Decorating with Wallpaper
The Ciao Bella! and Kenilworth Collections by S.A. Maxwell

Don't forget the ceiling when you are decorating with wallpaper!! Professional designers have been doing this for years to create designer rooms for their clients.

Provided by: ARA

(ARA) - Look up if you want to make a true designer statement in any room. The ceiling is the largest unobstructed surface in dining rooms, bedrooms, living areas and all other interior spaces. While a majority of homeowners fail to utilize this potential decorating bonanza, professional interior designers rarely neglect an opportunity to tie the ceiling into their overall design plans.

Nothing makes this connection of ceiling to walls easier or more effectively than wallpaper. Furthermore, wallpapering a ceiling provides an opportunity to add contrast without clash. While many people avoid mixing patterns in a room, the agreeable combination of more than one pattern is another hallmark of inspired interior design.

That's why every S.A. Maxwell Co. wallpaper and border collection is arranged by color family and contains a multiple of different patterns that complement and coordinate with each other. This takes the guesswork out of pattern selection and provides you with the assurance that all patterns in a single group will go together. You're free to combine two, three or more designs with confidence.

What a difference a pattern of wrought iron, leaves and birds on the ceiling makes in an on-suite bathroom in which the walls carry a restful, subtle, washed fresco design. The colors are compatible with those on the background of the leaf-and-bird pattern above, but they do not have the contrived look of perfect coordinates. A wide border elaborates on the leaf-and-bird pattern in an even more decorative design that also incorporates an antique birdcage. We added crown molding above the border to further define the space and "frame" the artistic pattern that spans its ceiling. Both wallpaper patterns and the border are from Maxwell's Antiquities collection.

An entryway that is split by a staircase and doors on all sides gains unity through the use of wallpaper on the ceiling -- the only surface that suffers no architectural intrusion. Papered in a linen-look plaid pattern in the same deep, dark colors of the tropical urn pattern on the walls, the ceiling also adds significantly to the drama of this space, making it a truly grand entry.

Entryways offer a prime opportunity to establish a tone of elegance. For, although they are rarely used for long periods of time, they warmly welcome all who enter your house. The wallpaper patterns in this entryway are from the Kenilworth collection by S.A. Maxwell, and they embody all of the elegance implied in this collection's name.

Quite another tone is achieved in a laundry room where we left no surface untouched in transforming this utilitarian space, once hidden behind closed doors, into a real room that spreads cheer from top to bottom. All of the cabinetry is painted an appropriately clean, crisp white -- stunning against a pattern of yellow sunflowers tossed against a sky blue background. For added interest, a faux shelf border, complete with a white-painted antique cornice, tops the walls. What is more crisp and clean than blue-and-white checks? That was our choice for the ceiling, and we like the look so much, we used leftover portions of the same checkered wallpaper as a lining behind the cabinets' glass doors.

Last, but far from least, we gave this once-windowless room a glorious view. Above the sink, we installed a mural, which replicates a window in every detail, including shutters, sunflowers on the sill and a scene of the Tuscan countryside. The mural, border and both wallpapers are from Maxwell's Ciao Bella! collection. Together they show how the humblest of rooms can become a showcase and that a wallpapered ceiling gives every room a little touch of heaven.

Tin ceilings are back in style, and Maxwell's Ciao Bella! collection allows you to achieve that look easily with a faux tin ceiling "sculpted wallpaper" that replicates both the pattern and the deep dimension of a true tin ceiling. It's indistinguishable from the real thing.

Click to view the Kenilworth and Ciao Bella! collections by S. A. Maxwell Co., call (847) 932-3700 or visit www.samaxwell.com on the Internet.

Courtesy of ARA Content

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jaima Brown is director of design for S.A. Maxwell Co.