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Original poster

Seriously, I need feature wallpaper / general decorating advice

66 replies

GrendelsMum · 28/09/2009 10:24

So, if feature wallpaper is out, what are we all supposed to be doing next?

I tried doing a bit of research and it seems that following current trends, you can put wallpaper on all walls of your room, on some walls of your room seemingly at random, or just have painted walls.

It seemed that possibly what was out is having a very striking feature wall combined with very muted other walls - there seems to be much more equality of focus / colour from wall to wall, and a use of much brighter colours.

Responses from the design savvy? And what magazine is it best to read in order to get ahead of the game in design terms?

In case it seems I'm taking this too seriously, I actually see it as a money-saving exercise - if we can know what's trendy, we can either knowingly avoid it or go for it and avoid the problem of things dating rapidly.

OP posts:
AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 13:41

go for colour. we've got heaps of colour and pattern in our sagey/blue-green rooms and it all works imo. it's interesting now to see photos of the rooms before we decorated, they do seem less themselves, iykwim?

AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 13:42

rules? i dunno. i don't like stripped wood on doors and skirting, that's just my preference in a victorian property. but in more modern propertiies i love heaps of wood and glass etc.

wasabipeanut · 01/10/2009 13:51

Hmmmm, this is a Victorian house we are going to. It's difficult - we haven't bloody seen it for over 3 months as the purchase has been such a nightmare so I can't remember where light comes in etc.

Dammit I just want to get in.

HerHonesty · 01/10/2009 13:51

i suppose wallpaper is art of a type. but its immovable and slightly unpersonal. thats why i love art and in particular old maps. and you can move them about, collect as you go along. they sort of tell a story about you.

i think lavender is quite a defining colour - lovely in the right room but will you still like it in two years time - and that is in relation to your comment regarding value for money. also be very careful about taking stuff out of hotels. they are hotels, not homes..... lovely as they are. t

agree with you regarding antiques and older furniture. just had some painted which looks fab to get away from the dark wood look.
also think about the textures and colours of the soft furnishings in combination with your older furniture. obviously if you go the brocade/velvet/tapestry route you will may just want to get your bonnett out and pretend you are in a period drama - but if you use fresh, light and more modern type fabrics they will lift the look.

re wood i have always regretted painting all ours white and love it when you have a none white contrasting with another colour. personally dont like the bare wood look and never seen the same colour but am willing to be persuaded...

charleymouse · 01/10/2009 14:16

Wasabi, leave it wooden, (if wood is reasonable condition) Paint only needs redoing again and again ad infinitum. Natural looks lovely.

I do like the idea of walls/skirting the same colour though.

Original poster
GrendelsMum · 01/10/2009 15:07

I know what you mean about art that moves - and all our paintings, ceramics, mysterious junk antiques do get moved round regularly, so I'd have to agree with you there. But I think that wallpaper has the potential to be as personal as a carefully chosen painting - or as impersonal as a print picked up from Homebase to go with the colour scheme. Think about the way in which William Morris and co put together houses. There's no reason that it has to be an either or - why not wallpaper on one wall, and a painting or two on another? Actually, I'm blatantly arguing the case for wallpaper so I clearly like it and should go for it.

Take your point on the colour of the carpet though! But realistically it will be a couple of years before we finish building, so if we still like it then... we'll go for it . Downstairs I've gone for lots of acid green silks plus blue-grey William Morris fabric, which seems to be working quite well - I'm feeling quite chuffed with this room. At least they distract from the massive chunks of missing plaster.

Wasabi - unpainted wooden skirting in a Victorian house is totally anachronistic, which might or might not matter to you. I

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AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 15:12

my friend has some beautiful WM wallpaper with rabbits on, grendel.

HerHonesty · 01/10/2009 15:41

well WM wallpaper is a different kettle of fish.... i lust after some of the papers in house and garden each month but at the cost of the ones i like i would always rather buy art...

HerHonesty · 01/10/2009 15:45

actually, if budget isnt so much of an issue, i have seen some beautiful rooms which have had material put on them. silks etc. but definitely, definitely no kids allowed.

Original poster
GrendelsMum · 01/10/2009 18:10

Yes! It's the WM rabbits that I've got on my sofa. And on my cat's matching seat (we had a bit of fabric spare).

I'm always really intrigued by the fabric on walls thing - just have no idea how you put it up. But it can look really stunning.

Look, now we're all agreeing wallpaper can be nice!

