When Mia Reay needed wallpaper for her Lancashire country house, she decided to produce it herself. ‘I couldn’t find anything I liked, so I spent months researching and started painting designs,’ explains the Finnish-born artist, who is married to the 15th Lord Reay.

She asked an old friend, the decorative painter Graham Carr, to join her in the act of creation. Before too long Mia Reay Wallpapers had blossomed, literally.

‘We’re a British brand, so there are a lot of florals,’ she says. ‘Queen’s Necklace’ is based on a scrap of 1780s French fabric once owned by John Fowler, for whom Carr worked on the tastemaker Pauline de Rothschild’s Albany set in London.

‘Drottningholm Tree’ is the design team’s take on a leafy wallcovering at a Swedish theatre.

One design is based on an old Persian ceramic, another was derived from a typical motif in antique Uzbek suzanis. Each of the seven patterns – available in rolls 52cm and 70cm wide – is hand-painted and screen or digitally printed on a matt-finish paper to ensure that artful feeling.

Says Reay: ‘I’m keen for someone to take a photograph of a wall, look at it in a 100 years’ time, and find that it’s still relevant. They’re meant to be timeless.’

World of Interiors, July 2022
World of Interiors