Casamance | Palawan Wallpaper

Palawan is a woven raffia wallcovering from Casamance's Tramis collection, named after the Philippine island the fibre comes from. The raffia is finely and evenly woven, so it has the character of a grasscloth without the coarseness: the strands are narrow, the weave regular, and the surface has a dry, slightly papery hand with the small knots you expect from a plant fibre. On the wall it reads as texture and warmth rather than pattern.

It is 100 per cent raffia on a non-woven backing, 360 grams per square metre, at a 91 centimetre usable width. Made in South Korea, it carries an A+ indoor air quality rating, a European fire rating of B s1 d0 and Class A to ASTM E84. There are 15 colourways, from Blanc, Opaline and Naturel through Sable, Beige and Naturel Foncé to Curry, Orange Brulé, Cédre Rouge, Bois De Rose, Céladon, Tilleul, Amande, Carbone and Ébène. The naturals are the safe choice; Céladon and Tilleul suit a bedroom, Carbone or Ébène a study.

We tend to use Palawan on every wall of a bedroom or a study, where it does the job of paint with more depth, or in a hallway and up the stairs where it takes light well. It sits easily with limed oak, rattan and heavy linen, and in a coastal house it is the wallcovering we reach for first. Sold by the metre; order a sample before committing to a full room.

We recommend a professional hanger for raffia. Palawan is paste-the-wall and dry-strippable, with no pattern to match, but the joins show as fine lines, so plan them around the room. Divide the wall width by 0.91 for the number of drops, round up, and multiply by the wall height plus 10 centimetres: a 4 metre wall at 2.4 metres high takes 5 drops, roughly 13 metres. Raffia varies in shade between batches, so order the whole room from one batch.