Floral wallpaper - one 'feature' wall or all over?

[MrsL123]

We've finally decided on the wallpaper for our bedroom - this one (new easy peasy paste the wall stuff from Dulux). It's much nicer in person than it looks on the screen - the background is pale cream, the stems/flowers are the same tone as the background (just lighter and darker shades of it), and the other flowers are various shades of lavender. The colours are wishy-washy like watercolour paints and kind of blend into each other, so the overall design is very subtle and neutral, the lavender flowers just give it a hint of colour (lavender is one of my least favourite colours and I normally don't go for anything too girly, but we didn't want plain walls and this is the only patterned wallpaper that I've liked enough to live with for a few years!). We've just ordered this carpet today which matches the colour of the stems/leaves, and I might pick up the lavender in a few small bits like lamp shades and cushions if I can find some pale enough to match (everything I've seen so far is either too dark or is a pinky lilac instead of lavender). The ceiling, woodwork and furniture will all be white (bedding and curtains will be plain - probably white or very pale cream). Basically the only colour will be the lavender in the wallpaper and any small accessories I put in, everything else will be neutral.

Dulux does a paint which matches the cream background of the paper exactly, so we planned to just paper the wall behind the bed and paint the other three walls. But now I've seen the rather large sample I got taped up, I'm thinking about having the paper all over - it's quite subtle once it's up, so I don't know if it'd have enough impact on one wall. DH thinks it'll be too much, but I think it'll look a bit half-hearted just having it behind the bed - especially with the expanse of plain ceiling and plain carpet and plain furniture and plain bedding and plain curtains.....yawn! One whole wall is taken up by the window anyway, and another will have a dressing table and big mirror against it, so it's not like there'd be huge unbroken expanses of wallpaper. I did suggest just papering the two main walls (behind and opposite the bed), but he didn't like that idea either.

Any thoughts?

I think you can definately afford to do more than one wall in this. I am assuming that the flowers are quite large - is that correct? How big is the room? Large prints and pale colours can help to make a room look larger. I also think that just doing a feature wall is a bit... boring tbh. I think it's much more current to either do the whole room or at least two walls.

HTH!

It is a big print, the picture shows the full width of the roll (which is about 50cm wide) so that'll give an idea of scale. The room isn't huge but it's fairly large, about 4m square. They also do the paper with Teal flowers and I preferred the colour of that one, but thought it'd be a bit too bold (am a bit colour phobic, can you tell?!). I just don't want to get anything that we'll get sick of in a few months! Not planning to redecorate until we sell the house, which will be years away. And at the moment the room is blue, which I got sick of about ten minutes after we painted it (five years ago!).

The other option was to ditch the wallpaper altogether and paint the room a pale colour, then hang a big ornate frame over the bed with some bold floral fabric in it (matching the bed runner and curtains to it and keeping everything else plain, so I can change it in the future if I get bored). This is the bed we've bought and it's 6 feet wide, and I found some 4 foot frames online which would sit nicely in the centre. I like the idea in theory, but DH isn't exactly Handy Andy and I know I'll end up getting clobbered by a falling picture frame in the middle of the night!

Ooh that is very similar to my bed - great taste!!!

Have you seen any fabric which you would choose for the frame? I suppose you could at least afford to be quite bold with this. However I would avoid having matching bed runner and curtains, just co-ordinate. For example you could find a fabric range that you like and choose 2 fabrics from that which will compliment each other.

The only thing with this is that you need to avoid it looking too much like a) you made it yourself (could look like some bad "changing rooms" style experiment) and b) you did so to save money on having to redecorate if you go off it.

FWIW I would go for the wallpaper option, you seem to have a good idea about what you want. The painterly design and colours will really suit a bedroom, its fresh and feminine and I think will go well with your bed.

Good luck!

I like the wallpaper!.I think it would be better covering all the walls and would look really good with the bed.You could coordinate the bed with a lavender throw in cotton or silk.Cream roman blinds would look nice in a textured cream fabric or in calico or silk.

I think we'll be going with the paper all over - I nagged DH about it so much last night he just bellowed "I DON'T CARE" and stormed out of the room - exactly the result I was hoping for! So I think I'll buy it before he takes an interest again

I was planning to go for a pale lavender roman blind, long cream curtains (just decorative - pulled back into nice tiebacks), plain bedding with a lavender throw, and lavender lampshades. I saw the perfect colour blind and throw in Laura Ashley, which was an absolute exact match for the lavender. Was very excited, went online to get a price - £300 and a 14 week turnaround for the blind, and £180 for the throw . So I'll probably go for a cream blind instead, or try to find a matching fabric and then buy one of those roman blind kits from John Lewis. And I'll probably have to make the bed runner myself too because after hours of googling I can't find any throws or runners in the right colour - I thought it'd be easy, but everything is too pink or dark. Luckily I'm quite handy with the sewing machine! Will keep googling though because I really can't be bothered making them myself and would much rather buy them

Try dunelm mill for fabric and throws.You can often get oddments of fabric and silk in warehouse shops or interior design shops.I pay about £40 for a roman blind to be made up [ tho' i do live in the country!].Alternatively buy the material from l.ashley and get someone else to make it up.TBW I have an attic full of l.ashley material n' velvets waiting to be made up but always use them eventually!.