Romo | Mima Wallcovering

Mima is a wallcovering with a long, slow repeat, and that is the first thing to understand about it. At 91.4 centimetres the design resolves roughly once per metre of wall height, so in a normal room you see it two and a half times from skirting to cornice. That scale makes it behave like a surface rather than a wallpaper: you take in the texture and the depth of colour first, and only afterwards notice where the design comes round again. Hung across a whole room it reads as a treated wall, closer to plaster or cloth than paper.

It comes on a roll 69 centimetres wide and 10.05 metres long, which is 11 yards, with a 91.4 centimetre vertical repeat. Allowing for that repeat, a standard 2.4 metre ceiling gives three usable drops from each roll, and a taller room two. Work quantities from drops rather than area. There are five colourways: Bayberry, a deep leafy green; Lovat, the softer grey-green; Ebony, very nearly black; Twilight, a dark clouded blue; and Tamarind, a warm red-brown.

We use Mima where a room needs holding together rather than lifting. A dining room taken all the way round, including above the picture rail. The back wall of a study behind open shelving. A small cloakroom, where a deep colour and a real texture do far more than paint. Ebony behind brass and dark timber is the one we return to. Order a sample to see it in your own light.

Hang it paste-the-wall, pasting the surface and bringing the dry lengths to it, which keeps the edges clean and makes positioning the repeat easier on a tall drop. Check the batch number printed on every roll and make sure they match before a single length goes up, because colour can shift between runs. Order one roll more than your calculation gives you, keep it with the same batch, and you have a repair to hand years later.

• Roll width: 69 cm
• Roll length: 10.05 m (11 yards)
• Pattern repeat: 91.4 cm vertical
• Application: Paste-the-wall
• Suitable for: Feature walls, full rooms
• Care: Wipe gently with a soft, dry cloth
• Collection: Ottavia Wallcoverings, Romo
• Colourways: 5 (Bayberry, Lovat, Ebony, Twilight, Tamarind)