How posh is your wallpaper?

W hen the designer Russell Sage was reinvigorating the decor of Glenmorangie House Hotel a couple of years ago, his thoughts turned to hand-painted wallpaper. The six bedrooms, three cottages and common areas of the hotel on the coastal estate near Tain, 35 miles north of Inverness, were transformed into an eclectic, whimsical wonderland that pays homage to the eponymous whisky distillery to which the hotel is attached. For the Morning Room, the centrepiece of the hotel, Sage opted for bespoke Fromental wallpaper, with plants and insects hand painted on to gold leaf, evoking barley, the grain from which whisky is made.

As Fromental ’s co-founder Tim Butcher explained, “A stunning piece of furniture can enhance a setting, whereas the wallpaper is the setting. A space feels the way it does because of what’s on its walls.”.