A belated THANK YOU to everyone who commented. This is the final result. We're super happy with it. Room A north facing "through-lounge" in a new build, 3 bed semi detached house Paint Walls: Purbeck Stone, Farrow & Ball Ceiling: Strong White, Farrow & Ball By the way, the room isn't as long and skinny as it looks in the photos. Painting it all one colour actually made it feel much, much larger. We were really impressed with the quality of advice the F&B staff gave us in regards to colour. We loved Purbeck Stone from the minute we saw it, and being brave really paid off.

The funny thing is that nothing dates faster than the latest trends! Whether it's the recent vogue for Pistachio green, Orange, or neutral greys or taupe colours or trendy wallpapers, such as the ubiqitous 'Woods'. Paint is the safest and easiest option for those without confidence or design knowledge. Paint does bring out the architectural quality and details (that why until recently architects have rejected them on the whole). But I really disagree with those that say paint lasts longer than papers. Of course it depends on if it's used in high traffic areas but wallpapers in some houses have lasted well over a century! A choice of wallpaper show a certain statement of confidence and with current Site specific, carefully designed Digital papers or Artisan designed, hand crafted or printed wallpaper you are installing a work of art to be enjoyed for a considerable time.

I don't think it's going to be as hard as you think. I would imagine the top layer is going to peel off relatively easily. Then work on one wall at a time..............score the backing paper ( you can use a paint scraper ), fully soak the wall all over ( using a big car sponge - and i mean soak it ), then go back to the beginning and re-soak an area of around 6-8 feet at a time. Scrape the paper in an upwards but slightly sideways direction, It should hopefully come off ok. Steamers are a waste of time! The old fashioned way, worked well enough for decades! Good luck x

Hi Gerty, I would definitely recommend a neutral textured wallpaper if you didn't want to just paint the walls either side. Harlequin do some really nice ones that would work against the busy fireplace. Or you could use on another wall and paint either side of the fireplace, hard to say for sure without seeing the whole room. This has a slight plaster affect which slightly emulates the pattern in the fireplace... This one is a metallic texture which could look really nice... This shows how the textured wallpaper will look but I would stick to a neutral colour...