Thanks for your advice Annie. I've two young children who aren't particularly rough around he house at all- I've always had a pale hallway but painted. So always been easy to touch up if needed. This is my first venture into wallpaper there. I thought I was good to go but don't want to make a mistake on the paper.

With two young children it does sound wiser to find a durable, washable vinyl wallpaper. Hopefully you'll find something similar you will love.

I'm surprised he's calling the Farrow and Ball poor quality. Maybe he means that it's not really wipe-able, and not great for a hallway in some applications.

Look at Thibaut. You may not find the pattern you are currently looking for but they have a lot of papers in similar colorways and they are wipe-able/washable.

http://www.thibautdesign.com/catalog/product/advanced-search-list/page/1

Osborne & Little has a large selection of wipe-able wallpapers.

Lucky you, I've never met a designer who deemed anything "overpriced".

Even without wee ones, wallpaper in hall areas probably should be sturdier and wipeable.

Thanks everyone, I'll look into all the recommended sites. Laura Ashley paper claims to be wipeable so I was wondering if anyone had experience of it before I start from scratch?

See if you can get a sample to test.

Mtn, not a single one?

Josette: technically an arabesque pattern not a damask. Not to be picky but it could possibly help with search. (Grey I know)

Farrow and Ball St. Antoine:

Thibaut St Germain reverse and not really duck egg but maybe ok.

Pal, Well, except for you! And, in fairness to the other designers with whom I have worked, I am pretty open to a splurge and don't start a project with a budget. So they may not have had "value" top-of-mind.

I do think the designer in this case deserves kudos for keeping an eye on value for their client, because we often hear of the reverse, customers being shown things that they think are "overpriced", whatever that might mean.

Kudos to the designer for actually thinking about the durability of a product and how the customer/family actually lives in the house. The designers I used must be the west coast relatives of the ones that Mtn used!!

I'm papering my new home. The Living room, mud room, powder and my master suite. I'm using the brand Albany from Wallpaper direct and none of my selections are vinyl, although I do think they make some. I'm no wallpaper expert, but wasn't wallpaper used forever before vinyl came out? I have two young kids and I think it will be okay, at least I hope so.

Does sharpie wipe off of vinyl? In the early 60s, Dad brought home a box of the brand-new Sanford markers. The 3-year-old took one to the wall, leaving a long wavy line down the hallway, into the master, down one side of the bedspread and up the other. We didn't have markers in the house again until 1972.

My own 3-year-old took just ballpoint pen to the wall, so it was easy to paint over.

All that said, wallpaper stands up well to everyday scuffs and bumps especially in a hall. Our hardworking laundry room has wallpaper (not vinyl) and it has held up beautifully.

These mishaps are the reason why you order a couple if extra rolls of wallpaper. An expert hanger can make a repair you cannot see. Ask me how i know this :-)

We have had wallpapers in front halls, back halls, baths, laundry rooms and kitchens and of them all only one was vinyl. I prefer the look and feel of paper. I didnt realize companies made different types of wallpapers; our current two Thibaut papers and Osborne and Little are not vinyl.

The Thibaut is paper that is vinyl coated, generally.

Well, none of ours is. In one of the rooms the paper was so thin each cut practically had to be made with a new blade. And the white paper edges had to be colored before the paper went up. You can wipe it, but not with cleaner of any kind on the cloth, just damp with water.

I have had wallpaper in practically every room in my house until about 8 years ago when I did a whole house "face-lift". I will not bore you with the horror stories of removal. Let's just say some rooms got covered with new 1/4" sheetrock.

None of my paper was expensive, but most of it was "vinyl coated". Some of it was $10 a roll outlet store paper. It was all WASHABLE. I remember occasionally spraying the kitchen walls with Fantastik or 409 of equivalent type household cleaners - did not harm the paper at all. I even had it for a backsplash behind the kitchen range.

I still have 12-13 year old wallpaper in one bathroom (waiting for a total gut job) in a few months. It doesn't even look bad behind the double vanity from years of water splashes and hairspray :). What I meant to say was - it doesn't look worn - it does look "bad" in that it is SO dated (very country).

I also still have a "cutesy" blue and yellow Waverly plaid wallpaper in my laundry/mud room on the bottom half with a coordinating floral border that has been up for about 10 years. That room is a TRUE mudroom with all of DH's work boots, hunting gear, etc coming through that room over the years. It has worn well.....considering. http://www.archiexpo.com/prod/waverly-div-schumacher-co/plaid-wallpapers-5211-475982.html

Moral of my story - wallpaper has performed well for me over the years. I still get a "hankering" for wallpaper occasionally now that I can afford some of the nicer stuff - would LOVE to have some Thibaut. But 8 years ago, while cursing, ranting, raving, and shedding a few tears upon removal, I made a vow to myself to never hang another piece of wallpaper.

Sharpies are a controlled substance in our house

When our kids lived at home we didnt even have sharpies in the house! None of them ever wrote or painted on the walls, either--- just lucky, i guess. (Thank god)

Sharpies are also a controlled substance at our house--great line. My ds never once drew on a wall. Dd on the other has done it repeatedly and at age five I'm still not sure she won't do it again. Sigh.

I'm still not sure she won't do it again...

Come on! It's just a lovely, mostly uninterrupted space crying out for embellishment and creativity. Who can blame her? Maybe if you bought her a really LARGE canvas she wouldn't be tempted by the walls?

I am childless so I didn't know to hide the sharpies but luckily my wiser sister/his mother moved them before my nephew started to create. I can trust him now and even buy him his own sharpies. (Best auntie ever.)

Did I miss this? Shouldn't her designer be suggesting brands to look at, in addition to steering her clear of ones to avoid?

I was just in wallpaper heaven last week ... the large Philip Jeffries display at the Holly Hunt showroom in LA. I'm 98% sure I will use one of their fabric/woven papers, but they also had a large selection of vinyl done to look like grasscloth, etc. What they call their contract line for more commercial/durable applications. They look very good from a few feet away, but it does lose the feel/touch of the "natural" versions.

When the kids were little, writing tools were also in lockdown at our house and allowed out only for supervised visits with the kids!!