Paper Pusher

You know, sometimes, when you work hard and are good to people, life rewards you.

My most recent reward for toeing this line came in the form of a dream interior design client. Not only has my client been a pleasure to work with, is passionate and engaged in the process, pays her bills on time, and has a beautiful contemporary home in South Yarra, she is also ‘game’. She has style and flair and attitude (in the best sense of the word), so when I suggested wallpaper in her media room and bedroom, she was all for it.

And it gets better. It wasn’t just any old wallpaper I was suggesting – It was Fornasetti Nuvolette (‘clouds’ in Italian) for the bedroom, and Barnaby Gates Bee Hive in navy (which is actually charcoal – go figure) for the media room. And she said yes! – Yes with and exclamation mark! 

The bees were perfect for the enormous media room. Initially the room was ultra modern, bright white and with a very pricy and impressive media set up consisting of a 2 metre wide screen, 2 huge black speakers (the size of a couple of well fed 10 year olds), and a giant central speaker – also black. All of these items really (and I mean ‘really’) stood out against the white wall. So, I suggested the bees to help make all those big dark objects blend into the wall a bit, and to create a moody funky room where you want to put your feet up and hunker down – basically, the opposite of what it was but with the same functionality.

As the space was long and narrow with lots of little angles and ledges, it wasn’t a straight forward job, but it was a job worth doing and doing well – and done well it was thanks to Andy, the wallpapering genius my friends at ‘Wall Candy Fitzroy’ put me on to. The end result was, as you can see below, the ‘bee’s knees’.

The Fornasetti clouds I used in the master bedroom are quite literally, heavenly. I could leave it at that, but I’ll give you a little more… I spent 5 years living and working in Milan where I ran my own design business before moving to Melbourne, so Fornasetti and all his myriad of designs, is very close to my heart.

Milan is the home of many great and groundbreaking designers spanning many generations and disciplines, and Piero Fornasetti is one of my all time favorites. Born in 1913, he was a rebellious graphic illustrator and designer known for his whimsical, quirky and beautiful illustrations. His approach to his work was sometimes described as ‘practical madness’, and boy was he prolific. His works were applied to home wares, furniture and fashion and some of his most sought after vintage pieces come from his long and fruitful collaboration with the great furniture designer Gio Ponti.

Today, and since Piero’s death in the late 80’s, Fornasetti’s son, Barnaba Fornasetti, carries on his legacy and continues to produce and distribute his father’s designs throughout the world. Cole and Sons wallpaper are licensed to produce a range of 14 different Piero Fornasetti illustrations – however the ‘Nuvolette’ is my favorite and…Wall Candy Fitzroy is where you will find them!

So, long story short, thanks to Fornasetti (Jr), my client gets to sleep under the clouds every night and have her own little slice of heaven, Italian style.

Above is some fabulous original 1970’s wallpaper from a recent job. This post was originally written by be for Wallcandy Wallpaper. http://wallcandywallpaper.com.au/blog.aspx