Why You Should Use Wallpaper in Your Interior Design: Hacks & Tips
I'm going to show you amazing wallpaper designs that will turn your thinking upside down about using wallpaper in your home. I’m also sharing wallpaper hacks and secrets with you and how to use them in your designs. You will be surprised at how far the wallpaper design industry has come!
First of all, don't be afraid of wallpaper. Wallpaper design is a great way to add personality and character to your space. I always hear that wallpaper is out of date but that is just not true. See for yourself.
Table of contents
Look at all these wallpapers. Gorgeous, simple, abstract, bold, florals–they are all so fun and I'm going to show you more. Let’s get to my tips.
Tip 1: Use wallpaper with design intention
When choosing wallpaper, know what your design intention is for. Are you going for funky, Mid-century, classic, retro, sophisticated, or refined? Know the style that you're looking for and the room that you're going to do that in.
Modern wallpaper
It’s important to realize that wallpaper is not limited to your powder bathroom. Wallpaper can go anywhere in any room in your house. I love using wallpaper in a bedroom, a living room, or a dining room. It can literally go anywhere. Look at this black-and-white abstract pattern. It’s absolutely stunning, artistic, and a very modern wallpaper.
Stripes
If you're kind of afraid of wallpaper patterns and you want to do something super timeless, stripes are always a great way to go. They will never go out of date and they add height to a room. If you have a room that's kind of short and the ceiling is low, a vertical stripe helps elongate the space.
Checkers
Checkers are super fun right now and very timeless.
Big and bold florals
If you want something bold and big in personality, do a bold floral design.They can be modern like the one above in black and white.
Powder rooms
If you want to experiment with wallpaper, use it in the powder room. This is a perfect place to show your personality. Here, you don't need to worry about scale, size, or color. Just go crazy.
Ceiling
These ceilings are so much fun.
Matching fabric and wallpaper
There are many companies that produce coordinating fabrics and wallpapers.
Tip 2: Scale
Decide on the scale of the wallpaper and your space. You want to be sure the scale is correct. The larger the room, the larger the scale of the wallpaper pattern. Just do not put a small scale wallpaper in a large room. It will hurt your eyes and look too busy.
This is an example of the wrong-scale wallpaper in a larger room. The wallpaper is really pretty, but your eyes do not know where to look because the scale is not quite right.
Tip 3: More about wallpaper on the ceiling
Can you put wallpaper on the ceiling? I get this question a lot. I don't recommend it most of the time. Most wallpapers are not meant to go from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane to another vertical plane. It's too much chaos for the eyes and the pattern will never match up.
You can add just wallpaper on the ceiling and add crown molding. Then paint the walls and don’t cover them with wallpaper. If you do wallpaper on the walls, do not wallpaper the ceiling.
Tip 4: Matching wallpaper and paint colors
I actually love matching a paint color to the wallpaper itself and then using that paint color on the ceiling. This bedroom is a good example.I would take a sample of the wallpaper to my local paint dealer and have them scan the sample for the right color of paint. Do not try to match the paint color to the wallpaper with your naked eye.
Wallpaper between beams
If I'm doing a dark wallpaper, I like to go darker on the ceiling paint color to frame the room and tie it all together. This room has a sophisticated and interesting look in the way they used the wallpaper between the beams.
Tip 5: Add texture
So if you are excited about using wallpaper but you're a little bit scared and you're not sure and you know you want texture on the walls, I have two ideas for you. Try a grasscloth. Grasscloth wallpaper offers just the right amount of soft, peaceful texture.
There’s also paintable wallpaper that has a pattern that you paint. If you are doing this in the living room or dining room, choose a lacquered paint color for a glossy finished wall.
Tip 6: Use wallpaper for an accent wall
If you don't want to go wallpaper through the whole room, wallpaper one wall as an accent wall. Cap it with trim to finish it off or to frame it.
My favorite wallpaper companies
Wallpaper in interior design
I hope you learned a lot about how to use wallpaper. But I really hope you can see how modern and sophisticated wallpaper in interior design can be thanks to new and amazing prints, patterns, and colors.
Please let me know what you think about wallpaper in the comments. Where have you used wallpaper in your home? Do you love it or hate it?
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