In the interest of full disclosure, since we’re talking about wallpaper today, I have to admit that I used to sell it. I not only worked for a year at Wallpapers to Go, but I sold more rolls than I can count as a designer’s assistant in the 1990s.
Maybe this explains my aversion to it now. When working for a successful interior designer, I made the mistake of suggesting that one of our clients would prefer paint over wallpaper in her contemporary home, and boy did I get chewed out for it. He explained that it was my job to sell the clients wallpaper for every single room in their homes whether they really wanted it or not. The markup on it was how we made most of our money. Did I want to get paid? Then I’d better lug some wallpaper books over to the client’s house, pronto.
I felt so dirty.
I have also had the experience of having to remove old, dated wallpaper, so that is no doubt contributing to my dislike of it. But I do appreciate it when it’s in professionally styled rooms like the one above (via The Inspired Room). And Marni Jameson, author of The House Always Wins, argues that wallpaper is back with a vengeance, and “it’s not your grandmother’s.” I’m trying hard to believe her, but I admit I’m a skeptic. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to return to the halcyon days of wallpaper and matching borders again.
Maybe Jameson will convince us to give it another try.
From The House Always Wins:
Because wallpaper is more expensive than paint and involves choosing both color and pattern, I called Paula Berberian, creative services manager for Brewster Wallcovering, and Stacy Senior, marketing director for Thibaut, a company that has been making wallpaper since 1886, for some advice and encouragement. They offered these ideas:
Why paper? There’s no better way to add color, pattern, and texture to your walls all at once.
Look at trends. In the 1980s and 1990s people put pattern everywhere. Then the trend became no pattern, no color. Now we’re back to loving interest, detail, and texture, but the patterns aren’t so busy. Today people are buying papers with softened metallics (not the foil of the 70s), textures that resemble alligator skin, and tone-on-tones, like damask.
Choose your style. Selecting wallpaper is tougher than picking paint, because you’re picking color and pattern. Start by making a design board. Include pictures from magazines that will inspire the room, colors you’ll be using, and any finishes or pictures of furniture. Once you’ev established a mood and direction, picking the right wall covering gets easier.
Get samples. When you find a paper you like in a book, order a sample. If you shop online, ask your wallpaper resources to send you good-sized samples of your top three to five favorites.
Live with them. When the samples arrive, resist the temptation to order twenty rolls right away: First you have to live with them. Tape the samples to your wall for a few days. Walk around your house and see if they feel at home with the other rooms. You want a sense of belonging.
Consider durability. For kitchens and kids’ baths, pick a paper with vinyl. Other rooms can handle paper.
Feeling timid? Choose a classic pattern like damask, a tasteful stripe, or toile. Papers that look like a faux finish are also safe.
Play. Walls don’t have to be completely covered, and borders can go places other than the top of the wall. Try hanging borders a foot from the ceiling, or around a door. Mix patterns. Consider papering the ceiling, too.
Don’t know where to begin? The best rooms to paper are rooms without soft furnishings. Dining rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms are great places to start.
It’s not forever. Gone are the days when it was easier to take out the wall than remove old wallpaper. Today’s wallpaper is easy to apply and remove. If you don’t like what you picked in a few years, no big deal.
(This excerpt was from Chapter 6 of The House Always Wins. All rights belong to the author and Perseus Books. Photos courtesy Southern Accents.)-
To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment on the original post by the end of the day Friday, March 21, 2008, and your name will be automatically entered. Bonus: 1) Tell me why you have to have the book or 2) Tell me why you’re hooked on this website (yeah, flatter me!), and your name will be entered twice.
You can visit Marni Jameson’s website for more information. Or you can go straight to Amazon and buy it if you can’t wait another minute to own it yourself.
Other posts this week with excerpts from the book:
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m going to have to agree with you on this one. I absolutely HATE wallpaper! My mom has to have wallpaper in every room of the house and it drives me bonkers when we visit. lol
Nope, ain’t gonna go the wallpaper way. Too many bad memories. Of course, you might check back in with me in a year or two when “everyone” has wallpapered everything that doesn’t move. I may be drooling by then.
I’ve spent way too many hours of my life pulling off ugly wallpaper from my walls. It was hard and long and left big chunks taken out of my walls. I do like the look of some wallpapers but what’s the life expectancy of wallpaper, 5 years maybe before you can’t stand to look at it anymore? I’m not buying it.
Ha. Ok, I’ll be disagreeable. I happen to think that in the right house, with the right kind of paper, the right type of wall and the right kind of room, wallpaper is a great choice. It offers warmth and a softness that paint never can. I too have removed more
wallpaper than I care to remember, and most always choose paint.
But there is definitely a time and place for wallpaper. It takes a good eye to know when to use it and what to choose, however, so it isn’t something you want to rush into lightly. Gone are the days of wallpapers-to-go and many of their tacky papers and borders featuring geese or country themes. Today there are way more stylish options out there! So many textures and classic papers to choose from–not to mention all the creative options for styles and application (parts of walls, putting it on furniture, ceilings, etc.). Times have definitely changed and wallpaper is more in vogue again.
Melissa
Thanks for sharing another point of view, Melissa! I know you’re right (and so is Marni Jameson), and wallpaper has changed since the early ’90s when I sold it, but I think the days of everyone having wallpaper in their homes–in every room–are gone.
I, too, have removed wallpaper off of unsized walls to the detriment of my walls (now partially hidden by my hall of mirrors!), but I am inching my nerve up to paper the upstairs hallway in a paper by Raymond Waites. It’s a burnished gold ostrich, not an overwhelming pattern, but the color is glowingly lovely in a area that tends to be a darker space. The tooled leather in red is talking to me for my dining room/library. I have an deep and abiding love for fabric walls but these two rooms are taller than I want to conquer. I loved the light-filled white spaces (I painted all of my walls white at first—24 years ago), but now am drawn to more pattern, color, texture. I’m a Libra, so I suppose this is my way of balancing my scales!
i think i might look nice in the bathroom. now i learned what type. lol i had NO idea.