Back in the 80’s we hung a lot of wallpapers-Osborne and Little, Designers Guild, Colefax and Fowler. But my favourite and the more difficult to hang was Coles. Cole and Son’s hand block printed colours were and are fabulous.
Sadly I haven’t had a call to hang a Coles paper for a while and though I tell clients about it frequently, wallpaper just isn’t as widely used these days.
I don’t know why but I guess paint is less commitment, cheaper and easier to pass on to a future buyer. Maybe somewhere in the country there’s a decorator frequently hanging paper but I haven’t seen it used much in London.
Because of this, it’s hard to find decorators with paper hanging experience. Most have had just a day hanging paper when training and nothing after that.
Consequentially I’m down to one older experienced decorator besides me who can do it.
But to give wallpaper some promotion I can say it looks better and for a lot longer than paint. It seems to take much much longer for it to look tired and most papers age nicely. The right pattern can also take quite a few knocks and accidents before it looks shabby.
Take a look at this paper from Cole and Sons Fonsetti collection.
https://www.cole-and-son.com/en/collection-fornasetti-ii/wallpaper-97/7020/
Now these papers would age well and I bet it would still look good after 20 years or more.
Wallpaper can go in any room in the house too. I’ve hung a few in bathrooms and made them waterproof with a special varnish. With varnish it looks and feels elegant and enduring.
I urge you to look at English wallpapers. England was once and probably still is the worlds leading wallpaper manufacturer. So come on make the commitment, push the boat out, splurge on imagination and choose some wallpaper before us few remaining experienced paperhangers become a dying breed.