Knightsbridge Project
A map mural in the study and four patterned papers in the smallest rooms
This project covered wallpaper in five rooms of a home in Knightsbridge, SW1X: an antique map mural across the main wall of the study, and a different patterned paper in each of a bathroom, two cloakrooms and a dressing area.
Small rooms are the hardest to paper well. There is no long, clear wall to settle into. Every length meets a door frame, a basin, a mirror, a cistern or a sloping ceiling within a few feet, and each of those is a cut that has to land cleanly.
Room by room
The programme ran for eleven weeks on site and covered:
- Study: an antique map mural hung as one picture above the painted panelling, the full width of the wall
- Cloakroom: a dark botanical print from floor to ceiling, around the wall lights and a high-level cistern
- Bathroom: a red and teal squiggle-and-dot print, cut around a mirrored cabinet, wall lights and a marble splashback
- Second cloakroom: a green palm print carried round the corners and behind the basin and WC
- Dressing area: a fine speckled print taken into the window reveal and under the sloping ceiling
The mural
A mural is one picture in numbered panels, not a repeat. The set was laid out and checked in order first, and the wall measured so the image sits level and centred between the panelling below and the downlights above. Every join then has to meet edge to edge with the picture carrying across.
Stripping, filling, sizing
Wallpaper hides nothing, so the walls behind it have to be right before a single length goes up. Walls were filled, sanded flat and sealed, then sized. Sizing regulates how fast the wall draws moisture from the adhesive, which is what gives the time to slide a length into place and match the pattern accurately.
In rooms this size the planning is in the cuts: where the pattern centres on the wall you face as you walk in, and how it meets the basin, the mirror and the door frame.
How it finished
The map reads as a single image across the study wall. In the smaller rooms each pattern runs unbroken from skirting to ceiling and round the corners, with a clean cut at every fitting.
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Project Details