As a child I would often be in amazement about our Great Auntie’s beautiful ‘fuzzy’ walls. My brother and I would sit on the floor, crossed legged, running our fingers up and down the lounge room walls, a funny but lovely sensation. The bits of ‘fuzziness’ that stuck out from the walls were in beautiful, shapes of flowers and leaves and of a dark maroon, the background a tainted but rich gold. We would imagine the wall coverings to be a key to some enchanted place. And that if we closed our eyes hard enough and wished for long enough, we could part the ‘branches’ to magically whisk ourselves off to some far away land that no one else knew of.
So you can imagine our horror and incessant pleas the day that these ‘hideous’ coverings were to be vanished from her lounge room walls and to be disappointedly replaced with what I thought to be nothing but a dreary and lifeless beige paint.
“Ask Granny” is the new hand painted wallpaper and textile collection from Ella and Sofia Surface Design. Inspired by the craftsmanship of Karie Soehardi and Ruth Bradbury’s Great Grandmother’s eras, each design is aptly named after the designers’ Grannies and Great Aunties.
Don’t let the name full you though, these wallpapers weren’t created for tea and crumpets. They were designed with the contemporary space in mind.
The first design of the six in the wallpaper collection was launched end August 2006. Each successive wall covering has then been released individually on a monthly basis. The final design is set to be released in January 2007, allowing interior designers and retailers alike to carry the refreshingly new collection in the Australian market.
The first of the wallpaper designs is called “Narnie” a beautiful and striking chrysanthemum elegant in black and white or stunning in tones of silver, red and gold. The “Narnie” works back in either an eclectic or minimalist environment. Following are the “Mary Jean”, “Agatha” and “Sarah Annie”. The former is contemporary and rich in graphics the latter two, more traditional in aesthetics.
All hand painted wallpapers are available in a range of colour ways and treatments, 52cm in width, and sold in minimums of 10 metre rolls. All textiles and wallpapers are made to order and have a guarantee of 6 – 8 week delivery from placement of order.
