I Spy...

...a great way to hide flaws in your walls. 

A Vancouver couple, potter Janaki Larsen and her partner, Pascal Roy, recently opened Le Marche St. George, an organic general store in an historic building. As older buildings go, renovations were needed.

Using a textured or embossed wallpaper hides the flaws and cracks that may be very time consuming to repair for a painted finish. While the British Lincrusta and Anaglypta wallcoverings have been around for a long while, today's textured wallcoverings are also lighter and easier to apply. 

Janaki Larsen and her sister, Klee, applied the Debbie Travis paintable wallpaper and then had fun "aging" it with plaster and house paint.

I love how it turned out- taking a flaw and turning it into an asset! 

Besides painting and adding additional interest with plaster or textures, other finishes for textured wallpaper can include an interesting metallic finish, created by applying foil and glazing it to seal, or creating a verdigris patina on a copper or bronze paint.

What have you done to hide those challenging walls?

[via here and here]