Recent mentions here and here of covering furniture in paper made me sit up and take note of this desk from designer David Whitcomb’s townhouse in The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration. Whitcomb used a small pattern to jazz up the simple Parsons-esque lines.

Which reminded me of Courtney’s reference to Nick Olsen’s Ikea coffee table photographed by Paul Costello for domino. Nick’s tips for such a project? “The pros use wallpaper paste but I slopped on rubber cement! I like it because you can reposition more easily and it’s not water-based so thin paper (like the marbleized stuff I used) doesn’t warp or wrinkle.”

More handy tips and design musings from Nick here and here. Because one blog is never enough.

The Whitcomb image by Daniel Eifert.

Faux painting took a bad turn somewhere in the 80’s (90’s?) and the baby got pitched with the swirl of marbleized bath water.

But the Miles Redd designed faux ivory and horn bedroom, above, is a striking reminder that in good hands faux can be fabulous.

There are wonderful examples from back in the day of course. The Manhattan apartment of Kansas City native and decorative painter Richard Neas featured a floor of “large squares simulating the striation of cut agate.” Neas painted the treillage at the ceiling as well.