Mark Alexander | Kuba Wallcovering

Kuba borrows its geometry from the raffia cloths of central Africa: short interlocking bars and angled blocks that build up into a field rather than into a motif. Nothing in the drawing is quite regular, so the eye keeps finding a break in the rhythm and moving on. At 80 centimetres the repeat is short enough to read as an all-over surface from across a room and long enough to stay interesting close to. It is a pattern, but a textural one.

The roll is 86 centimetres wide and 7.2 metres long, with an 80 centimetre vertical repeat. Four colourways: Alabaster, the palest, where the geometry reads almost as shadow; Harvest, a warm yellow-gold; Paprika, a deeper earth red; and Typhoon, a cool grey. Alabaster is the one for a whole room. The three colours are better used deliberately, on a single wall or in a small space where the pattern is meant to be the event.

We would use it in a cloakroom in Paprika, on a hall wall in Harvest, or across a study in Alabaster with painted shelving set over it. It takes plain linen curtains and a dark floor. What it does not want is another pattern anywhere near it, or a busy wall of pictures competing with the geometry. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

Hang it paste-the-wall, from a plumb line, with the repeat marked out before you cut, because geometry shows a dropped match immediately. Calculate on full 80 centimetre repeats rather than on wall height. Tone varies a little between panels, which is inherent in the material and worth planning for rather than fighting. Order every roll in a single batch number and add one spare, as a later batch will not match.

• Roll width: 86 cm
• Roll length: 7.2 m
• Pattern repeat: 80 cm vertical
• Suitable for: Walls
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Collage IV, Mark Alexander
• Colourways: 4 (Alabaster, Paprika, Typhoon, Harvest)