Images Upon the Walls
Wallpaper can make a room feel as though it has always belonged there, or completely change its character. At de Gournay and Zuber, it becomes something closer to painting, hand-painted or block-printed onto paper. It can deepen a room, alter its proportions, give it another world entirely. Perhaps that is why wallpaper has always had a theatrical side: it does not simply cover a wall, it sets the scene.
On the Wall
Manifestos of Style
The Chopin Suite at the Ritz Paris has its finest detail overhead: a neoclassical ceiling painted with the delicacy of the eighteenth century. Cherubs and cameos lead down to mustard-coloured drapery, while a fine geometric pattern travels from the walls onto the curtains framing Place Vendôme. Here, decoration is not an afterthought. It is what gives the room its character. The Grand Suite Luis Salvador at Grand Hotel Son Net takes a more graphic approach, with tall patterns lending the walls their own rhythm. Paisley brings another mood to The Fife Arms, its Eastern inflection a welcome counterpoint to the stone and weather of the Scottish Highlands. At Sterrekopje, botanical motifs seem to have wandered in from the orchards beyond. Different houses, different languages. Yet the principle remains the same: wallpaper can do far more than cover a wall. It can set the mood, alter the atmosphere, and give a room a voice of its own.
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