Adorn Your Walls

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By Katherine Sorrell

Adorn your Walls

Transform bland and boring into bold and beautiful with gorgeous wallpaper

While painted walls are undoubtedly quick, cheap and easy to achieve, there are times when only something more elaborate will properly enhance your home’s interior scheme. Wallpaper is fashionable, fun and creates a fabulously individual effect, whether in a boldly coloured, modern, abstract design or a pretty, chintzy, traditional style.

A World of Choice

There is a huge amount of wallpaper choice out there, including not only conventional, machineprinted designs, but also natural woven fibres, light-reflecting metallics and waterproof vinyls. For something a little out of the ordinary, you could look for hand-finished papers that feature cutwork, stitching or appliqué, interactive papers that you can colour in or add stickers to, traditionally hand-blocked papers (pricey but stunning), threedimensional designs incorporating crystals, beading, sequins or tiny LED lights, digitally printed papers made to your own design and even magnetic wallpapers that work as a noticeboard.

Choosing Pattern and Style

The usual advice is to pick a wallpaper pattern that suits the size of the room. On the other hand, it’s possible to play with scale and create a dramatic effect by using an oversized pattern in a small space. When choosing a small pattern, try standing back and looking at it from a distance – you may find that it blends into one overall colour. Textured wallpapers – such as flock or natural fibres – add a lovely, tactile element, while metallic papers are sophisticated and great for reflecting light, but are best used only where the wall beneath is very smooth and flat. For bathrooms and kitchens, choose a moisture-resistant, wipe-clean wallpaper, and avoid using papers directly around the bath, shower or sink – though it may be possible to use wallpaper as a splashback, protected with a wellsealed sheet of acrylic or glass. If you’re worried about wallpaper becoming overwhelming, just cover one wall (this saves money, too) as a ‘feature wall’ – usually this is the wall that

most draws the eye in a room, perhaps the one with the fireplace or behind the head of the bed. Alternatively, you could paper either above or below the dado rail, or into niches or panelled areas, or behind the shelves of a dresser or cupboard.

Something Different

Convention has it that you hang the same type of wallpaper vertically all around a room. But who wants to follow convention? Create a feature by using either different colourways of the same pattern or contrasting papers in the same colourway. Alternatively, you could hang your wallpaper horizontally, or else mix up the designs to create a handcrafted, bohemian effect. A recent trend has been for wallpapered ceilings – drawing the eye upwards and adding another level of drama and interest.

The Practicalities

Before papering over new plaster, allow it to dry out thoroughly and then prepare it with either sizing solution or watered-down wallpaper paste. Decorate the ceiling and all the woodwork first. To disguise lumpy walls, first hang lining paper horizontally (this is known as cross-lining). When calculating how much wallpaper to buy, remember to allow for pattern repeats and wastage (most online retailers have a helpful calculator, or ask your retailer for advice). It’s important to buy enough to complete your project, as different batches may have very slight variations in colour (check the batch numbers are the same on all the rolls). It’s best to use the paste recommended by the manufacturer.

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Standard decorative wallpapers are ideal for areas that don’t suffer from moisture or severe wear and tear. Vinyls are durable and easy to apply (they often come pre-pasted). All-purpose, but especially suitable for kitchens and bathrooms. Some are textured. Washable wallpapers have a transparent coating, which means they can be wiped down. Embossed wallpapers feature a raised, textured pattern and are meant to be painted. Blown vinyls are similar. Flock wallpapers feature stencil-like designs with a velvety texture. Woodchip wallpaper contains tiny chips of wood and is usually painted. Foils are metallic wallcoverings that can vary from a gentle sheen to almost mirror-like. Natural wallcoverings include materials such as woven grass, silk, wood veneer, hessian and cork, backed with paper. They are often delicate and hard to clean.

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1 Wallpaper can highlight strong features, such as a double-height space. Tulip wallpaper in Blue Black, £78 per roll, Little Greene: 020 7935 8844; littlegreene.com. 2 This digitally printed wallpaper adds sophisticated colour and pattern to a glamorous cloakroom. Rainbow

Ginkgo Blue wallpaper, £130 per roll,

Tatie Lou: tatielou.co.uk. 3 This kitsch design is bold and elegant, with a twist of retro ’70s that’s perfect for a granny-chic bedroom.

Pondering Peonies wallpaper in Duck Egg, £99 per roll,

Woodchip & Magnolia x Fearne Cotton: 01254 241 100; woodchipandmagnolia.co.uk.