Wallcoverings with a tasty difference - Hannah Coleman, Dreamwall

Wallcoverings with a tasty difference

I own an interior wallcovering company called Dreamwall, my specialist subject is in imitation brick, stone and slate wallcoverings.

Since 2005, when I founded the UK Young Designers, a platform I set up for up and coming designers to showcase there products, I became interested in various other cool wall coverings, rather than my specialist subject in imitation brick walls.

This blog starts with a brief wallpaper history review, then its time to mix old techniques with a modern twist infusion with an introduction to a tasty wallpaper collection.

So feast yourself for a mouthwatering wallpaper treat…

Definition of a Wallcovering

Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices and other buildings: It is one aspect of interior decoration, They are usually sold in rolls and put onto a wall using wallpaper paste.

The above quote extract is plain common sense, avid DIY experts or not so experienced DIY novices have at some point had a go with experimenting with wallpaper, whether its been in their homes or offices.

The modern day world of wallpaper is advancing so much with the latest technology, but in the meantime let's get back to basics here and enjoy a little bit of wallpaper history.

A Brief History of Wallpaper

In renaissance Europe, the elite society were accustomed to hanging large tapestries on the walls in their homes, a tradition steaming back to the middle ages. The tapestries not only added colour to the rooms, but also provided insulation between the stone walls, retaining heat in the properties.

Very early wallpaper featured patterns to the renaissance tapestries were put on large sheets of paper that hung loosely on the walls. Some were even pasted like today’s modern wallpaper.

By the mid – eighteenth century, Britian became the leading manufacturers in wallpaper. Flock wallpaper Became very fashionable around this period.

In 1785 Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented the very first machine for printing coloured tints onto sheets of paper.
By 1799 Louis-Nicolas Robert patented a machine to produce continuous lengths of paper.

During the Napoleonic wars, Britian showed a big decline in wallpaper.

By 1813 a development of steam powered print presses allowed manufacturers to mass produce wallpaper, the price was dramantically reduced so working class people could enjoy wallpapers in their homes.

In the twentieth century wallpaper really boomed and was a popular choice in decoration in the western world.
By the late 1980’s wallpaper soon was out of vogue, and households preferred to paint walls and along came the contemporary trend.

But by 2005 there showed an avid interest for wallpaper and over the last 4yrs its back in vogue for the modern day home feature wall.

If we go into our local DIY stores we can choose from 100’s of modern trend feature wallpapers. The internet and glossy lifestyle magazines are full of inspiration on trend ideas.

Digital printing has opened up a whole new world of wallpaper, nowadays you can have anything from your pet cat to your family printed onto a wallpaper.

But let me introduce you to a wallpaper with basic techniques but with a tasty modern twist.

The Flavor That You Savour

Flavor paper produces unique vintage contemporary and custom handscreened wallcoverings that will add a burst of flavor to any enviroment.

The Flavor Lab is based in New Orleans and was founded by a guy named Ted, with a background in handscreened wallpaper. Teds orginal 50-foot long 6000-pound vacuum table is the centrepiece of the Lab and is the backbone of the wallpaper printing opertation. Each roll of Flavor paper is hand printed to order.

Flavor wallpaper as the name suggest is mixing old printing techniques with a new concept of flavoured wallpapers. One particular collection in their fantastic range, that really caught my taste buds is the fruit cocktail collection.

This range of flavoured wallcoverings all began when Michael Angelo asked if they could actually make a scratch and sniff wallpaper.

The result is a fantastic trio of hand screened fruit wallpaper designed by Michael and Flavor paper. And, when scratched Bananas! Smells like Bananas, Cherry Forever like cherries, and tutti frutti like tutti frutti! Pure genius!

The collection of this range was launched at a Smell my Wallpaper party in NY Design Week.

Flavor paper have a vast portfolio of tasty smells to choose from including the floral collection, imagine having your property walls covered in the smell beautiful florals their would be no need to buy those hideous plug in glades again. As well as florals, Flavor Paper offers the client funky, geometric and traditional. There is also an option to submit your own designs, fancy you could scratch and sniff your loved ones for ever!

I love the concept behind flavor papers, as it is modern, and fresh, but I like the fact that their techniques of printing are still very traditional. So they get a full-on flavor 10/10 from me!

Hannah Coleman

Hannah Coleman is the owner of Dreamwall (wall coverings with a difference) established in 2003, Hannah is a specialist in imitation brick, stone and slate products. Hannah's passion is interior wall coverings, interior design, loves textured surfaces and reviewing the latest wall covering trends.