WONDER WALLS: Animal Menagerie

NAME: Inke Heiland

LIVES: Leiden, the Netherlands

INSPIRATIONS: Designers Hella Jongerius and Richard Hutton. Her kids Rune and Rifka, and “places and situations that aren’t perfect, are fragile or in a half-built state. Perfect harmony bores me.”

DUTCH DESIGNER Inke Heiland’s cut out wallpaper animals are so simple, they’re genius. Her silhouettes of lions, giraffes, elephants and monkeys (about £45 each) are slickly hand-cut from crazy limited edition vintage 60s and 70s papers, and mailed around the world in poster tubes accompanied by a DIY glueing kit and instructions.

Inke started out with a giraffe and crocodile designs on her 6-year-old son Rune’s walls back in 2004 “because we needed something to make them more playful.” So admired were the designs, she took the line to a design and accessories fair, launched the business shortly after, and has since added wallpaper furniture – so you can add lamps and chairs to a room without interfering with the space – a range of cute birds (each 2-bird pack [approximately £12.95] which allows her to use smaller pieces of vintage paper, and lets you play around with the arrangement) a palm tree, and an owl to her web shop and stockists around the world.

All Inke’s designs are tried and tested at home, and she has since branched out into 3D design. Her recycled wooden birdhouse lamp, about €150, was created: “with the idea that you create a nice spot under one of our trees to read goodnight stories. I checked with my kids first to see if they liked it, and if it worked like I thought it should. I guess I work best when I have a very clear assignment!”

*Find the full wallpaper range in the UK at www.supernice.co.uk or buy direct from Inke at www.inke.nl