Flavorful Beach House Wallcoverings

“As an interior designer, you need to know a lot about a lot of different things,” says Ghislaine Viñas, Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design. “You need to understand textiles, and you need to understand rugs, paint, furniture design, furniture structure, architecture, plumbing, and electricity.” 

In the designer’s mind, wallcoverings are just one aspect of many, many factors that make up the success of an environment. And yet, wallcoverings can often be the pivotal element in a room, as they were throughout the Montauk Beach House in New York. So for a design piece that’s critical, but also only one component of many, it’s essential to have a vendor partner who’s both reliable and insightful.

Jon Sherman, owner of Flavor Paper, says his wallpaper company’s partnership with Viñas is “a match made in heaven. She loves to use very vibrant, intense, deep color, and we love to print vibrant, intense, deep color.”

That’s no easy feat in the design world. A P-O-P display or vehicle graphic typically lives in isolation, color-wise, but in interiors, Sherman says “the presence of other colors and other materials can really impact the color of what you’re looking at.” Change the lighting or bring in a green rug, and blam, your silver wallcovering takes on a green hue. “Nailing colors is paramount to the success of a project,” he adds. Flavor Paper uses Barbieri’s Spectro LFP and SpectroPad tools for measuring color.

The 10-bedroom Montauk house was a perfect example of how color can be the focal point of a room, or even of an entire home. The theme Viñas developed with the client merged a tongue-in-cheek attitude with a Floridian backdrop, with hints of retro and upcycled kitsch (think bamboo headboard, bought on eBay and painted white).

“Ghislaine knows exactly what she wants,” says Sherman. Flavor Paper custom printed two digital wallcoverings for the house (and hand screen printed another) via its HP Latex 370 machine onto DreamScape Terralon. The shop also runs a Mimaki UJV55-320 UV printer for imaging Mylar and other “funky materials,” Sherman adds; he says the machine is booked solid for months.

Beyond color, one priority for Flavor Paper – and many of their customers – is eco-friendliness. Their line of wallpapers includes more eco-friendly options than vinyl options, says Sherman. Many of their papers end up in LEED-certified buildings, where strict standards must be met. They often use a water-based, roll-on protectant to create wipeability comparable to that of vinyl – without the off-gassing. There’s no cutting corners in this business. 

“Wallcovering has, in the last 10 years, made a huge comeback,” says Viñas. “People are pushing the envelope.” The door is wide open for printers to step in and join the movement.

Read more from Big Picture's November/December 2017 issue featuring the first-ever Interior Décor + Textiles supplement.