De Gournay paper and murals from the masters of the most exquisite wallpaper hand made by artisans has always been Number 1 on my dream list for decorating a room, (or Gracie Studios as a close second as well).  However, you do usually pay a small fortune for hand painted wallpaper and murals on silk or paper, and so it has always been out of my reach, and I am not sure my own artistic skills would match the pieces I have seen if I tried to replicate it, (actually definitely not when I think about it).

All Photos from De Gournay

I love the way the paintings meander over the walls, around corners and are so obviously not normal wallpaper.  These papers cost literally hundreds per roll. A friend purchased a roll a couple of years ago, and hung it like a painting rather than stick it to a wall directly in case she moved house and had to leave it behind.

But, GOOD NEWS, I have just found a supplier of Chinoiserie papers in China (via my lovely friend that is Ebay) that has good recommendations via Jenny Komenda at the Little Green Notebook blog.  They can paint onto paper or silk so you have a choice of medium.   Jenny had some panels from them with the backgrounds specifically matched to a paint sample she sent them, and the results are stunning.  Jenny framed hers as separate panels in acrylic, however I think I would go the whole hog and use them as wallpaper directly in alcoves, and match the background colour paint to the colour on the rest of the walls. The room would then have the hand painted sections in the alcoves, and if you used 2 panels per alcove they could curl around onto the adjacent walls.  Scrummy.

Here is the link to the ebay store where they can be found.  They cost approximately £237 for an 8ft high x 3ft wide panel which is quite a lot less than one roll by De Gournay.

Definitely an option worth investigating further, and not much difference in costs to using a designer wallpaper all over the room from design houses like Colefax & Fowler, Prestigious Wallcoverings or House of Hackney.