A brown leather couch leaned against the right wall, in front of it a low-leveled wooden table with little piles of paper. Suspended from the windows long draperies with dark patterns reaching down to the floor. On the left side shelves let into the wall equipped with books. In between a fireplace – bordered by wood, encircled by red tiles – in which a fire is flickering along. The old wooden floor is covered by a carpet kept in a red-grey floral design. Armchairs, small cabinets and tables are scattered in the rest of the room serving as storage shelves for all kinds of objects. A quite common living and working space ...
A quite common living and working space? And after all: whose living and working space? We are in London, 221B Baker Street, in 2010. The room is the centre of Sherlock‘s life. Sherlock Holmes. THE Sherlock Holmes. Not in the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but in the first episode of the successful BBC series „Sherlock“. In this room he takes a rest, he ponders, he reflects, and he combines the facts. Here he drinks tea and consults with his assistant Dr. Watson. It is moderately furnished, not pretentious at all, yet exceptional somehow ...
So what stands out? Two things: the abscence of a TV-set and the walls. Well, someone like Sherlock Holmes doesn‘t really need any kind of entertainment, that is being provided by everyday life. Having his life turned into his job seems exciting enough.
And the wall design? How can it transfer a room‘s, a film figure‘s or a character‘s psyche subconsciously to the viewer? Nothing else except the dark brown patterned wallpaper with big floral and baroque ornaments on a light-coloured background gives the room a distinctive yet unobtrusive elegance – a contemporary design with historic references. Organically shaped leaves and blossoms, single-coloured and very basic, climb up the wall. They simoultanously appear as a positive and a negative. Just like Sherlock: committed scout and narcissistic egocentric.
In the film the room often appears in evening and night scenes illuminated in dimmed light spreading calmness and cosiness. Furthermore, the many wooden furnitures and dark objects barely reflect natural light which makes it look pretty dark, even during daytime. The wallpaper fits in the ensemble of all other room elements: it is not intrusive but it attracts attention. Inconspicuousness as a matter of course. But: another wallpaper tells another story, puts one into another time and another mood. This one‘s right up Sherlock‘s alley.
Text: szim
