Cole & Son | Trianon

Trianon is a plain that is not quite a plain. The surface is a fine craquelure, the network of hairline cracks that forms in an old glaze or an aged varnish, printed evenly across the paper so the wall acquires a very shallow, brittle texture without any pattern in the conventional sense. The name comes from the Grand Trianon porcelain pavilion at Versailles, which explains the reference exactly.

At normal viewing distance it reads as a soft, worked neutral, closer to old plaster or an aged painted surface than to paper. Close to, the crazing resolves into individual lines. It is the sort of finish decorators once achieved by hand, and it gives a room the quality of age without any of the theatricality that usually comes with distressing.

It is a random match, which makes it economical and unusually forgiving. There is nothing to line up, so returns, reveals and out-of-true corners cost very little in waste, and it hangs easily in the crooked rooms of an old house. On a 0.52 m roll it is manageable in tight spaces. Use it where a plain would be the safe answer and would also be dull, in a hall, a dining room or a bedroom, and let the joinery, the pictures and the fabrics carry the scheme.