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.

Agree with above comments. If you did use a heavy duty lining paper it would need to be applied horizontally but even then you may get problems of the texture showing through, unevenness at the joins where it won’t adhere because of the texture, bubbles or lifting because of the extra layers, and it might make it difficult to remove later on because of the extra adhesive and paint. I would either paint with a trade Matt paint so the texture is not so obvious or strip and re do.

thank you so much for your advice! so the structure is pretty much unchanged so it's not a new wall that was erected in between rooms. Walls are original, solid but when a hole is drilled in them, they do have this crumbly stuff that comes out...am I making ANY sense?! 😂🙃 He's basing his opinion on the flats that he's renovated and that he also bought and renovated his own flat on the same road as mine. I don't know if he was putting me off extra work to help me save money OR he didn't want to take on more work. I've had a few carpenters flake on me so I'm not sure which of these two it is- will see if I do get a quote from him or not 🤷🏻‍♀️ yes for the bedroom, papering on top and painting below the beading. The wallpaper I want alone is likely to cost £1000 so I would die if I buy it and then can't use it...😬

You have a really dramatic rug, and also the panels set into the fire surround. I think yet another bold pattern for alcove walls would be a bit overpowering - whichever one you went for. I also feel the right hand sofa colour doesn't go with anything, but is a large presence in the room. There would be more coherence if they were both this green colour (or lighter plain) I think I might forget wallpaper for the time ebing, and go for just painted pink walls in the niches alone, to tie in with the rug. You might also consider re-covering the sofa(s) in a plain fabric to match more closely with the pale stone background colour of the rug. If you ever decide to change the rug in future, you could opt for a plain one, and pick a more vibrant wallpaper for the alcoves.