ceiling is 80s anaglypta as well and I’m keeping it?!?) but I am a more is more person and love colour and eclecticism. If you like everything muted greige this probably isn’t the decor challenge for you (I respect that style though and think it always looks restful in pictures....not for my house though!).