one kind of wood or a simple plain color will help avoid an over-cluttered look. ARCHIVE DESIGN WALLPAPER • You don’t have to live in an old house for these wallpapers to work, but, for best effect, choose a design that suits the scale of your home. For example, the small florals typical of the 1930s can look lost in a high-ceilinged room, while heavily patterned Victorian prints can overwhelm a small or lowceilinged space. • To mix in other prints without outshining the wallpaper, stick to a limited color palette. Alternatively, choose another print from the same collection – they’re grouped to co-ordinate, so the hard work’s been done for you. • To make a beautiful wall covering the focus of the room, pick out key colors from the design and repeat them in plain fabrics and painted woodwork. • If you are looking to add paint match the tones used in an archive wallpaper and look at heritage and period paint collections. • If you like an eclectic look, you can team an archive wallpaper with modern furniture, but echo the design – for example, a pattern with gentle curves will look better with furniture in curved shapes. ASIAN INSPIRED WALLPAPER • Asian print wallpapers have traditionally been used in bedrooms and are considered quite feminine, but they won’t be overpoweringly so if you choose designs that are in more masculine colors. Look out for wallpaper in darker blues, red, black and neutrals. • If you’re using an Asian inspired wallpaper in a bedroom, you can put it on all four walls. If, however, you’re decorating in the main portion of the house, take a more restrained approach and limit it to a feature wall or at most two walls. • You don’t have to go all out for an oriental theme and team opulent print wallpaper with Eastern inspired furniture and furnishings. • The busier, more intricate wallpapers featuring birds, figures and lots of foliage tend to look at their best in rooms that aren’t crammed full of accessories. • A blossom print looks as good teamed with Frenchstyle furniture as Eastern pieces – picking out a color from the wallpaper creates a sense of harmony.
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JOHN ERIC HOME