Too pricey? Just slap it on your furniture!

The cost of some designer wallpapers is enough to make most homeowners feel faint. This is why so many of us choose a fancy wallpaper for the downstairs toilet — we get all the pizazz of four walls of colour out of just one roll.

But there is another way to make the most of a minimum amount of a high-end wallpaper; by not actually putting it on your walls at all. Instead, the trend for ‘luxe-cycling’ (that’s luxury upcycling) involves covering furniture with it instead. ‘You can literally paper anything,’ says luxe-cycling expert and TV presenter Zoe Pocock, from mucknbrass.com, who reveals that thicker papers, regardless of price, work best. ‘I suggest starting with a coffee table, as they’re a simple shape — but you can wallpaper wardrobes [right], sideboards and chests of drawers, too, getting the designer look for a fraction of the price.

‘You simply paint the furniture first, then stick your paper on with PVA glue instead of wallpaper paste, before cutting off any excess. To protect your paper, finish with a coat of Polyvine decorator’s varnish, which was developed for using on high-end wallpaper in hotels and restaurants, and gives a wipeable finish.’

Another trick is to frame a wallpaper sample — usually costing less than a few pounds — as wall art. You can even use beautiful wallpaper to cover tiles with to make coasters.