THESE WALLS CAN TALK: Five Coverings That Break the Right Rules

by Meghan Edwards

1. Swedish designer Camilla Diedrich creates rich, luminous patterns that draw on her colorful past. Born to an oil-painter mother and a photographer father, three-year-old Diedrich went to art school with her mother while her father toured with a circus. “I remember being fascinated by all the colors and shapes and later all the people that looked cool,” she says. Her wallpaper line explodes with life and energy; just check out True Blue, inspired by British men’s pinstriped suites, and Nature Ray Charles, whose luscious blossoms seem to float and glow from within. Camilla Diedrich Walls, http://online.diedrich.se/

2. Finnish designer and long-time London resident Anne Kyyrö Quinn creates bespoke acoustic wall panels from industrial felt. The three-dimensional panels are more sculptural works of art than any substitute for other coverings, and the fireproof quality of felt means that they can also be used as space dividers and curtains in commercial spaces and residences alike. Offerings include beige Leaf, creamy blonde Round Tulip, red Rosette, and chunky Scallop in addition to felt blinds, lighting fixtures, and upholstered pillows and furniture. Anne Kyyrö Quinn, 44-20-7021-0702; http://www.annekyyroquinn.com/
3. From VandM dealer Cain Modern, Los Angeles-based artist Tanya Ragir knows your body is a wonderland. Her sculptures, usually cast in bronze, pay tribute to the human figure in all its peculiarities and unique forms. Rolling Hills channels an aerial view of soft mountain slopes, deep valleys, and groves of trees combined with the gentle curves of the feminine body, achieving an elegant ambiguity. Individually cast in resin and hand painted with oil, this 25-inch-by-40-inch-by-4-inch wall sculpture is one of nine editions and can also be specified in cast stone or cold-cast bronze. Cain Modern, 310-652-6045; http://vandm.com/CainModern

4. Launched at last year’s BKLYN Designs fair, Shanan Campanaro’s wallpaper line, Eskayel, features her own animal-inspired art work which she first began to digitally manipulate into wallpaper patterns while redecorating her apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her experimentations led to backdrops for her art shows, and the rest is history. The patterns of her most recent collection, Island, are inspired by watercolors that she painted in Bali, Indonesia and then showed in Iceland, which may explain the polar bear noses hidden in “Culebra Cubic,” the bear ears in “Bali Stripe,” and the kaleidoscopic bear faces in “Bear in Mind.” The collection’s nine designs are digitally printed onto 2-foot-wide rolls of water-resistant paper reinforced with latex and nylon. Eskayel, 858-531-9034; http://eskayel.com/.

5. With Maya Romanoff’s new Anniversary collection of three tie-dyed wall coverings, the pioneer in large-scale textile installations takes us back almost to the date of his company’s founding in 1969. The tie-dye designs are inspired by his 1970’s archived patterns and were created in collaboration of designer Amy Lau. In a launch earlier this month at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Romanoff revealed Half Plaid, Snowflake, and Crystal, all of which elevate their familiar craft to innovative, cutting edge environments. Maya Romanoff, 773-465-6909; http://www.mayaromanoff.com/