Timorous Beasties

Design studio, Timorous Beasties, was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met studying textile design at Glasgow School of Art and is noted for surreal and provocative wallpapers. By depicting uncompromisingly contemporary images on traditional and wallpapers, Timorous Beasties has defined an iconoclastic style of design. However, Alistair and Paul see themselves as part of a print tradition. They say: "A lot of our work features images that can look traditional. This comes from a love of certain traditional elements, like academic drawing, use of complicated repeats, and the hand-printed quality of inks."

Designs cover a whole range of subjects, depicting, among others, clouds, pheasants, thistle, birds and bees, London scenes, butterflies, oriental, Napoleonic, plus blotches and stripes. All are gorgeously designed, with eye-catching vivid colours, and all the work is carried out at the Glasgow Studios, where many of their wallpapers are hand-printed. Timorous Beasties wallpaper is expensive – but if your budget will stretch to it you can be assured that the effect is quite stunning.