When you think of wallpaper, chances are you picture a beautifully patterned wall. And while we’ll always love the transformative power of a fabulous wallpapered room, there are so many more creative ways to use wallpaper around your home. Try and think beyond the standard wall and imagine more creative ways to use wallpaper
At ModEcoHome, we’re firm believers that interiors should have personality. Wallpaper gives you the freedom to experiment with colour, pattern and print, whether you’re transforming an entire room or giving an old piece of furniture an unexpected new lease of life. So, if you’re looking for something a little different, here are some of our favourite ways to get creative with wallpaper.
1. Make a statement with a feature wall
Let’s start with a classic. A feature wall is one of the easiest ways to introduce a bold wallpaper without committing to an entire room. Choose your wallpaper or mural.
Choose the wall behind your bed, sofa, dining table or fireplace and let the pattern become the focal point. Larger-scale botanical, geometric, Chinoiserie and maximalist designs are particularly effective, as they have enough space to really make an impact.
2. Wallpaper all four walls
Of course, sometimes more really is more.
Taking wallpaper around an entire room creates an immersive, beautifully considered interior. Contrary to the idea that bold wallpaper should only be used in large spaces, it can be particularly effective in smaller rooms. Rather than fighting the proportions, embrace them and create somewhere wonderfully cosy and cocooning. Downstairs loos, bedrooms, studies and snugs are all fantastic places to try it.
3. Don’t forget the fifth wall
Why should the walls have all the fun?
Flying Frocks – Whimsical Floating Dresses Wallpaper Design
Wallpapering the ceiling – often referred to as the ‘fifth wall’ – can completely transform a room. Look upwards and imagine florals tumbling across the ceiling, a celestial print above a bed or a dramatic pattern creating an unexpected moment in a hallway. You can wallpaper the ceiling alone or continue a design from the walls overhead for a fully enveloping effect. One of the most creative ways to use wallpaper.
4. Be brave in the downstairs loo
If there’s one room where you can throw out the rulebook, it’s the downstairs loo.
Small spaces are perfect for experimenting with the prints you might hesitate to use elsewhere. Think oversized botanicals, rich colours, quirky illustrations or full-on maximalism. Instead of trying to make the room disappear, give people something to talk about.
5. Give your furniture the decoupage treatment
Wallpaper isn’t just for walls. One of our absolute favourite uses is decoupage furniture. Wallpaper can turn a tired chest of drawers, cabinet, bedside table or vintage sideboard into a completely unique piece of furniture.
Cover larger sections with a continuous pattern or cut individual elements from a wallpaper design and apply them selectively, almost like creating a collage. Combine the wallpaper with complementary paint colours and suddenly a piece destined to be forgotten becomes the star of the room. It’s creative, individual and also a wonderful way to breathe new life into existing furniture.
6. Use wallpaper to create zones
Open-plan living is wonderfully flexible, but sometimes individual areas need a little definition.
Wallpaper can visually separate a dining space, desk area, reading nook or children’s corner without adding walls or partitions. Simply wallpapering the area immediately behind a desk or dining table can give it its own identity within a larger room.
7. Transform wardrobes and cupboard doors
If full decoupage isn’t your thing, use wallpaper to update selected panels on wardrobes, cabinets and cupboards.
Country Life – Creating the perfect look for your fitted wardrobes
Wallpapering the recessed panels of a wardrobe door, for example, introduces colour and pattern while allowing the original furniture to remain part of the design. It’s also a clever way to make relatively simple furniture feel bespoke.
8. Add a surprise inside drawers and cupboards
Not every decorating detail needs to be on show. Use wallpaper to line drawers, wardrobes or the inside of a cupboard.
There’s something rather lovely about opening an otherwise ordinary drawer to discover a fabulous print hidden inside. It’s also an ideal project for wallpaper remnants left over from decorating another room.
9. Bring bookshelves and alcoves to life
Built-in shelving and alcoves provide the perfect frame for wallpaper, transforming practical spaces into striking design features.
Paper the wall behind open shelves so that glimpses of pattern appear between books, artwork and favourite objects. In a cocktail cabinet alcove, our ‘Cocktail Couture’ wallpaper creates a playful backdrop for bottles, glassware and bar accessories, with glimpses of pattern appearing between the open shelves.
Cocktail Couture used as the perfect backdrop.
Extending the wallpaper across the entire back wall of the alcove adds contrast with the surrounding walls and helps define the bar as a feature in its own right. It’s a relatively small change that can bring colour, personality and surprising depth to the room.
10. Create a wallpaper headboard
You don’t necessarily need a traditional headboard to make the bed the focal point of a bedroom.
Use wallpaper to define the area behind it instead. Create a wide floor-to-ceiling panel, frame a section with moulding or even create an oversized arch behind the bed. For maximum drama, a wall mural can turn the whole area into a piece of art.
11. Combine wallpaper with wall panelling
Wallpaper and decorative panelling make a particularly handsome pairing.
Try painted panelling on the lower portion of a wall with patterned wallpaper above, or place wallpaper inside individual moulded panels. Choosing a paint colour that picks out one of the less obvious shades within the wallpaper can pull the whole scheme together beautifully.
12. Frame wallpaper like artwork
Sometimes a wallpaper is simply too beautiful to be confined to its conventional role.
An Indian Summer – Used as framed pictures and looking beautiful
Frame a favourite section and hang it as artwork, or create a series of coordinating panels. Large-scale botanical, illustrative and scenic designs work especially well because individual sections can look like standalone pieces of art. It’s also a brilliant way of using those precious offcuts you couldn’t quite bring yourself to throw away.
13. Make more of your staircase
Staircases and hallways are often overlooked when we’re decorating, yet they’re some of the most frequently seen parts of our homes.
A bold wallpaper running alongside a staircase can turn a purely practical space into a feature. For a smaller project, consider applying wallpaper to individual stair risers for flashes of pattern as you climb the stairs.
14. Create an alternative kitchen splashback or island
Love pattern in the kitchen? Wallpaper can introduce colour, character and detail in places where you might not expect it.
Maréline adding that finishing touch to a kitchen island.
For a statement splashback, install your favourite wallpaper behind an appropriate protective transparent surface, allowing you to enjoy a fabulous pattern while helping to shield the paper from splashes and everyday kitchen life. Kitchen islands offer another brilliant opportunity. Wallpapering the outward-facing panels, particularly on a curved island, can transform a functional feature into a striking focal point. From subtle textures to bold, sweeping patterns, it’s an imaginative way to give your island a bespoke finish and tie the colours of the kitchen together.
15. Make something wonderful from your leftovers
Finally, don’t throw those wallpaper remnants away.
Smaller pieces can be used to decorate storage boxes, trays, drawer interiors, lampshades and all manner of accessories. You could frame them, decoupage them onto furniture or use coordinating scraps to carry a favourite pattern into different areas of your home. It’s a simple way to reduce waste while creating something that’s completely your own.
Think beyond the wall
Wallpaper has the ability to completely change the atmosphere of an interior, but that’s only the beginning. Once you start seeing wallpaper as a decorative material rather than simply something that covers four walls, the possibilities become almost endless. Use it to revive furniture, draw attention to forgotten architectural details, introduce pattern in unexpected places or turn a ceiling into a talking point. Most importantly, have fun with it. Your home doesn’t have to follow anybody else’s decorating rules.
At ModEcoHome, we love interiors that aren’t afraid of colour, pattern and a little individuality. Explore our collection of designer wallpapers and wall murals and discover a design that inspires your next project.
