The art of wallpaper
There’s no need for an art collection with this new wave of statement wallcoverings, writes Katie Newton.
Five years ago Joanne Gray and Relda Frogley bought a latex printer and started producing large scale wallpaper murals. They began working with artists to create statement-making scenes of moonlit gardens, overblown florals and halls filled with antique chandeliers for their business Back to the Wall.
Plenty of people admired their product, but putting them into their own homes was another matter.
‘‘They are definitely getting braver now,’’ says Gray. ‘‘Most of our orders still come from overseas, but we’ve noticed more New Zealanders wanting to make a statement about who they are and what they love. That’s what makes a house a home after all.’’
The pair were in the printing industry for 20 years, meeting while working for the famous babyin-a-plant-pot photographer Anne Geddes. Frogley has the technical printing expertise and Gray is in charge of the imagery.
And they are happy to advise on how to make it work. They’ll tweak colours and print sizes to work around existing furniture and colour schemes, even colour matching one client’s mural to pictures of her favourite glass ornaments she’d sent in.
For her own home, Gray swapped the blues in the ‘‘Chandelier Palace’’ design for browns and golds to suit her bedroom.
‘‘We really want our wallpaper murals to work for people so we’re really happy to help,’’ she says.
Fellow mural designer Ann-louise Jansson, who founded her Australian-based studio Scandinavian Wallpaper and Decor 10 years ago, agrees people are now becoming much braver with wallpaper.
‘‘When I started the company, very few people would consider using mural wallpapers or wallpapers at all,’’ she says. ‘‘I had to invest a lot of time in customer service and educating clients due to the stigma around wallpaper and wallpaper murals from the 70s.’’
Only a couple of years ago her clients might have felt brave using brick or concrete wallpaper, but today she sees them ordering intricate tableaux of abandoned ancient buildings or lush green jungles. One of her most popular designs is ‘‘Stucco Gloria’’, featuring hyper-real baroque French mouldings. Jansson has now made it in several different colours to keep up with demand.
But showstopping wallpaper doesn’t have to be just about large-scale printing. New Jersey-based Phillip Jeffries is one of the market leaders in bespoke wallcoverings, many of which use natural fibres painstakingly applied by hand onto paper backing.
The family business, which started 40 years ago with 10 grasscloths in a garage, now stocks hundreds of thousands of metres of wallcovering at any one time. ‘‘Wallpaper and wallcoverings have made a huge comeback in the last few years,’’ says the company’s New Zealand account manager, Lisa Harkness. ‘‘Most of our interior designers certainly see that high-end premium wall coverings are a great option for their clients.’’
‘‘If the wallpaper is the hero of the room, keep the styling and art simple.’’ Ann-louise Jansson