“To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.” August Rodin

I was once again reminded of how much the topic of design is percolating in my brain at all times while on a hike with my husband. We were visiting the Oregon coast and stopped in the coastal town of Cannon Beach, most notably famous for being the setting of the movie, Goonies. There was a 3 mile hike that was through a densely filled forest with lots vegetation and honestly everywhere I looked, all I could think about was wallpaper…

Where do designers get their inspiration? If you ask, a very common answer is “nature”. And it couldn’t be more true. If you open your eyes to the colors of the nature around you, there can be tremendous inspiration for color palettes, textures and shapes. I saw a bundle of white birches with low lying green plantings and pinecones and thought; there is a color palatte, shades of grey, white, browns and pops of green! A lot of product design can thank nature too and that is where the wallpaper comes in..

My first sighting was of ferns. They were the ground cover for most of the 3 miles, obviously loving their lush partially sunny environment.

This gorgeous Farrow and Ball wallpaper immediately came to mind! Available in a myriad of colors, this is a fern shape stylized. I have yet to use it in an interior but a dying too.

Another low lying lover..

Interior designer, Katie Ridder, has a lovely line of wallcoverings that is reminiscent.

On our way back down the mountain, we came into a forest that might as well have been the inspiration for this wallcovering below..

There was a whole bed of these pretty flowering species.

The yellow background of this wallcovering gives the flowery imagery a different feel.

My advice?

If you have a vacant room with white empty walls staring back at you, you might easily raise the question, where do I start!!? Take a walk! Keep your eyes open to the colors and textures and I bet you will come back with design engines firing..

all wallcoverings shown available for purchase through Lovejoy Designs.