Light (and) relief

Just back from half-term holiday. Dragging the family through the blandness of baggage reclaim at Heathrow, I felt just a tad flat. My holiday reading, on the other hand, had transported me to more flamboyant decorative eras, exploring plasterwork and mouldings from New York to Brussels.

Thus inspired, I’ve returned with an unbounded appetite for intricate mouldings and reliefs, and back into work at Wallpaper Towers I’m drawn irresistibly to the remarkable Lincrusta collection of luxurious wallpapers, dados and friezes.

The deep moulded Lincrusta look has been quietly turning flat walls into tactile, detailed, living pattern since 1877, with classic designs and contemporary for all kinds of interiors from villas and hotels to the White House and 6 luxury-class cabins on the Titanic.

You can paint Lincrusta hundreds of ways. Matt emulsions turn morning light into soft shadows, distressed metallic paints conjour the look of Art Nouveau Barcelona. And the look changes with your lighting, with shadows shifting from one side to another as the day goes by, or glinting under an accent lamp.

Lovely Lincrusta was even used in John D. Rockefeller’s house in New York City.

And if Lincrusta was a good investment for Rockefeller…