Mark Alexander | Meridian Wallcovering

Meridian is a long vertical mark carried down a paper ground: lines that draw close together in places and open out in others, with the weight of each one changing as it travels. The repeat is 182 centimetres, near enough two metres, so the eye follows a line a long way before it finds where the drawing starts again. That length is the point of it. It makes the pattern read as drawn rather than set out, and it pulls the eye upward.

The roll is 91 centimetres wide and 10.97 metres long, with a 182 centimetre vertical repeat. Four colourways: Chalk, the palest and coolest; Parchment, warmer and closer to undyed; Loam, a mid earth brown; and Indigo, the one that turns a room. Chalk and Parchment keep a space open. Loam and Indigo will close it in, which is often what you want in a dining room or a small study.

We use papers like this in rooms you pass through and rooms you sit in after dark: a hall, a landing, the wall behind a bed. Keep everything else still, with painted woodwork in a tone lifted from the ground, a plain linen at the window and one piece of art rather than three. It also works on a single chimney wall if a whole room is too much. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

It is a paste-the-wall paper, which keeps handling to a minimum and matters with a repeat this long. Set the first drop out against a plumb line and mark where the repeat falls before cutting, because at 182 centimetres a careless start wastes most of a roll. Work quantities out on full repeats rather than on wall height. Order every roll from one batch number and add a spare, as a later batch will not match this one exactly.

• Roll width: 91 cm
• Roll length: 10.97 m
• Pattern repeat: 182 cm vertical
• Suitable for: Walls
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Collage III, Mark Alexander
• Colourways: 4 (Chalk, Loam, Indigo, Parchment)