How Do You Transform a Family Room? Floral Ceiling Wallpaper.

Boston Home

Designer Whitney Talsma transformed a pine-colored Southborough room with overhead flowers and chartreuse drapes.

Vintage animal figurines are displayed with books and other collectibles in the built-in bookshelves. / Photo by Joyelle West

Statement patterns tend to spark Whitney Talsma’s design schemes. For this family room in Southborough, the catalyst was the floral wallcovering from Milton & King. Talsma opted to paper the ceiling of the room, which serves as the main hangout space for a young family of five. Stylized, rounded blooms in dusky burgundy and blush spread across the top of the room and cascade down behind the custom, built-in bookshelves. “We used a floral paper with similar tones on the walls in the kitchen,” the designer says. “The paper here is on a different plane, so it wouldn’t compete.”

Pulling from the wallpaper ground, Talsma drenched the room in dusky green paint—Benjamin Moore’s “Palm Trees”—that, despite its name, lends the feel of a pine forest. “Painting the walls and millwork the same saturated color creates an enveloping, vibey mood,” Talsma says.

The family’s existing sapphire suede sectional also influenced the color choices. The large piece acts as a grounding neutral and rounds out the palette of jewel tones. Talsma pulls the color to the floor in the Persian-style rug, which boasts rosy hues that echo those of the blooms overhead. The blues and terra-cotta tones repeat on artisan-made, floral Ikat throw pillows as well as the fireplace surround that Talsma reimagined with Moroccan-inspired tile. The tiles provide a graphic pop, too. “The small scale is a fun contrast to the larger-scale florals,” she says.

The real tension in the room comes from the window treatments—slouchy Roman shades on either side of the fireplace and lush, floor-length drapes framing the sliders. The textural velvet fabric and ribbed velvet trim infuse a formality to the otherwise approachable room. The color, however—a chartreuse just this side of acidic—is practically unsettling. Talsma admits to losing sleep over the decision. “I was nervous because it’s definitely the more daring of my designs,” she says. “The client had no hesitations, she’s a maximalist loud and proud.”

Builder Oteri Construction
Interior Designer Oliver James Interiors
Photography Stylist Rhea J. Styling

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