de gournay

This week’s obsession is not the Royal Wedding for me, but the amazing new wallpapers which I keep seeing everywhere as new designers embrace the digital printing possibilities that are now available. It seems that interior trends are embracing large scale and bright patterns, and while they may not be for everyone’s taste I love the boldness they offer.

The original bespoke wallpaper in Europe from makers such as de Gournay are exquisite and I have always lusted after a bespoke wall covering. But they are not cheap, and there’s a part of me that just cannot justify the expense. But just look at the beauty of them:

Recently, due to my somewhat obsessive scouring of Instagram and Pinterest, I came across a designer team in New Zealand called Back To The Wall. These designers do huge digitally printed murals in gorgeous designs, and while they may not have the hand finished painterly effect of a de Gournay, they are still pretty spectacular.

In the UK, another digital mural company well worth looking at is Surface View. They have a huge collection of images available to be printed up as large scale murals. Their botanical and historical prints are pretty amazing and you can go as wild or as tame as you like in terms of design. But all are large scale for a great feature wall.

Another favourite who I love is House of Hackney. They print beautiful designs which are quite intense, sometimes quirky and also designed as a set of 3 panels which can repeat around a room if desired.

I used their design Florida Onyx in my renovation of a townhouse as panels on wardrobes and it was stunning. Who knows, one day I may be brave enough to do a whole room?!

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.