Wallpaper Styles That Will Wake up Your Living Room
No need to splurge for a complete makeover; create a new vibe in your home’s main gathering space with these cool patterns
Stephanie Granada
1 /9Courtesy of Anthropologie
Wild West
Anthropologie’s Homestead pattern has a snaky look that perfectly accents a leather-and-brass-clad Western home. The roll covers about 57 square feet of wall, which is roughly the equivalent of two standard doors. To figure out how many rolls you need for projects, use this calculator.
Homestead Wallpaper, $98 for a 32.75’ X 20.75” roll
Don’t fear the dark. Heavy hues can look elegant and welcoming when they’re paired with a lighthearted design. Pull colors from the pattern for the rest of your living room’s decor to tie it all together. In this case, the lovely floral wallpaper has shades of champagne, olive, and cornflower blue, which translate well when applied to furnishings and neighboring walls.
Modern-day homeowners aren’t as apt to cover all four walls. However, when it’s done right, this approach can provide an interesting alternative to paint. The trick is to choose a simple or solid pattern in a neutral shade. This textured Grasscloth wallpaper option lends warmth to a living room, it matches with most design schemes, and it won’t detract from any artwork.
Love the shiplap trend, but not the effort or commitment it takes to install wooden planks? Fake it with this Shiplap wallpaper. Hang it horizontally to stretch out your living room, or go vertical to make a low ceiling appear a little taller. Dallas-based Wallpaperie cuts the rolls to-order and can tweak the color to suit your preference.
Gold brightens up any space. Though the result can sometimes be stuffy or overdone, the feathery, artsy design of Jonathan Adler’s Drip Wallpaper ensures the look is just-right. Feel free to play with other jewel tones in the room; the metallic acts as a neutral.
Color theorists believe yellow promotes happiness. Snag the lovely Luna Stripe pattern to add a subtle cheeriness to your living room. Stretch your decorating dollars by limiting wallpaper to the top half of the wall.
Create a stunning accent wall with this Block Print Floral wallpaper. When you work with a complex design, like this one, consider how often the pattern repeats. This will help you figure out how to hang the wallpaper evenly and how many rolls you’ll need. Random pattern match is the easiest to install, because the paper will look good no matter where it lands; straight match styles line up across the width of the wallpaper—easy enough. Drop (a.k.a. offset) match patterns, however, have to line up vertically and horizontally, making them the trickiest to hang.
Designers are deviating from the traditional paper route to jazz up walls with 3D features, like these Muratto Cork bursts from West Elm. Each tile comes with a self-adhesive backing, so you don’t have to worry about making holes in the walls.
While many love the look of toile, it can be hard to pull off. Go too heavy and the room looks dowdy, too light and it seems out of place. This design feels like an updated, cleaner take on the French classic with imagery that represents universities around the country. Hang it somewhere prominent to show your school spirit.