5 best floral wallpapers – bring the hotel-look home

Hotel interiors are a bit of an obsession of mine. I love a good nosey round a hotel and then translating looks found in my favourites into interiors in the home. Lately I’ve been loving some of the gorgeous wallpapers I’ve seen and these bold, brave prints can definitely be introduced into our lounges and bedrooms, or indeed any room to remind us of our weekends away from the day to day.

Divine Savages – wallpaper wonders – as seen at The Bird, Bath

Summer is our key time to get a staycation in the diary, but now that we are heading into the cooler seasons, a nod to florals will help get us through until those brave first Spring flowers inject some colour and a hint of whats to come.

The Hoxton – Paris

Botanical, floral and garden-inspired prints and imagery have been with us for a season or two now and they’re not going anywhere soon. Its no coincidence that magnolia, peonies and monstera flood our Instagram feeds and who could miss the annual wisteria hysteria? We LOVE our gardens and plants (even if some of us cant keep them alive for very long) and its one of the reasons these wallpapers are so popular.

THAT leaf at The Beverley Hills Hotel

Whether your tastes err on the Scandi and firmly at one-stem-in-a-vintage jar or are more all-out WI-on-acid bold blooms, these wallpapers are nothing if not striking.  The British love-affair with horticulture shows no sign of slowing and its go bold and go home where floral wallpaper is concerned.

Here are five of my faves.

Forbidden Blooms from Divine Savages. “This wallcovering features beautifully illustrated floral blooms mysteriously intertwined with sweeping serpents for a wild and untamed interior”.

Bamboo Garden – Linwood (Tango collection) “Featuring large scale tropical prints with floral accents; Tango is a lively and bright collection”.

Dark Floral II – Ellie Cashman “My floral wallpapers are original, high-quality design products featuring my signature floral prints. They are suited to a wide range of private, public and commercial spaces. Your imagination is the limit! My vision is that walls can be more than just functional structures that divide spaces and hold up ceilings. Walls can be art!”

Wisteria Noir – Pearl Lowe ” “I only really realised how beautiful wisteria was, when we bought a house along a river a few years ago. The wisteria came out in May and it was the most enchanting thing I ever saw. So to be able to put it in a wallpaper or a fabric is a dream.”

Graham & Brown – Bloomsbury Mint “Bloomsbury captures the delicate designs of the 20th Century. Explore the medley of florals and the essence of the Boho Victorian aesthetic in this enchanting wallpaper print”.

THYME

These big, blousy prints are an easy way of capturing that hotel chic and bringing it back home. Two of my top hotel interior crushes are the Artist Residence group and Kit Kemp’s incredible portfolio of hotels. In the Oxford Artist Residence you will find the perfect harmony of florals alongside more cool country-luxe styling. Free standing baths and William Morris wallpaper, yes – but with neon wall art and crazy-good sofas.

If you’re talking hotels you’re probably already talking Kit Kemp, but no conversation about pattern and colour in hotels can actually take place without mentioning her incredible interiors. For a fuller picture, follow her on Instagram. For an idea of some fabulous florals, here is taster.

The notion of taking hotel looks home with you takes on new meaning when we can now purchase items directly from the designer’s concept. Via such outlets as Soho Home, Hoxton Hotels and Kit Kemp (at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC); soft furnishings, dinnerware, furniture, lighting, textiles and all manner of accessories are up for purchase. Recognising that travellers want to keep a little bit of what they love about a hotel with them, these forward thinking brands have offered us the opportunity to bring the hotel home. So you can take the toiletries and robe back out of your bag….

Bedroom revamp for teens with taste

A promise made to my pre-teen to revamp her whole bedroom was an interior challenge I knew I was going to really enjoy. As a child I loved nothing more of a weekend than re-arranging  my room so it felt like a completely different space – not sure my folks loved the constant scraping of furniture above their heads – but it kept me busy!

My daughter has had a vintage /shabby chic style room ‘Foreverrrrrrrr’ (shabby chic- thats code for messy, right?) so it was time for action. She also has some pretty strong ideas about what she does and doesn’t like so obviously there was going to be some negotiation involved!

Coinciding with her starting senior school and needing a proper desk, it was the perfect opportunity to redecorate.  The thing is with pre-teens is they turn into teenagers and teenagers can be notoriously fussy and fickle, so this had to be future-proof AND funky. Tough gig.

Here are some before pics of the room – it’s quite large and has a big bay window which throws in loads of light. Problem is, she is a light sleeper, so we needed it to be dark at the right times. She is also fabulously messy so storage was still key.

I should mention that I did not have the luxury of time on my side so no trawling over websites or antiques markets to find that special ‘piece’. Once you start a kid’s room, you need to crack on as they need access to all their ‘stuff’ so it was all systems GO.

Firstly, the carpet had to go, it was the most revolting shade of dusky pink interspersed with green stains from fun times with glow-slime /silly putty (thanks Granny).  We opted for white floor paint on the floorboards and a rug. There are already experiments in bath-bomb making, forays into make-up (and no doubt illicit hair colouring soon) so it seemed sensible.

Onto the walls – Honor picked the paper herself and I loved her choice – this is Nordic Tree print from Next who have a genuinely on-point range of great quality papers. I have used them before in our basement and found them good to work with.  Its modern and cool but I don’t think it will date PLUS its black and white so a fab backdrop to all the colour that exists with her ‘stuff’ (mess).

I chose the paint which I kept a surprise from Honor until the final reveal and used Mineral (again from Next as the delivery was the next day and I didn’t have to lug paint around).   It’s an uplifting shade and I think works perfectly in conjunction with the paper. It’s not too feminine and not too bold but not insipid either. Bland was definitely not on the brief!

The bed was cabin style with a desk underneath for homework and a chair for reading, playing her guitar and chilling out. I styled it up with throws and cushions and it handily converts to a single bed so it’s great for sleepovers too.

The pictures are from Ikea with some white frames from Next which are very reasonably priced – she loves the theme of travel and this was a good way of introducing it without being too gimmicky.

To continue the travel fun, I added a globe and made her a gallery wall where we hung lots of trinkets and souvenirs from places we have visited (my word this girl loves a gift shop!) 

The sink was here when we moved in and we were going to remove it but as she is getting older its proving very useful, so the boys don’t have to queue for the kids’ bathroom when she is faffing.  I added some accessories from the bathroom section at Next in a dark teal which I think look great against the white and mineral colour wall.

The curtains have an amazing blackout lining and really do the job of keeping it dark.  There were a few colours to choose from in different drops and widths.  I think they are a pretty neutral shade so would look great in anyone’s bedroom, so you aren’t tied to one room with these.

What I have tried to achieve is a look which can be changed as she gets her own style and tastes as she grows up. The accessories are what bring the colour to the scheme and these can be switched up without any major hassle. The Next paper and paint offer some longevity and that’s the key to the compromise – she loves it and I do too.  What are the chances of her keeping it tidy?

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