Nina Campbell | Belem

Belem is a mid-scale damask, deliberately distressed and lifted with subtle metallic highlights, so the pattern reads as though it had been on the wall a century already, worn to softness with the gilding just surviving. It is named after the castle on the river Tagus.

It is made in the United Kingdom on a lighter-weight paper. The distressed finish makes it forgiving and atmospheric rather than formal, suited to halls, dining rooms, studies and bedrooms, and the metallic traces reward rooms used by lamplight. It gives new rooms an inherited quality, which is the hardest thing to buy.