Mark Alexander | Bakbak Wallcovering

Bakbak takes its name from the palm fibre it is made from: broad, flattened strips laid across the paper in bands, with the joins between them left visible. The strips are not uniform. Each one carries its own grain and its own depth of colour, so the wall is made up of many small differences rather than one flat surface. The 107 centimetre repeat comes out of the way the bands are set, and at that scale it reads as arrangement rather than as pattern.

The roll is 91 centimetres wide and 10.97 metres long, with a 107 centimetre vertical repeat. There are two colourways. Loam is the natural one, a mid earth brown where the fibre's own tone comes through. Indigo is worked over the same ground, so the blue runs deep where the fibre is dense and lighter where it is thin. It is a blue with the material still showing through it rather than a painted blue.

We use papers like this where a room has little else to give it character: a windowless study, a hall, the end wall of a long room. Indigo behind a bed with pale joinery is a scheme that works almost every time. Loam is the easier of the two to live with over four walls. Keep the cloth in the room plain, with undyed linen and a wool rug and nothing printed. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

It is a paste-the-wall paper. Set out from a plumb line and allow for the 107 centimetre repeat when calculating quantities, working on full repeats rather than on wall height or you will run short. Panel-to-panel variation is inherent in a natural fibre and should be planned for: hang consecutive drops in roll order and reverse alternate lengths to even the shading. Order in one batch number and add a spare roll.

• Roll width: 91 cm
• Roll length: 10.97 m
• Pattern repeat: 107 cm vertical
• Suitable for: Walls
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Collage III, Mark Alexander
• Colourways: 2 (Indigo, Loam)