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HerHonesty · 01/10/2009 19:18

well i think there is a very large difference - other than just price - in wp that is £30 a metre and £300 a metre.... not really the same thing is it.

noddyholder · 01/10/2009 19:32

The really lovely wallpapers are like art and cost as much.Things like laura ashley big floral feature walls are just following the herd as people have only started 'feature walls' recently.Look in the argos furniture catalogue or dfs and then decide if you still want one.Beautiful well finished block colour with original art work is much easier to live with and not so run of teh mill.I like living etc mag

Original poster
GrendelsMum · 01/10/2009 19:37

I went to an exhiition of wallpaper through the ages recently:

www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/exhibdisp/index.html?QueryPag e=%2Fwhatson%2Fexhibitions%2Fpastexhibsearch%2Findex.html&QueryName=DetailedQuery&first=1&eventirn=1 778

The amazing thing was how certain designs and styles come back again and again every twenty years. Suddenly there are these huge, huge patterns that reoccur from the 70s on.

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noddyholder · 01/10/2009 19:40

Some of them are beautiful but I think the fad for sticking them on one wall in any house doesn't work.I think you need very high ceilings to be able to get enouigh repeat on the paper to see the effect.I viewed 30(god help me)bungalows with my parents and about 25 had feature walls in v similar prints.Having said that I love Timorous Beasties in the right room

Original poster
GrendelsMum · 01/10/2009 19:42

NoddyHolder - I've just checked the Argos Catalogue (as I thought this was a cunning idea) and they're showing block colour walls with original art work. Does this mean I can have feature walls, or not?

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noddyholder · 01/10/2009 19:45

Why do you want one?It is a 2 minute wonder!

AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 20:00

my walls are four and a bit metres high, that good enough for ya?

we have v similar tastes, grendel, if you love the rabbits and the cole and son trees. as i say, mine repeat into a floor to ceiling mirror and continue on part of a staircase wall so they wrap the room.

noddyholder · 01/10/2009 20:01

Ah aitch but that sounds like the right setting as you can see the pattern.

Guad · 01/10/2009 20:04

I thought fandb finshes were better than matching and not much more ££ but then three weeks into our new house and I am wiping walls every other day so I reckon I agree with Aitch.

Kids bedrooms have one wall different, ds1 wanted dark blue so one was our compromise!

DD is having one wall papered as her pink wall combined with our blue hall makes me feel like I am walking in to a bag of sugared almonds every morning.

AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 20:07

wot i've got the trees are opposite a three mahoosive windows as well, and outside are real trees.

we have (which we owned before but is quite funny) a big white framed, white mounted black and white graphic of a park bench done by an artist pal on the plain wall so it's worked out kinda well. plus as i say there's a mezzanine so it's a great view looking down, real trees on one side, fake ones on the other. dd thinks it's like 'where the wild things are'.

noddyholder · 01/10/2009 20:12

That sounds great my cup of tea I like that paper have only seen in pictures.I love the Timorous beasties moths etc and I might do our downstairs larder utility in it

Original poster
GrendelsMum · 01/10/2009 20:18

This is my favourite place in the world:

www.flickr.com/photos/61764061@N00/3897110267/

Which is why I'm so keen on that wallpaper!

Your bedroom and house sound wonderful, Aitch.

I do see what you mean about the size of rooms needing to match with the size / busyness of the pattern, Noddy. Our bedroom has pink toile de joie (? is that a Freudian mis-spelling?) wallpaper on all walls at the moment, so just having a few trees on one wall would look quiet by comparison! We have a little low window to one side of the wall looking out at birch trees, so I thought the wallpaper would be quite appropriate.

I'm really amused by the cunning plan of going onto the Argos website and using it as guidance for what's out

OP posts:
AitchTwoToTangOh · 01/10/2009 20:40

oh wow that's amazing. you have to get it now i've seen that, it will make you very happy. (and thank you for the compliment, it's just a flat, actually, but one of those high-ceilinged big-roomed victorian ones).

wasabipeanut · 01/10/2009 20:52

Have rethought wood skirting idea. You are right - in a Victorian house it's a bit wrong.

Am now introducing DH to the F & B website.

HerHonesty · 01/10/2009 20:56

i have to say if you go for wallpaper then do it on all walls. i love pink toile bedrooms. the whole point is it supposed to overwhelm....
love the argos tip. i use next as my anti trend barometer (this year they have uggs...)