Mark Alexander | Motif Wallcovering

Motif is a Collage IV paper built on a woven natural-fibre ground with a repeating hand-drawn figure laid over it. The figure is open and widely spaced, so at a normal viewing distance the eye reads the texture of the ground first and the pattern second. That balance makes it usable across a whole room, not only a single wall. Close to, the weave of the backing shows through the pigment and keeps the drawing from looking mechanical.

Rolls are 86 centimetres wide and 7.2 metres long, with an 80 centimetre vertical repeat. That is a long repeat, so allow for it when calculating drops and expect more waste than a small-repeat paper. Four colourways are offered: Alabaster, Pale Celadon, Tempest and Typhoon. Alabaster is the quietest and the one we use for whole rooms, Pale Celadon carries a soft green cast, and Tempest and Typhoon are the greys, Typhoon the deeper. Colour shifts a little from panel to panel because the ground is a natural fibre, which is worth planning for rather than fighting.

We would put this in a bedroom, a dressing room or a first-floor landing, places where the pattern is seen in passing rather than stared at. It takes well to a plain linen curtain and a wool carpet, and we would keep other pattern in the room to a minimum. In a small cloakroom the long repeat can be awkward, so we would rather use it somewhere with a full-height wall. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

Hang paste-the-wall, butting the drops rather than overlapping them, and keep paste off the face, because the ground will not clean up afterwards. Match the figure at eye level before smoothing each drop down. Order every roll from one batch and check the batch numbers as they arrive. Add a spare roll, because matching a later batch is not realistic and one damaged drop should not mean repapering a room.

• Roll width: 86 cm
• Roll length: 7.2 m
• Pattern repeat: 80 cm vertical
• Application: Paste-the-wall
• Suitable for: Bedrooms, dressing rooms, landings
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Collage IV, Mark Alexander
• Colourways: 4 (Alabaster, Pale Celadon, Tempest, Typhoon)