I seem to be going through a wallpaper phase at the moment... and usually the wallpapers I like are mostly beyond my budget and occasionally just within - supposing I am creative about how I use them. Back in the day of my first house renovation I fell in love with an Osborne and Little paper which I remember being astounded at its extreme expense £25 a roll 😂😂😂 - How I wish that was todays expensive..... Anyway I splashed out and put in on the ceiling in our living room - thats at least 25 years ago and its still there - looking good and proving a good investment!!!
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| not the best photo but you get the idea... |
Next was the much more expensive Nina Campbell which I put up - causing me to completely change my new kitchen colour scheme - how to tie red and black gloss, vivid green, purple and delphinium blue together - believe me it can and was done!!! I was very pleased with it but sadly it wasn't long after I finally got the kitchen of my dreams aged 52 I upped and left home - to travel oop north and move in with Dr Fred.... which is why I have been given so much free reign now to remodel the new kitchen in our lives...
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| loved this house and community - we just ran out of space |
I did find some rather fab cheap and cheerful 1950's inspired paper which I used, much to my landladies amusement - but with her permission - when we lived in Northumberland - it really brightened up a small dark space for the time we were there. Then of course I put my own special take on designer wallpaper up when we moved the village of the doomed - this house was lovely house in a really rather weird area and definitely benefited from the black and white stripes with my personal dog head drawings photocopied and stuck on it at random places.... these creations were in rented properties and removed when we left leaving the walls as we found them.
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| this is my fave - Dr Fred was fine with it until someone pointed out it was Newcastle football colours!!! |
Now we have our own home and it transpires my painting is messy!!! and Dr Fred doesn't like me doing it... it makes him very edgy and he gets easily alarmed if I get hold of a paintbrush. so we compromise, I hang wallpaper and he paints - admittedly most of my hanging paper is boring endless lining paper as we are in the process of redecorating every single room in the house and while the walls under the dreaded anaglypta are in reasonable nick they will not just take paint and lining out is the best option.
So I have rediscovered wallpaper - while in college I found Emma Shipley and now have some of her paper in the kitchen at Coundon Tower - and a wallpapered wardrobe - and I'm a little bit addicted to wallpaper sites on the internet. I'm starting to have quite a comprehensive collection of samples.
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| wallpapered wardrobe and alcove |
I still find wallpaper is tricky to place - as in where it goes rather than how to do it - it quite often doesn't work on a wall for me - maybe on furniture or ceilings or just a little space - its mostly a bit too repeating for me and I welcome the advent of digital printing as this really frees up the pattern possibilities - the wallpaper I designed at college was made to hang with random colour stripes - the pattern was uniform but the back ground could be varied so it would never have to be the same too often. Wallpaper patterns can be overwhelming in a room and to be honest the stuff I like is so ridiculously expensive I would have to live with it forever and I'm not prepared to make that commitment. Occasionally I find something cheap and cheerful and works for me. I did just this last week and now our shower room is undergoing a transformation from clean clinical white to a dark and broody black and peacock flower infested riot floor to ceiling - its looking very cosy so far.. its a smaller repeat than I had hoped for but its much nicer than white!
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| I need to paint the ceiling....and find a suitable floor |
We looked at a lot of different papers for the dining room and decided to just paint it - if one day I find that paper I JUST CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT then we will use it some where but not in a room which I suspect will become an overflow sewing, map, music room - used only for eating on high days and holidays - its slowly being made very elegant with deep purple paint and will look amazing once we have the 100 or so gold frames hung and the floor to ceiling bookcases which I am tempted to spray gold as well but will prob settle for purple. Picture to follow when it is a little further on.
Finally there is a Designer Guild paper I'm toying with for the hall stairs and landing - we have a dado rail so its almost affordable to put it half way up the wall - but we are just not sure and need to sort potential flooring before we make a final decision.... and flooring is another tale altogether for another day.......
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