Feature walls are back! But there is nothing worse than being stuck with an accent wall you didn’t choose. Well, that’s how I felt when we first moved in. If I’m totally honest with you, the wall we inherited has grown on me since the day we were handed over the keys but it was never quite me, or something I would pick myself. My first thought was we’d paint it but then I thought I’d live with it for a while and see what would suit the space better. I didn’t want to rush it. The creative process takes time and I’m certainly not ashamed to admit that. I always advise friends to live in the house for 6 months before making any drastic changes (that you may end up regretting later on).
I’ve always seen our house as the extension of our garden. It’s one of the things I fell in love with when we viewed it. Leaves are pretty much on every mood board I have; featured in art, blinds, or even bespoke furniture. So, I guess I’ve always unconsciously known I’d love a garden/tree-inspired feature wall. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d go for a painted finish, wall mural, or wallpaper, but at least I was able to narrow it down to a theme. I spent months online looking for the perfect wall mural. I even shared my top 5 tree inspired murals in a recent blogpost. I wanted to get it right as we won’t be changing this wall any time soon. Plus, I wanted it to have the real wow factor. We love entertaining in this space, so it was important that it would make a real statement rather than just blend in.
I was hoping to find something a bit more bespoke on Etsy when I saw the Hua Trees wallpaper by Sian Zeng Studio in dusty green. Such a cliché (I know) but it was love at first sight. I ordered a few samples before making my final decision, which were so pretty I’m thinking about framing them! The Hua trees wallpaper, hand-painted using Chinese inks, felt right for this space and it reflects my personality perfectly. It has just the right amount of colour and the scale of the trees is just amazing. I wasn’t quite sure how much we’d need so I contacted Sian and she was super helpful (they also have a wallpaper calculator on the website). She answered all my questions and put me at ease. I think that’s when I decided this is ‘the one’. I loved the aesthetics as much as I loved Sian’s design and creative process. I also love that I get to support a talented London-based designer. Sian’s wallpaper creations are beautifully hand-painted and she uses traditional techniques to create exciting, storybook-like wallpapers and wall decorations. I love the mix of Sian’s European and Chinese mixed cultural heritage in her work. Sian Zeng studio is based in South East London and yes they do ship internationally (no VAT for EU customers).
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So, what do you think? I knew it would look great, but I had no idea just how at home the new wallpaper will look in our dining room. It goes with all our existing furniture too and completes the room. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet and I still get mesmerised by it. It flows seamlessly with the garden and thanks to the white background we finally have tons of light in this room again. The old feature wall used to make this room so much darker and smaller. It almost feels like we’ve gained a room!
The Hua trees wallpaper is made of non-woven material which is a combination of natural and synthetic fibers. It doesn’t need to be soaked before application which makes it much easier to work with than traditional wallpapers. It’s quite thick and a dream to work with (according to our decorator). I love that all the wallpapers are customisable to fit any size wall and are very competitively priced compared to other custom wall murals. We had to use lining paper underneath as our decorator couldn’t get our old feature wall light enough. We could have painted it but it would have taken days. Lining paper was the quicker option and to be honest, I love the finish (and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again).
So there you have it! Our dining room make-over is finally complete. I’ll write a more detailed blogpost about the furnishing and the pretty details, but our new forest mural wallpaper has made all the difference. It’s the perfect statement piece and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at it.
* I received a trade discount for the product.
