Illustration by Honor C. Appleton in a 1920's children's book.
Steve, at an urban cottage, is doing fantastic things to his house and having a lot of fun at the moment in choosing wallpaper. He asked us fellow bloggers if we like wallpaper. I like it very much, but our present home, which is a little cottage, has only two rooms that are papered. I searched for a long time for a strong 'arsenic' green paper in order to create a dramatic dining room. No success, all the green papers that I found were rather muted in tone. I had the same sort of problem in the sitting room, this time looking for Chinese yellow. In both cases we eventually resorted to paint.In the two rooms that we have papered we have used William Morris designs.
Bedroom paper.
I picked out the colours from the paper to decorate our old Hungarian wardrobe. (The doors aren't fully closed because it's bursting at the seams with clothes!) I painted a fragment by Robert Herrick on the doors which seem appropriate for a bedroom.Here we are all by day
By night we are hurled,
by dreams
each one into a several world.
The bathroom paper is a William Morris sprig in blue on cream, with the wall beneath the dado rail painted a matching blue.
Family photographs decorate the bathroom walls.
We've got some colourful papers on the walls at our bolt-hole in the Yorkshire Dales. This one in the kitchen/diner makes it feel as though the sun is always shining, which is quite something considering how the weather can be!
Oh, how I hate picking out wallpaper. Books galore, with thousands of samples, many alike, can't make up my mind. It is a form of torture. Can't handle it anymore, so we just paint. Now though, I bring home handfuls of paint cards, from many suppliers, showing all different hues of the same color, again, another form of torture. Who would have thought that white comes in thousands of shades. Can't handle it that anymore either.
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean, Starting Over. Those wallpaper books are a nightmare, so many samples and yet none of them quite what you are searching for! We now use a breathable claypaint which has quite a limited colour range, almost a relief, (although it doesn't stop us doing a bit of tweeking by adding pigment.)
ReplyDeleteI love wallpaper as long as it's in other peoples homes, as I hate hanging it. My last real attempt involved a ceiling as well, which had to be seen to be believed...and not in a good way! As a result, our whole house has white walls and woodwork, and we use material hangings and pictures to break it up. I love your wardrobe and choice of paper for the room. I remember as a child, grabbing the offcuts of heavy flock wallpaper from my parents and colouring in the back with crayons.
ReplyDeleteYes! I love the large flowers and have a renewed amazement over the beautiful job you've made of the armoire. That's really lovely. Also love the bright pomegranate colored one in your kitchen. Thank you for sharing!
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