Lots of guests have been asking about wallpaper. Where do we get it? How much does it cost? How d’you put it up? How do we have the courage to pick such quirky designs?
We see wallpaper as wall art so from that point of view it is always inexpensive. From the point of view of a guest who’s paid money for a room they expect to exceed what they have at home, wallpaper art almost always has more impact than one affordable image in a frame. Don’t get us wrong, we love framed images too but most affordable art is still in excess of £500 and its hard to make sure it appeals to everyone. There are of course loads of ways to group lots of frames with strange images you can get for free but we have to clean like demons each day so it has to be practical too. So wallpaper is easily accessable, is easy to maintain and can also be a surprise.
We use the internet to buy our wallpaper and we don’t mind where it comes from. We look all year for the right design ready to hang in December when we refurb. Rm6 hosts the most expensive design as it’s a high res digital print of wood by Piet Hein Eek which was £199 per roll. Room 1 was £145 per roll by Boras Tapeter and is no longer in print sadly. It was a pain to hang (yep swore alot) but it’s our most talked about print. It’s old photos of people on holiday and evokes romantic and nostalgic memories of your own family holidays. It’s loud and quirky but it’s behind the headboard so it won’t keep you from sleeping. When it comes to choosing a wallpaper we try to pick something that few people have seen and few people would use. Most people find it uncomfortable to spend more than £28 per roll but if you go for something truly unique then it’s art. Suddenly £400 on a whole wall seems pretty inexpensive. If you’re nervous, buy something on EBay. You’ll probably find it’s an original from the 70s complete with anaglypter finish but don’t let that worry you either. Keep it for a few months then buy some more! The point is, don’t be afraid of colour or imagery. Just choose something relevent, interesting and unique and put it wherever you want. So how do we put it up? It takes about 3 hours to hang about 6 drops so its all about taking your time and getting the first drop right. Plus, if you pay a premium then it goes up really easily as the quality of paper is amazing and the print quality is very high so each drop will match up easily. We use the naked eye to hang it as our house is over 100 years old with pretty much no verticals left but use a plumb line and watch Utube. If you’ve stayed here and you would like to know the specifics of any of our wallpapers then we are happy to give you the details. Oh and if you know of some indi designers let us know, we are looking for 2 new designs for winter 14’s reurbishments.