The importance of home decoration has gone through the roof over the years. People are finding different ways to make their home look beautiful and unique.

Relying on various styles of tiling to plastering the ceiling with intricate designs, experimenting with various elements has been a common practice throughout the years.

If we notice closely, there has been a shift in a trend where people are getting the practice of using wallpaper instead of paint when it comes to decorating the walls.

Being a way of decorating the walls that were being used less, the reliance of people on wallpapers have gone on to increase over the years after they have come across the benefits of the usage of wallpapers over paint.

If you are someone new who is planning to use wallpapers instead of paint to decorate your walls, it is important to give some time and effort to choose the right wallpaper that suits you in every aspect.

From traditional to casual, there are a bunch of options to choose from if you have made up your mind on the use of wallpapers.

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you get your hands on wallpapers.

Style of the room

The style of the room has to be taken into consideration before the purchase of the set of the wallpaper you want to use. A room can be categorized into four when it comes to its style.

  1. Casual: This is the one that gives the room a more relaxed feel. If the room seems to have a casual style, it is best to go for a blend of beadboard wallpaper with floral flowing, organic designs. This helps in giving a homely feel.

  2. Traditional: Intricate stripes and damasks designs go perfectly with rooms that have a traditional style of furnishing.

  3. Romantic: Floral designs with light colours are a sign of romantic style. Muted pastel colours with fine lines and floral patterns blend in perfectly well with rooms that give a romantic gesture.

  4. Contemporary: The fashionable contemporary look is something that is opted by many these days. Metallic accents with a high gloss that has intricate geometric patterns are the best when it comes to contemporary room style. It helps to make a fashion statement.

Here Are Few Tips that Would Help Make The Decision Easier

  1. Colours: The wallpapers colour can make the room look smaller or larger. If the colour is dark, the room will look smaller, and if the colour is light, the room will look large.

  2. Horizontal stripes: This would help in making the ceiling look shorter, but at the same time, give the room a wide look.

  3. Vertical stripes: This makes the ceiling look higher and also add volume to the room.

  4. Large patterns: This will make the room looks small. So these are usually used to decorate only a single wall in the room.

Get a sample

Make sure to get the sample of the wallpaper you want to use and hang it on the wall you want it on. Let it be there for a while so that you can get used to the idea of the particular wallpaper in your room.

It would help in determining if the chosen wallpaper is right for your walls and helps in how to proceed with the idea.

Explore your options

There are a number of options that you can choose from when it comes to the wallpaper. Other than paper, you have Japanese silk, sisal, grass cloth, and cork options that would suit your needs. There are also textured prints of paper that give the feel of stone and marble too. The options go well beyond the traditional choices you had a few years ago.

One of the major options available to you is the satin tone wallpapers. These silk and satin tone wallpapers have been used for hundreds of years now. It developed from the use of fine cloth for decorating the walls, which was a method adopted by the people in Europe as early as the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

Satin wallpapers are available in various colours and styles these days. Even though it is a difficult task to maintain them, the elegance it brings to your room is unmatched for. Satin wallpapers are usually not made just of cloth. It is a usual practice to have vinyl added to the mix to make it easier to maintain. This has made satin wallpapers more feasible option that is a blend of style and easy to maintain material.

Choosing the Colour

The colour of the wallpaper plays a major role in helping to improve the style of the room. In rooms that are dark and does not get much sunlight, it is the best option to go for light coloured wallpaper. This would improve the ability of the room to reflect the light that eventually gets in and make the room brighter. Metallic shades also help in reflecting light.

Textured surfaces, on the other hand, is not a go to when it comes to dark or north facing rooms as it would not reflect light as much as it is expected, making the room look smaller.

Warm colours, as its name suggests, does help give the room a warm feeling. Some of the colours that fall under the category are orange, red, and yellow. A fresh and dramatic feel is given by intense and cool colours.

The warm colours are the most suitable for the rooms in places that face colder conditions throughout the year compared to warm, tropical places. The excitement in the rooms increase as the colour of the wallpaper becomes intense. So the colour of the wallpaper used for a room has to be chosen according to the texture of the room.

Plan how to use the wallpaper

There are tons of styles of wallpaper that are available to us. But it is also important to know that all these styles do not work the same way and would not suit different rooms the same way. This makes it important for planning on how to use particular wallpaper on a particular wall.

