If these walls could talk …

Inspiration can come from the smallest of spaces. Like a tiny powder room, for example. When we renovated our home last year, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to use a book-lined wallpaper for our powder room. I mean, you just can’t have enough books in your life, can you?

It took me a little while to find the perfect paper – as you can see above.

So when I do a quick cleaning check before visitors come – I do live with two sons! – I take inspiration from these walls. As the cliche goes – if only these walls could talk …

Well, my walls talk to me! Perhaps her name is Julienne and she’s a French seamstress, living in a rooftop garret in Paris. She spends her days working for a draconian, overweight, overbearing man from Marseille – mending and repairing clothes for the Parisian elite. But she really wants to create fantasy clothing for the stage, like the wings she fashioned for herself, only to be worn in the privacy of her garrett.

Maybe one day Monsieur Dupont tears his woollen jacket during his daily promenade around the Jardin du Luxembourg. He remembers the little repair shop close to La Tour Effiel and drops off his jacket, utterly charmed by the come-hither eyes of Julienne. She repairs his jacket so beautifully – Monsieur Dupont has never seen stitches so perfectly spaced, so tiny that he strains his eyes to see them. He is so impressed by her craft that he promises to take her to his theatre’s performance that evening.

But no, the draconian shop-owner, Monsieur Lefevre, overhears their plans and declares that a theatre visit is not possible – Julienne must work late. There are gloves to be mended, pearl buttons to be sewn to hair pieces and evening dresses to be let out or taken in, as the case might be.

‘Desolee, monsieur, c’est impossible!’ Monsieur Lefevre declares.

….

I leave you in the middle of Juliette’s despair. Any idea what might happen next? I think there needs to be a ticking clock somewhere to create a sense of urgency and definitely some flowers and music in the conclusion.