Posted on: April 11, 2007

Bye, Bye Paint…Hello, Wallpaper

Painted walls may not be cutting it for the designer in you. Luckily, patterned wallpaper is making a comeback to provide something that is bold, big and begging to be touched

By Patricia Rivera
CTW Features

Ed Albers is finally in his element. After years of watching other designers play with bold and innovative wallcoverings, he’s been able to convince some of his clients in the more conservative area of Rehoboth Beach, Del. to let him do the same.

Just recently, he masked the walls of a study with a two-tone, black-and-brown textured paper that simulates snakeskin. In another dining room, he used a covering with 18-inch beaded swirls of sand on a subtle red background.

Although small cities and rural areas tend to be more conservative than large urban areas when it comes to interior design, folks there and elsewhere are waking up to the idea that adding a little character to their walls beats staring at plain backgrounds.

Wallpaper’s Resurgence

Over the last five years, wallpaper has come to the forefront of design again with a niche of innovative retro prints. The wallpaper industry itself has made huge strides, adding color and vibrant designs to its once-subdued palette of offerings.

Experts agree that these days, bold is in.

“People are looking for something more fun. They’re not afraid of color and texture anymore,” says Albers, an allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Washington, D.C.

Contemporary wallpaper designs benefit from many new techniques, products and designers, notes Ziggy Hanaor, author of “The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper” (Black Dog Publishing, 2007).

Hanaor, of London, says people became more interested in putting a personal stamp on their interiors once the real estate boom leveled off.

Trend-setting companies, such as Timorous Beasties, started to blend old Victorian motifs and contemporary colors with a funky spin.

“There is a wittiness to wallpaper design that comes from the irony of the fusty image that wallpaper still carries with it,” Hanaor says. “The current designs have a self-awareness that draws on past traditions and other design mediums.”

Wallpaper fell from favor as the minimalist look grew in the mid-1980s. The industry banned together in early 2000 to make a comeback. Even groups like the Paint and Decorating Retailers Association, Fenton, Mo. tried to convince consumers that wallcoverings could be anything they wanted, from dramatic to whimsical to stimulating. The Cleveland-based Freedonia Group, a business research company, estimates U.S. demand for wallcovering alternatives to paint grew 5.7 percent annually until 2007. Hanaor noticed the turnaround from one year to the next.

Five years ago, she met British designer Anselm Chatwin who developed a covering based on Russian tattoos of skulls. She found it odd initially – until others around her began playing with wallpaper in unique ways. Suddenly, all the trendy shops started stocking edgy wallpaper.

Designers are experimenting with anything they can get their hands on, Hanaor adds. There are interactive wallpapers that use magnets and digital projections, for example. Old materials, such as silk and vinyl, are being used in new ways and designs are popping up that make the most of cultural references.

Wallpaper to the Masses

Many manufacturers are offering self-adhesive papers for the DIY set. The papers come in breathable non-woven substrate that allow the wall art to come off as easily as it goes up.

Consumers are being let in on the fun of the wallcovering trend through the Internet. Shoppers can go online for products and several sites allow consumers to pick and choose the designs and colors that best suit their needs and desires. Both large and small retailers offer a wide selection of wallcoverings at all price points.

With wallcoverings being viable options in home décor, how is one to select the proper one for their room? Hanaor says the key to wallpaper is that there are no rules.

“In past generations wallpaper was considered an indicator of wealth and respectability. Today it is merely a design statement – and as such has much more freedom,” she adds. Wallcoverings can be used as art or any way a person chooses, according to Kate Telfeyan, a spokeswoman for Graham & Brown, a U.K.-based wallcovering and home décor company.

“Some people use it on just one wall or just over a headboard,” she says. Wallpaper is also being used as the background in clocks to give a little more variety to the usual numbers.

There’s even freedom with who is designing the paper. Fashion designer Julien MacDonald entered the wallpaper industry with a line called “Dazzle,” sold by Graham & Brown. The collection is a display of flowers and foliage with striking curves and spiral lines.

Paula Berberian, creative services manager of Brewster Wallcovering Company, Randolph, Mass., says the push these days is to incorporate various styles, designs and time periods.

“Consumers aren’t matching as much,” she says, “they’re creating personalized looks.” Looks that go for it all at once, as Hanaor says. And some prefer to go toward bold walls a little at a time, as Lori Reagle, art director at the Newark, N.J.-based Thibaut Wallcoverings and Fabrics, says.

“Larger patterns look best in smaller rooms,” Reagle says. “Or you could start with just one wall so it’s not too overpowering.”

Thibaut is known for its more traditional coverings, but in recent years it too has released cutting-edge designs, like “Sabrina,” which has a flock effect (velvet or damask imitation). The design features stylized leaves and flowers on trailing vines.

“Wallpaper can really tie the room together – much as a big rug would do,” Hanaor says.

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