  1. Feature on a single wall: Large patterns would make the room look smaller. Bold, dramatic patterns help the area of the room that needs to be highlighted. When this large pattern is given metallic, gloss, and glamorous touch, it goes perfectly with a single wall.
  2. Four walls of the room: A classic design featuring stripes can help the room get a contemporary look. Large designs would not suit for all four walls as it might overwhelm the room and make it look smaller.
  3. Chair rail wallpaper: If the room you are working with has a chair rail, it is better to take both the portions as different ones. The area under the chair rail can be pasted with paint-able beadboard. This would help give it a classy look. For the area above the chair railing, floral patterns would be best suited. It is always better to go with light colour which would be able to highlight the intricate details of the wallpaper.
  4. Work the ceiling: Interesting shades can also be added to the ceiling to give it an exciting look. It is easy to attain Victorian style ceiling if the wallpaper is of metallic shades.

Wallpapers Help Hide Imperfections in the Walls

Wallpapers are the perfect way cover flaws and faults that can be there in the wall due to damage over time or architectural flaws. The texture of the wallpaper can aptly hide these and give the walls a fresh new look.

Expanded vinyl, grass, foil, fabric, burlap or even string cloth wallpapers can be used to get the perfect texture that would help in hiding the flaws and faults that are on the wall.

Mix and Match the Styles that are Available

Patterns that are small scale would help by giving the room more spacious look which is also similar to what bright colours would do. It would be boring to have a room with no pattern, and it is advisable to go for wallpapers that have fine details and patterns to help improve the look of the room.

It is also important not to go for designs and patterns that would overwhelm the room and make it look restless.

A balance between the plain designs and intricate texture should be found to get the perfect blend for any room. A wallpaper book can be used to decide on the right designs as it would help compare different designs on the basis of colours which make it easier to compare.

It is important to be open to try out different samples and give it time to settle in your room so that you can analyze them perfectly.

Use Subtle Patterns and Colours

Going for subtle colours and patterns would make it easy to suit the wallpaper with different kinds of furniture. Even if you are someone who changes the furniture in the room quite often, having subtle wallpaper would help in blending in with the change of furniture in a much easier way compared to those rooms with dark or intense wallpaper.

Backing Paper

Once you decide on the style, pattern, and colour of wallpaper that you need for your wall, it is the time for you to choose the right kind of backing paper that would help the wallpaper stay put for the longest time. The quality of the backing paper decides on the lasting of the wallpaper as it is the thing that holds the wallpaper to the wall.

The non-woven backing paper is the ideal kind of backing paper for any wallpaper due to its property of being able to trip it off from the wall whenever you want to change the wallpaper.

Paste the wall with non-woven backing paper is perfect for wallpapers due to its property of not expanding if it is soaked. You can directly paste it to the wall without the need of any additional adhesive, making the process pretty easy for the person installing.

Measure Your Room

It is important to know the quantity of wallpaper that you need for your place before you make the purchase. But the process of figuring out the amount needed can be very tricky. But there are a few simple steps you can follow to easily figure out the measure of wallpaper that you need for your room.

  • Measure the height and breadth of the walls and multiply it in feet.
  • Add all the answer you get to receive the total measurement in square feet.
  • Subtract the measurement of all the windows and door from the total square footage.
  • Check out the label of the wallpaper and note if it provides enough square footage for completely covering the walls of the room.
  • It is advisable to buy an additional amount roll of wallpaper just in case you have to replace any part as it is usual to make mistakes.

Get Professional Advice

It is also a good thing to get the help of a professional wallpaper hanger before making the purchase. They would be able to give an estimate of a number of rolls of wallpaper that is needed to cover the walls perfectly.

If you are working with a decorator or an interior designer, they would be able to give an accurate account on some rolls required and also give you ideas on the style and colour of wallpaper that would suit a particular space.

The rolls will have to be cut out seamlessly so as to fit the walls perfectly. It is important not to make any guesses on how much of rolls that would be required. This might lead to overbuying or not having enough rolls midway through the job.

Wallpapers open up a new horizon to people when it comes to home decoration. It gives a great variety of styles and designs that can be used to make the walls attractive when compared to paints.

So if you are planning to commit yourself to wallpapers, make sure to follow these points so that you would be able to choose the best wallpaper for your walls.

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