Magee, MS. June 1984. The summers of my childhood always lumbered carelessly
towards fall. The summer of 1984, however, was different. That summer, the
excitement had a pronounced pace…the anticipation had a palpable tempo. The
construction noise of our new home became the soundtrack for the summer. Just as
the various crews skillfully put together the brick and mortar to form the house, we
watched mom thoughtfully orchestrate all of the interior components.
The quantity of decisions she had to make fascinated me. She knew my level of
interest was high. Every conversation we had was about some element of the interior.
Mom and I painstakingly discussed each decision. We would conference endlessly.
Once a decision had been made, it was by no means final. If needed, any topic once
considered closed could certainly find its way back onto the agenda. She was always
happy to consider it again. However, there was one choice she made, that, once
decided, we never revisited…wallpaper.
Still, to this day, I don’t understand how the same person could employ such quick
decision making on wallpaper, but not any other topic. It took 6 months to select
hardware for the kitchen cabinets. She selected the kitchen wallpaper in 6 minutes.
She chose wallpaper for several rooms and all of her selections were beautiful.
The end of summer that year was not met with the usual dread. Instead, the drum beat
pressed on…slowly accelerating the anticipation as we marched toward move-in day.
Late one afternoon mom and I dropped by the new house. As we rounded the corner in the driveway, the warm light emanating from the dining room windows was impossible
not to notice. When we entered the house, I ran directly to the dining room. Once
there, I was speechless. During construction, the dining room always felt dark and
small to me…not today.
The room was anything but small. In that moment, with the wallpaper now proudly on
its walls, if felt as if the room had developed a personality…an unmistakable, very
welcoming…personality. I slowly dimmed the chandelier, and the paper softly reflected
the warm light. The wallpaper created an ambience for the room that it could not have
had otherwise…an ethereal quality for sure. The room glowed from inside as if it had a
sense of pride…the paper and the light, happy partners in a long-lasting slow dance. In
those last few moments of sunlight, I stood there mesmerized by how much the space
had changed. Thinking back on that experience, I now realize how much the space had
changed me.
Martinez, CA. November 2020. I love finding new products that I know my clients will love. However, I particularly love it when the new product is wallpaper. Wallpaper is powerful. The varieties of texture and ranges of color create endless possibilities. Glancing at the samples that just arrived, something about one of them caught my eye…it felt familiar. The color story on one of the samples was reminiscent of our dining room wallpaper when I was a child. Looking closely at it, I was reminded how much the wallpaper industry has changed in recent years.
From content to color to composition, today’s papers bring fresh new ideas to designers. All of the very best papers today are the products of wonderfully creative companies, some of them very small, who have chosen wallpaper as their central business focus. These artists are clever, clearly talented, and cognizant of their environmental footprint. You'll find many wallpaper companies go the extra mile regarding paper composition, production quality, and artistic merit. They hire, train, and employ the most talented individuals. Additionally, what continues to be impressive, is the number of companies producing goods at the highest level of quality.
The development and subsequent onslaught of an assortment of technologies within the design community, has created an arsenal of powerful new tools. The wallpaper industry welcomed these advancements and encouraged the creative minds within their ranks to figure out ways to best utilize new methods of printing, color and texture application, and installation. For all of the wallpaper fans out there, this development has been so exciting to watch.
However, for some, wallpaper has a very negative connotation. To this day, some people are left dazed and confused at the very mention of the word. I consider myself among the lucky…the few among us who didn’t develop scars from the wounds of bad wallpaper. In an effort to help anyone who had a “not so positive” experience with wallpaper early in life, I kindly submit the following examples for consideration. These are some of the amazing wallpaper products currently available. These papers showcase amazing work done by artisans utilizing techniques from screen printing to hand painting, paper weaving to applied textures. Stylistically, the range of options is captivating. I hope you’ll agree. This list contains some papers from well-established companies whom you’ll surely recognize as well as papers from newer companies that you’ll recognize from now on.
What’s on your walls?
