Mark Alexander | Odyssey Wallcovering

Odyssey is a large-scale design printed onto a woven grasscloth ground, and the pairing is what makes it work. The drawing is loose and painterly rather than tightly ruled, and because the grass underneath has its own horizontal grain and variation, the design picks up a softness at its edges that it would not have on a flat paper. It is a wallcovering that rewards standing back from; up close, the texture takes over from the drawing.

Rolls are 91 centimetres wide and 7.32 metres long, with a 70 centimetre vertical repeat. Seven colourways: Chalk, Alabaster and Whitewash at the pale end, Parchment a shade warmer, Loam in soft brown, Typhoon a cool grey, and Paprika the single warm colour in the range. The grasscloth ground is a natural fibre, so shading between panels is inherent and the print will sit slightly differently on each drop.

We use Odyssey where a large wall can carry a design at this scale, so a dining room, a double-height hallway, or the long side of a principal bedroom. It is not the right choice for a small space cut up by doors, because too much of the repeat is lost at each opening. Chalk over a whole room, Paprika on one wall. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

Paste the wall and hang each drop dry, matching the 70 centimetre repeat at every seam. Work out where the repeat falls at ceiling height before you cut the first length, so the design is not decapitated along the top of the room. Butt the seams and keep paste off the printed face. Order all rolls together, check the batch numbers, and add one spare beyond your measured quantity.

• Roll width: 91 cm
• Roll length: 7.32 m
• Pattern repeat: 70 cm vertical
• Application: Paste-the-wall
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Grasscloth Prints, Mark Alexander
• Colourways: 7 (Chalk, Alabaster, Whitewash, Parchment, Loam, Typhoon, Paprika)