I wrote about wallpaper accent walls last spring, but since we’re seeing them EVERYWHERE, I think we should examine the latest trends. Don’t you?
But first, a reminder: follow the same rules you would for PAINTED accent walls. Accentuate unbroken, prominent walls. The best wall is usually the first one you see when you enter the room.
- Trend #1: more wallpaper accent walls behind beds…as headboards, really.
- Trend #2: framed wallpaper.
- Trend #3: Wallpaper accents in nooks and insets. Below, the wallpaper (which I’m pretty certain is by Manuel Canovas) turns a potentially awkward space into an interesting feature.
- Trend #4: Wallpaper on fireplace walls. I have mixed feelings about this one. I don’t generally recommend wallpapering a fireplace wall; I think the fireplace provides enough of a focal point. But the wallpaper is a sweet addition here…
…and here, where it frames the fireplace most effectively.
Seeing as how I seem to be on a one-woman campaign to bring wallpaper into every single house on the planet, I’ll leave you with a few more thoughts:
- Remember that wallpaper accent walls are especially terrific if you don’t have a lot of art.
- Wallpaper accent walls can be particularly interesting in a stairwell. Try this instead of hanging family pictures up the stairs, as so many of us do. That’s a fine look, but unless each photograph is double-hung, they’re going to get knocked off-kilter every time your toddler (or teenager, or Goldendoodle) bounds down the stairs. How fabulous is this Osborne & Little dog wallpaper? It’s called, appropriately, “Best in Show.”
And of course you remember Nina Campbell’s Paradiso wallpaper in bossy color’s stairwell.
- Finally, do not do a wallpaper accent wall in a really tiny space, like a powder room. Go big and do the whole room, or leave it alone.
Wallpaper, Gentle Readers. An accent wall is the easiest way yet to make it your friend.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted questions to The Washington Post’s Home Chat last week with Jura Koncius! An excerpt ran in yesterday’s Local Living section of the Post. Thank you!
Quoted in publications from The New York Times to The Washington Post to Real Simple magazine, Annie Elliott is considered an expert in color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible. Her interior design firm, bossy color, has been serving residents in the greater Washington, D.C. area since 2004.