Joy of wallpaper
Loving everything can make it hard to choose what you like.
Nelson-based wallpaper and design guru Rebekah Joy has been singing the praises of this oftenoverlooked decor element for years. Through her companies, The Inside and Pango & Ma, she celebrates unique international and Kiwidesigned wall coverings, posters, murals and panels.
How would you define your style?
I would say it’s very individual.
The problem is, I like everything. People often ask me: ‘‘What would you put in here?’’ And
I’m like: ‘‘Well, I can answer that, because I honestly like everything.’’
I love a challenge. I love it when a customer comes to me and says: ‘‘My wall is three meters wide, but there are only two rolls of wallpaper left, what can I do with it?’’ And I’m like: ‘‘Wow, let’s come up with some cool ideas.’’
For me, it’s quite often the unique and the failures that turn out to be the best rooms.
Why do you think that is?
I just like things that are a little bit different, I think, not run of the mill. Like, now it’s all about wallpaper panels rather than wallpapering wall to wall. That’s pretty exciting.
A lot of our companies are actually printing what is called a wallpaper panel – a couple of drops of wallpaper that make up a 1.8m wide panel – and you’d have that on a wall rather than running it width to width.
Almost using the wallpaper like art?
Yeah! Don’t buy three rolls, buy two rolls and do it as a wallpaper feature, because that look is very in at the moment.
And I think it’s quite an exciting look, you know, you can run dado lines down the side of it, or you can frame it, you can do whatever you want.
Are you that daring in your own home?
I started off with a completely white house. We renovated... it’s still not finished.
Is it ever, when you renovate?
No, my husband often looks at brand new houses and is like: ‘‘Let’s just move. Let’s just move!’’ And I say: ‘‘You don’t understand, you couldn’t build what we have now.’’
I put in round doors. We ended up having a massive argument about it, and I’m glad that I stood my ground and I got it, because I still love them.
My brother is a builder and he helped project manage for us and he’s like: ‘‘You’re not keeping that, it’s ugly, it’s from The
Hobbit.’’
You begin to doubt your own style, maybe I shouldn’t be making such a big fuss. But in the end, no, I want this.
How do you win those arguments?
I think you have to have conviction in yourself, which I often don’t, because – I as I said – I like everything. So when they say: ‘‘No, all your doors have to be square.’’ I say: ‘‘Oh yeah, that’s quite good.’’ And then you have to really dig in and have confidence in yourself.
I wallpapered the round door in the end. It leads into my office which we’ve done all in ply. I wallpapered both sides – one side is quite a funky, tropical wallpaper and on the other side is a white leaf design. [To see Rebekah’s door and more images from her home go to stuff.co.nz.]
I really like it and my brother doesn’t say anything about it now. I think that means he likes it, but he doesn’t want to say!
People do struggle when something’s very new, don’t they?
I guess that’s part of the problem with the design industry in New Zealand, too. Everything gets into the magazines, so you see it and you love it, and that’s the one that you want.
You can’t really deviate or find something that you like that might be similar. You have to have that one.
We quite often get an order on one day of 20 of the same thing. And we’re like: ‘‘Oh, it’s been in a magazine somewhere.’’
Do find it frustrating as a designer?
No, because I like it, too! Sometimes I find it frustrating when someone says: ‘‘I like it, but I can’t afford it.’’ And I’m like: ‘‘Well, how about this one? This one looks really great.’’ But they can’t see past [the more expensive one]. I’m like: ‘‘Let go! Just go with it!’
I genuinely think that wallpaper is becoming more and more expensive because people are buying less of it and just doing the smaller wallpaper panels. [A panel] will last longer, because there’s much more variety – instead of there being 10 designs to chose from, there are 500.
I put a wallpaper in my bathroom five years ago and I was like: ‘‘I wonder if I’m gonna get sick of this?’’ But I still love it. I think: go with what you love, then you can’t really go wrong.
Maybe that’s why that eclectic style is so popular at the moment?
Yeah, I love eclectic.
In an eclectic decor things have a story, how important is to you in your home?
I find it easier with my husband if things have a story.
I’m like, If I say: ‘‘I found this piece, it’s from India, 300 years ago.’’ He’s like: ‘‘Oh! OK.’’ But if I just bought it, he’d be saying: ‘‘What?!’’ I’m always teasing him about that.
You don’t know how many times a day I get emails saying: ‘‘I love it, but my husband hates it.’’
I reckon if there were no husbands I would have sold about 100 per cent more.