Above and below, wallpaper brings Brutalism inside. (muralswallpaper.co.uk)

“Brutalist wallpaper brings the concrete dream to any room“!

Ah, that concrete dream! I must really hand it to Kristen Richards, founder and editor of the indispensable ArchNewsNow.com. She sent me the link. “You’ll love this – not!” she writes, capturing my feelings precisely. Yes, I love this – because I’m an ornery bastard who loves wallowing in the sheer folly of the idea that anyone but a masochist would want to surround themselves with Brutalist architecture – at home!

Don’t you just love that tilt? At least it is tilting away from you. Imagine walking every day into your living room with this “concrete dream” about the collapse on your head! Where to hang art, and what kind, offers a dizzying conundrum. To dodge the choice by hanging no art at all might be the easiest way out.

Brutalism “nearly always uses concrete exposed at its roughest,” goes its entry in the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, “with an overemphasis on big chunky members that collide ruthlessly.” The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture states: “[Kahn and Stirling] loathed the term (unsurprisingly) as it put clients off, especially … where oversized rough concrete elements, crudely colliding with each other, were visible. …”

Which suggests that the Brutalism offered by Murals Wallpapers’ Concrete Effects Line is not exactly “heroic Brutalism,” as the style has attempted to rebrand itself. Perhaps a lame, tame Brutalism that could read as a wallpaper pattern may be for the best, interior decor-wise.

But if you don’t already live in a Brutalist building, or have one lurking in the view from your window, don’t despair. Bring it inside! I’m sure that’s what the folks at the website FuckYeahBrutalism.com would say. “Ahh!” I can hear them chanting “Hate myself! Hate people! Hate myself! Hate people!”