We were lucky to catch up with Elizabeth Ford recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

At Covered Wallpaper we sort of buck the old industry standard of wallcoverings being a “to the trade” only product. Meaning that designer wallpapers would need to be purchased through an interior designer or architect. When Covered Wallpaper opened in 2012 one of the main goals was to make wallpaper more accessible and easier to purchase for the average consumer. That is not to say that we do not work with and appreciate interior designers because we absolutely do. We find that working with interior designers often leads to a more well thought out and cohesive feel in a space, but we also know that there are people out there that may not be looking to redesign an entire room. They may be looking for a smaller room refresh, and nothing does that quite like wallpaper.

Butler’s Pantry: Anna Applegate Interiors

The Botanical Collection with Meredith Mejerle – artist collaboration

Linda Nichols Photography

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

What is Covered Wallpaper?

Covered Wallpaper is a highly curated online wallpaper shop. Covered sells boutique, artisan, and international designer wallpapers, as well as focusing on collaborating with artists to develop their work into wallpaper collections. When collaborating with artists we look for fresh ideas and timeless designs. What we like to call fresh classics.

How did I get into the industry?:

I joined Covered Wallpaper in 2015. Carrie Daily + Ashley Allen, had founded had Covered Wallpaper a few years prior as a Showroom in Denver, but always had the goal to bring the business online. We spent the next year building the website and running the showroom. Eventually, we closed the showroom, Ashley + Carrie both decided to focus on other aspects of their careers, and we took the business solely online. Little did we know this was quite the foresight, and positioned us quite well when Covid hit. This was a time of growth for us, as people were stuck at home an focused on beautifying their surroundings.

As the business owner what is your role at Covered Wallpaper?

We are a small business and as many business owners know that means I wear many hats. My title is Curator and Creative Director. I source and select all the wallpapers on our website, and am responsible for strategic vision of Covered Wallpaper. That being said, I am usually the the one responding to customers, I fill each order that comes through the website, sometimes I’m a photographer, bookkeeper, social media marker, etc. You have to be organized and even scrappy sometimes, and get your hands dirty. I am a worker bee, organized, and have an eye for design.

What are you most proud of?

We are very proud of our work with artists. We have grown so much creatively and love collaborating with the artist community. We enjoy promoting their work, giving artists new revenue streams, and bringing art to our design clients in a new way.

The best part is that Ashley is back! Ashley is doing a lot of the graphic design work, taking the art and making it into repeat patterns for wallpaper.

Black Orchid//grasscloth samples: Mitchell Fine Art wallpaper collaboration

Bathroom: Robert Peterson – photographer Meghan Basigner – Stevie Interiors

Dining room: Elizabeth Jones – Photographer Aliesha Porto – Stevie Interiors

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Ashley, one of the founders, is back with Covered Wallpaper! Ashley is also my sister-in-law, she is married to my brother, so Covered Wallpaper is a family business! I am still running the day to day of Covered Wallpaper but we partner on the collaborations with artists now. We live in different states, she is still in Colorado and I am in Georgia, but it works. When we are in the middle of a collaboration we talk, zoom, Facetime, almost daily. She always wanted to be on the production side and now here we are. One of the best things about Ashley is that she is a dreamer AND a doer. She can dream up a business and then figure out how to make it happen. It’s fantastic! I love partnering with Ashley, she makes me better.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Originally, Covered Wallpaper was just a reseller of other designer’s wallpapers, but we knew that we always wanted to try our hand at developing our own designs. Initially, we licensed some designs from a designer that had decided to stop producing their designs. Their designs are beautiful and we hated to see them leave the market. It was a great way for us to learn to produce. We licensed 3 designs from them and they introduced us to their printer…. which can be very hard to find, this is a closely held secret by a lot of wallpaper designers, something I wish would change. The designers we licensed from were so gracious to us, and helpful along the way. We still sell the designs that we licensed from them, and are grateful for their guidance.

One thing we have learned is that not all printers are created equal. We continued to use the printer introduced to us by Collier Rose Ink for a while. He had a good quality product, and was less expensive than the others, but the communication was lacking, and at times his machine would breakdown and it would take a while to be fixed. Additionally, we stayed with this printer due to his ability to print on grasscloth. This had become one of the favorite products of our clients, and so far we had not found another printer that was able/willing to print on grasscloth.

Fast forward to a much anticipated 2021 collaboration. We were supposed to launch in mid-January, but they printer wasn’t responding to our calls. We were in the final stage prior to launch and were just waiting for our samples to be printed, but hadn’t heard a thing. Eventually, I got the printer on the phone and was told that the machine was broken again, that he wasn’t going to have it fixed, instead he was going to retire.

Our wallpaper collaboration was launching in 2 weeks… We basically had to start over. I had to find a new printer. I got on the phone and began calling around. I spoke to as many printers as I could find. We ended up with a printer that we had tried out a few times earlier in our manufacturing journey. They worked with us, and were willing to work hard alongside us to help get our collaboration launched asap.

We had to re-establish all our files as their process required. Reprint all the strike-offs, color matched since not all machines are the same, then print samples, so that we could launch our collaboration. We slept little, scrambled lots, and were able to launch. In the end, this delayed the launch about a month, but we are with a great printer that was open to trying new things like printing on grasscloth for us. The moral of the story is… the cheapest route is not always the best route. Talk to a variety of manufactures, and you might be surprised. They may be willing to try something new along with you to get you what you need.

Contact Info:

• Website: coveredwallpaper.com
• Instagram: @coveredwallpaper
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/coveredwallpaper/

Image Credits
Personal Photo: Linda Nichols photography, Bathroom: Robert Peterson – photographer Meghan Basigner – Stevie Interiors, Wallpaper collage: Meredith Mejerle – artist, Dining room: Elizabeth Jones – Photographer Aliesha Porto – Stevie Interiors, Butler’s Pantry: Anna Applegate Interiors, Black Orchid//grasscloth samples: Mitchell Fine Art Linda Nichols Photography