Into the Abyss!!

I finally bit the bullet and did it this afternoon. I went online and put in my William Morris wallpaper order.

5 rolls of "Blackthorn"/1 for the stairhall . . .


















. . . 8 rolls of "Owen Jones"/7 for the living room . . .


















. . . and 8 rolls of "Savernake"/5 for the dining room.



















My agony and temporizing has been over the "Savernake." When I first moved into the Sow's Ear in September '03 I ordered a sample and it was a nice pale sand color. I've had it propped up on my dining room dresser ever since. But the latest samples have a definite pale celery cast. Meaning, green. Wasn't sure I wanted a greenish dining room, even if it goes very well with the Morris "Strawberry Thief" drapery fabric I bought on eBay a year ago last June.

There was one more possible colorway of "Savernake" I hadn't yet seen, and I was hoping it would come up a nice cream color. (Hey, the computer images are never accurate, right?). It arrived today, and . . . No go. It was red brown. Too much with that red "Owen Jones" in the next room.

I'm still not 100% keen on the celery tone for the dining room. But I've faced the reality that I could wait the next five and a half years and that "Savernake"/5 will likely never, ever, ever revert to the pale sand color it was in September 2003. And with the economy the way it is, by that time the Morris Company may not still be in business or the prices will be totally out of reach.

So I'm sucking it up and going with the celery green. It had good reviews from random fellow-choristers at choir practice a few weeks ago, and as I said, it goes well with the curtain fabric. And I love, love, love the pattern.

I ended up ordering not from Sanderson's Fabrics in Yorkshire, but from Wallpaper Direct in Sussex (who sent me my first samples in 2003). Actually went on both sites and filled out order forms on both to compare current bottom lines. Spent an absurd amount of time juggling differences in prices, in volume discounts offered vs. none at all, in VAT (Value Added Tax) included in the named price or not, in freight charges, etc., etc. In the end, the totals were so close as to make no great difference. Actually, Sanderson's was the less expensive.

But Sanderson's Fabrics have annoyed me with their inability to send samples despite repeated phone calls, while you can practically set your watch by Wallpaper Direct's sample posting service.

So the order is now in. Before the utter ruin of all things, before I am overwhelmed by the scope of what I'm trying to accomplish in this house, it will be decked with William Morris wallpaper.