Consider wallpaper borders to 'frame' your good looking interiors – the results may just surprise, explains Rashmi Tiwari

For every Thaneite wanting to provide a personal touch that makes your home’s interiors stand out, one option is to come up with something that’s truly ‘offbeat’. Ensuring your home or office décor gets ‘decorating distinction’ results is all about details -- little finishing touches and unusual twists, which can make the interior unique.

For Thaneites who wish to place their ‘personal mark of creativity’ in their home or office interiors, one option is to try an option that many professional interior designers suggest, and it’s rather simple - head for the border.

No, not the country’s borders, but wallpaper borders. Among the most versatile of decorating tools, these are affordable, easy to install and maintain. Think about it - nearly any wall will take on a more finished look with the addition of a border. But to get interior décor that achieves real distinction, think beyond merely adding a border along the top of the wall. For some great ‘do it yourself’ new ideas that are ‘just right’, look up - and then, look down.

Consider placing a decorative border on the ceiling itself, and then connecting it to the walls. It isn’t for nothing that decorators refer to the ceiling as ‘the fifth wall’ - it ends up being another canvas on which they apply their art. So can you! Surround the room with the ‘wallpaper border’ at the ceiling, in a continuous, unobstructed style, and voila! You’ve created a ‘tray’ effect that visually holds the room together. Nowhere is this technique more useful than in the kitchen.

Kitchens typically contain permanent appliances and cabinets that separate wall space. By installing a print border across the walls that have appliances and then linking it to the ceiling, the overall space looks unified, while also giving the room greater depth and height. This border can also provide a visual transition between the kitchen and the living room beyond it.

If a single border looks chic, consider double bordering - It will more than double your creativity. By combining two different borders, you can create a truly ‘customised’ border for the living room. You can have a three-inch border, placed along the outside perimeter of the ceiling, as the ‘anchor’, while the second border could be a repeat of the theme of the wallpaper pattern.

To see how the double custom border will look, combine the two patterns on a table, position them exactly the way you want them to overlap and join. Step back a few feet and see how the overall effect turns out. Like what you see? Then go ahead!

It makes sense to first install the straight border and then overlap it with the sculptured design. This idea works equally well along the bottom of walls, at chair rail height, or wherever else you want to surprise the eye with something special.

It makes sense to first install the straight border and then overlap it with the sculptured design. This idea works equally well along the bottom of walls, at chair rail height, or wherever else you want to surprise the eye with something special.

Author is an Interior Designer with over two decades of work experience, is pursuing her PhD in Sthaaptya Ved and is Chairperson of IIID Thane