Every season brings its share of home décor trends, but one style coming back for another turn around the sun has a polarizing opinion: Wallpaper.
Love it or hate it, this long-time decorating treatment has come back to the mainstream. You can thank whimsical, on-trend prints to fabric and inventive materials that make the install of wallpaper not only easier, but also removable.
Installing wallpaper used to be a nightmare—all that scraping and steaming. Nowadays, though, new technology has made it incredibly easier with adhesive formulas and even stick-and-peel fabrications that strip walls without that sticky residue.
When it comes to home décor trends, wallpaper brings all that good drama. It can transform a room in a big way, while also feeling very contemporary and new. Unlike the times past, wallpaper doesn’t have to break your bank, mostly because of the way in which we use it now. Whether for a feature wall, or a smaller space, we’re using less of it to make that impact in a room.
When choosing the right wallpaper for your own home, here are a few things to consider:
Style of the room
What is your home style? Is it romantic, casual, contemporary or traditional? Decide that first, then go about choosing a wallpaper that suits. For example, if your look is romantic, go for delicate damasks or florals with lovely pastel colours. Beautiful! If you have a contemporary home, why not consider geometrics, metallic accents or large-scale patterns?
Furniture is important
Also important, the choice of wallpaper should be compatible with your other furniture. You want to maintain a sense of harmony in the whole space, so remember your upholstery, furniture, curtains and other details and how they will marry with your wallpaper of choice.
How You Will Use Wallpaper in the Room
Next, figure out how you plan to use the wallpaper in the room. All styles don’t work in the same way. Here are the various options:
Cover all four walls: A classic, simple stripe design hung horizontally on all four walls gives a fresh contemporary look. Large-scale and simple designs will not overwhelm a room but add a trendy twist. My first choice is grass cloth: It has a very organic feel (it’s made from strands of actual grass woven together!). It gives texture and warmth, and you won’t get tired of it as you may with a patterned paper. My mother used it and I was always drawn to its natural beauty. Interestingly, I’m using it in my Arizona home in the TV room, as well as our master bedroom.
Feature wall: This is the opportunity to be dramatic! Go for a bold pattern here to help highlight an area of a room, like behind your bed, a couch or a powder room. A botanical print would work wonderfully here.
A ceiling: This isn’t for the faint of heart, but wow does it ever yield a result! Whether you want to mimic a Victorian-style tin ceiling look, which has been a big trend in home décor, or you want to add a unique element of surprise in a geometric print—a nice nod to midcentury-modern design—the ceiling is unexpected and a lot of fun.