Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach sits on Tri Trang Beach, a small cove just south of Patong on Phuket's west coast. The guest rooms are timber, grey upholstery and a little teal, with balconies open to the pools and the Andaman Sea. The brief for the walls was to give each room a Thai signature without competing with that view.

A Thai wave, printed to the panel

Above the headboards, framed by timber on either side, is a Thai wave drawn in fine grey line, its crests ending in flame-like tips. From across the room it reads as texture. Close to, it is clearly Thai ornament. It is custom printed wallpaper in the literal sense. The artwork was scaled to the size of the panel and printed for it, so the wave begins and ends inside its frame and is never cut off at a joint or a ceiling line.

The twin rooms show why that matters. There, the wave runs across two headboard panels with a timber pilaster between them, and picks up on the far side where it left off. That only works when the print is planned to the wall rather than taken from a standard roll.

Why the print is on fabric-backed wallpaper

A resort guest room is cleaned every day, has luggage pushed against its walls, and lives in sea air with the air conditioning running. Fabric-backed vinyl is the commercial wallcovering made for that kind of use. The vinyl face can be wiped clean. The fabric backing gives the sheet its tear strength, so a knock from a suitcase is far less likely to start a tear.

Printing the wave on the same family of material as the walls around it means the whole room behaves as one surface. Housekeeping cleans the feature panel and the plain wall the same way, and both wear the same way.

Plain walls that let the wave speak

The walls around the headboard are pale fabric-backed wallpaper, chosen to stay quiet next to the timber and the light from the sea. The wave is the only pattern in the room, which is why it registers.

The wallcoverings were supplied and installed through our family's project team. If you are specifying a hotel, restaurant or office, our hotel and commercial projects page shows how a project runs with us, and the trade page lists the fabric-backed grades and the certificates we supply with a quote. For artwork printed to your own walls, see custom printed wallpaper.