I approached Bovey castle a luxury hotel which offers a young children’s activities centre. I spoke with some of the play workers there to gain an understanding of some of the possible design drawbacks. They outlined potential problems associated with my design such as my chosen wallpaper surface, as children’s dirty fingerprints would be hard to wipe clean. Therefore there was a need to find an eco surface finish that could be added after the design was printed. I spoke to several experienced painter decorators and they suggested a PVA coating mixed with water, which will be sprayed onto the paper when it is hug. The castle staff also expressed concern about the magnetic paint being a health and safety issue as small pieces could flake off the paper and could be dangerous if inhaled by a child. This in itself made using Magnetico within my wallpaper a contradiction from my original design concept, and using felt a much more durable solution. The felt pieces where cut into butterflys, bees, birds and other small animals aswell as a series of bunting which is ready to be decorated and displayed on the washing line with velcro backing, the felt was cut by hand and via a card cutting machine, rather than a laser cutter as this process uses considerably higher energy consumption.

I was offered the opportunity to decorate the play centre with my wallpaper once the design was completed, which was a fantastic opportunity. Once it was ready to be installed I spoke to the Hotel management who have given me the go ahead, unfortunately the wallpaper has not been properly installed yet, as the chosen feature wall is in the process of being plastered before the wallpaper can be hung. The photos taken are of the wallpaper in the desired location but are not yet pasted too the wall.

 I am very pleased with the final product and I feel it is a creative alternative to conventional wallpaper, offering young children not only a means of play and creative input, but it is also environmentally conscious and I feel the paper itself encourages environmental consciousness through its design and making.