The Lotus

Last September while in London, I was lucky enough to visit Farrow & Ball …the creme de la creme of wallpapers and paint! It was a rainy afternoon (and my birthday of all days!) and my husband wanted to take a cat nap before we went to my celebratory dinner, so instead of resting up too, I hopped in a cab on my own little adventure and booked it to the F&B store in Chelsea ten minutes before it closed. I was determined to catch a larger glimpse of their Lotus wallpaper (and a few samples)- a wallpaper I had been coveting for years.

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I first heard about the Lotus paper when my mom saw it at Boxwoods in Houston and was dying over how gorgeous it was…we then posted a photo of it on the blog. This was almost four YEARS ago! I’m often sick of a wallpaper after four SECONDS so to still be coveting that precious Lotus paper four years later? Unheard of! (But I guess that means it was true love!)

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So what I love most about the Lotus in particular are two things- 1) that you can hang it right side up (how it’s traditionally supposed to be oriented) or upside down..the image above shows it “upside down” if you can believe it! 2) that it comes in two sizes- small and large. I’m partial to the large  because I always “go big or go home” in design and the large was definitely more my style. The small is great but has a more traditional feel to it.

You may be thinking- “where have I heard that name- Farrow and Ball?” Well, Farrow and Ball is no newcomer! It was started in the 1930’s by John Farrow and Richard Maurice Ball and the company has 43 showrooms across the UK, US, Canada & Europe as well as a global network of stockists carrying both paint and wallpaper. They are everywhere! In Dallas, you can now get it through the trade at the Lee Jofa showroom.

Here are some of my favorite images of the Lotus installed in different spaces- (as you can see, it can go more formal in a dining room or more casual in a laundry room! It can also go more subtle with the tone on tone colorway or more dramatic and graphic with the black and neutral one)

 

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F&B even has the Lotus on the front of their building!

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I’m happy to say that I finally bit the bullet and did the dark teal colorway of the Lotus in my small entry-

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The Lotus makes the space seem SO much larger!  I love how the shapes of the lotus practically “grow up” to the ceiling! I haven’t been able to bring myself to put any wall decor over it, I just love it so much.  Wallpaper is an investment but you get so much bang for your buck with it and it can make such a statement.

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At first I was worried it might be too colorful, but the teal actually is so grayed out that it almost acts as a neutral and I love how it complements the orange-red color of the bricks on the exterior of my house.

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