Forget white walls, try a wallscape instead
Friday, June 25th, 2010If you are looking to keep your interiors lexicon up to date then here’s a new one to roll around your mouth – the ‘wallscape’.
Wallpaper has been making a comeback in recent years as traditionalists rail against the white-wall, white table, white sofa fashionistas who’ve spurned chintz, flummery and strong colours. And to make the point, Chancellor George Osborne comes from a paper and glue background – upmarket wallpaper and fabrics firm Osborne & Little.
First out of the fashion starting gate came the ‘feature wall’ which means three walls white, one wallpapered. But now here’s the wallscape – same thing but much more expensive.
A wallscape by interiors firm Brahm
Wallscapes are essentially bespoke wallpaper that’s designed to chime in with and accomodate room colour, size, doorways, floors and furniture. And interiors expert Pierre Brahm says one extraordinary aspect of the wallscape is that – unlike expensive wallpaper – you can take it with you should you move. So not only is it a desirable dressing for a wall but “an heirloom for the future” too, he says.
And I guess he should know – his company Brahm Interiors works with a clutch of wallscape creators including a leader in the field, award-winning and Vogue magazine-endorsed firm Fromental. It offers a range of bespoke wall coverings which it describes as ‘roomskins’ and ‘couture for your walls’.
In the old days this sort of thing would be have been called a mural, of course, but a fashion during the late 1970s and early 1980s (particularly in France) for walls covered in faux scenery including forests, beaches and mountain ranges meant the more fashionable end of the market has sought new words to describe their products – hence wallscapes.
