The new roll models

Restrained feature walls begone! From bold, blousy florals to ornate clashing prints, it’s time to go big on wallpaper, says Jessica Doyle. Here’s how…

Big, bold wallpaper is back

OVER THE PAST couple of decades, wallpaper has faded somewhat into the background in decorating terms. As the trend for white or grey walls and muted colours has taken hold in our homes, patterned paper has been limited to a single feature wall, or, for the more adventurous, the downstairs loo. Now, however, thanks to an increasing trend for bold pattern and stronger colours, it is once again being used with abandon – and on all four walls of any and every room.

‘I’m glad the feature wall has gone; it never existed in my book,’ says the interior decorator Nina Campbell, who has just designed a new collection for wallpaper company Osborne & Little. ‘I’m a great believer in using a wallpaper that’s not just plain or a stripe, but that has a pattern – but I don’t think every room should be papered. You have to apply it carefully.’

A small or awkward-shaped room might not seem the obvious place to use a patterned wallpaper, but, suggests Campbell, this is where it can have the best effect. ‘A large room with high ceilings and good architecture looks lovely just with a background paint, but in a small room with no details, wallpaper makes it more interesting. If you hang a big pattern in a small room, your eye gets taken through it and is tricked into thinking there’s a “beyond”. Although it looks busy, it can make your room feel like less of a box.’

Choosing a patterned wallpaper that will complement your art collection can be tricky, but Campbell’s advice is, again, to be bold. ‘A paper with a bit of a design can be a good foil for hanging pictures,’ she says. ‘I’ve got a wallpaper with a big pattern in my bedroom, and I’ve just hung my pictures all over it.’ A strong pattern in more muted shades, such as blues and greens, won’t overwhelm artworks and will go well with wooden, white or gilt frames.

The hotelier and designer Kit Kemp, known for mixing pattern to great effect in her hotels, has also just

‘Wallpaper can make a small room with no details more interesting’

released a wallpaper collection, her first for furniture company Andrew Martin. The designs are not your average wallpapers – they range from a subtle two-colour woodland pattern to a scenic mural with a three-metre repeat featuring whimsical creatures and oversize pears. Kemp’s approach to hanging wallpaper is not simply to choose a design and slap it on the wall, but to find ways to pair it with other colours and patterns to create more interest in a room. ‘I have already started to put up one of the designs – Wychwood, in Provençal Yellow – in the hallways at the Covent Garden

Hotel,’ she says. ‘It looks wonderful above the dado, with a bright-blue braid at waist height and a soft-grey paint below the dado to the skirting.’

There is plenty of contrast and colour to be found in other new collections launching this month. Cole & Son’s third range with Fornasetti is stylishly surreal, incorporating birds, fish, monkeys (more chic than they might sound) and key motfis; while Blackpop, which has collaborated with Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, has released colourful, detailed designs inspired by paintings and sculptures found there.

Meanwhile, real or illusory 3D surfaces are great for adding texture and drama: Pierre Frey has roller-printed marble and wood motifs on to embossed vinyl for trompe-l’oeil effects; Belgian brand Omexco prints on to natural cork; while Anthology’s latest collection, inspired by origami, incorporates pleating, gathering and crimping.

For those nervous of making such a statement, the new non-woven papers offer a less permanent solution. Those by Blackpop and the Superfresco Easy range by Graham & Brown are easy to apply (you paste the wall, rather than the paper), and can be peeled off if you change your mind.

‘A paper with a bit of a design can be a good foil for hanging pictures’

2. Cole & Son Botanical ~ Botanica ~ in Topiary. £95 per roll (cole-and-son.com)

1. Kit Kemp Wychwood in Dusk, available in seven colourways. £60 per roll (andrew.martin.co.uk)

3. Fornasetti Frutto Proibito, price on request (cole-and-son.com)

4. Pierre Frey Chaise Coiffeuse, price on request (pierrefrey.com)

5. Omexco Antarès collection, printed on cork. From £63.76 per metre, (wallpapersandborders.co.uk)

6. Pierre Frey Plein Ete, price on request (pierrefrey.com)

From far left Ex Libris, £200 per roll, Fornasetti, and Botanical ~ Botanica ~ in Wisteria , £95 per roll (both cole-and-son.com).Right Hampton Gold, Neo 13 and Fresco, £216 per roll, Blackpop Sir John Soane’s Museum collection (blackpop.co.uk)