Most walls in Arambol are a poor place for wallpaper, and it is better to say so. The village stands open to the sea, the air is very humid, and rooms are locked up through the monsoon with no one to air them; a papered wall in a closed, damp room peels at the seams and spots with mould. Seasonal huts should never be papered at all. Where a guest house wants one decorated wall, choose a sound inner wall that stays dry all year, prime it against fungus, and use a tough plain vinyl behind the bed. Anywhere damp shows, PVC wall panels will outlast paper and wipe clean of salt and sand.
- Mid-range guest rooms: hard-wearing vinyl on the dry inner wall behind the bed, with a spare roll stored for patching.
- Sea-facing and outer walls: PVC wall panels or paint, since salt and damp push wallpaper off these walls.
- Cafes and workshop rooms: a wipeable vinyl feature wall only where the building is closed-in and dry all year.
Arambol is the northernmost of the well-known Goa beaches, in Pernem. It is a long beach with a fishing village behind it, a freshwater lake beyond the northern headland, and a busy traveller scene of guest houses, cafes and workshops.
Accommodation is mainly budget and mid-range: guest houses, rooms in family homes and seasonal huts. Owners need low-cost, hard-wearing furnishing in quantity.
The beach is open to the sea and very humid. The monsoon shuts most of the village down, and salt and sand wear everything quickly.
Sea-facing homes
Sea-facing walls take in salt and moisture, and paper lifts at the seams if the wall is not sealed. Use vinyl-coated wallpaper on an anti-fungal primer, and keep it to inner walls or walls that do not face the weather. Check for salt bloom on the plaster first.
Holiday lets and guest houses
For a let property, choose a hard-wearing vinyl in a design that will not date, and use it where luggage and furniture will not scrape it: behind the bed, not in the corridor. A spare roll kept back makes later repairs possible.
Visiting Arambol
Arambol is about a hundred minutes from the showroom, the furthest we travel in North Goa. We measure free of charge, on a day planned for Pernem.
