With our roots as a print and illustration studio, it's safe to say we’re pretty passionate about wallpaper. Wallpaper has a transformative impact on a room that you just can’t achieve with paint alone. Whether you want to use a subtle linear print to introduce texture and depth to a scheme, or a bold mural to transport you somewhere new… wallpaper is often the magic ingredient to create a space which feels unified and ‘put together’.
We’re going to cover:
The Fundamentals of Wallpaper - tips that’ll help you understand what you’re buying and how suitable it is for your room.
How to Pick Your Design - what to bear in mind when choosing the perfect wallpaper
Getting Creative - some inspirational examples of creative ways to use your chosen paper.
The Fundamentals of Wallpaper
Do your research
Buy a sample
Our recommendation would always be to buy a sample and get a feel for the paper. Position the it in the room, and check it at different times of day, under natural and artificial light to ensure you’re happy with the colour. How does the paper feel? Is it shiny, smooth, matt or textured? Consider how the finish will affect the mood of the room. Another thing to consider is quality, if the paper feels thin, it could be more prone to creasing and tearing during installation.
Go non-woven, but make sure it’s natural and sustainable!
All of our wallpaper's are non-woven, and are made sustainably. (Head over to our Wallpaper FAQ's page to find out what makes our paper so special). This means it’s not technically paper, and it’s made up of directionally or randomly oriented fibres. These can be man-made or natural in origin - ours are always natural, and sustainably sourced.
What makes it different from paper is that it’s much higher strength, particularly when it’s wet… meaning it’s much more resistant to accidental tearing. It’s much easier to cut, which is so important for a neat finish when you’re trimming back the excess at the end!
Rather than pasting and pre-soaking like you do with traditional papers, you literally just paste the wall and apply your paper straight away, making it much more DIY friendly.
Non-woven papers also have a thicker, more luxurious feel and appear more textile-like in appearance.
How to Pick a Design
Start with a list
Making a list will help clarify your thoughts and help you create a balanced, well designed, and practical space.
Think about the purpose of the room, and how you’d like it to feel when you walk in. When designing children’s rooms. How could you incorporate the personality and preferences of your little one?
Make a list of things that are important to you. These could be anything from the emotions you want to feel when you walk in, whether it MUST incorporate unicorns, or even from a more practical sense that you’d like it to be able to grow with the child.
Make a mood board
Pinterest is a great tool for gathering ideas. Bearing your list in mind, start filling a board with images that you’re drawn to or inspire you. You’ll soon start noticing that common themes, colours or styles start emerging, this is a good point to refer back to your list. Here you might decide to update your list, or make an assessment on whether what you’ve picked out has stayed on brief!
Once you have plenty of source images, apps like Canva are great for compiling mood boards to give you a sense of how your design sits together. Introducing a little contrast in your scheme (ie, pattern vs plain, light vs dark, small vs large/bold scales), will help your room feel balanced and create visual interest.
Some examples:
- A bold graphic print paired with a ditsy wallpaper
- Using a pop of complementary colour
- Incorporating natural materials such as wood, wicker or wool to contrast and create depth against smoother or painted finishes.
It can also be helpful to plan your room layout, including the position of any furniture or key accessories, as this will allow you to visualise any important vignettes, or key zones.
Some examples:
- Your view of the room when you first walk in.
- Any ‘work/play stations’, eg changing station, dressing table, desk, reading nook.
- Creating an inviting, calming space for sleep.
You can do this using grid paper and pencil, or by using a room planning app, such as HomeByMe.
To create a space which feels bespoke and ‘lived in’ we recommend curating art and objects from a few different eras and styles. A good way to tie them into your scheme is by echoing some of the colours and materials in the wider scheme, and also considering contrast. By doing this you’ll create a space which feels personal and unique to you.
Check the scale of your accessories. It’s often better to go with fewer, larger things than lots of small items. If you have lots of small items you would like to display, would they have more impact / appear more balanced housed in a big wooden print tray, or with a block of colour behind?
Get Creative
Now you have your moodboard, and a good idea of the key spaces, think about how you’d like to introduce pattern into your room.
Some examples of how you can use wallpaper in your little one's room:
- Wallpaper the whole room to create a luxurious, cosy cocooning effect
- Use it on the ceiling
- Create ‘zones’ with wallpaper, by papering alcoves or sections of rooms.
- Cover sliding doors or wardrobes to create statement / or hidden storage
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Use above, or inside panelled walls
We’d love to see how you get on with your project! If our tips have inspired you, or you’d like to share your creative project with us, reach out to us on IG @minibeau_official