What Comes First - The Wallpaper or the Room?
My mum recently told me she wanted to use one of my wallpapers in a room she's decorating.
As her daughter and the person who designed the wallpaper, this was obviously rather lovely to hear.
But there was a catch, or at least, my designer brain initially thought there was.
Most of the room had already been decided.
Furniture, colours and pieces were in place, and the wallpaper was going to be one of the final layers. My immediate thought was how much easier it can be to do things the other way around: find a pattern you love and let that become the beginning of the room.
But our conversation made me think about how we actually create homes.
Because most of us don't begin with an entirely empty room and a perfectly ordered decorating plan.
Homes evolve.
They hold furniture we've had for years, paintings we couldn't leave behind, things inherited from family, objects brought home from travels and pieces chosen simply because we loved them.
And perhaps wallpaper doesn't need a rule about when it should come into that story.
Start with a feeling
Whether wallpaper is the very first decision you make or the final piece you're searching for, I think there's a better question than:
What wallpaper goes with this room?
Ask instead:
How do I want this room to feel?
Do you want to walk into it and feel calm?
Do you want it to feel joyful and a little unexpected?
Cocooning? Romantic? Playful? Nostalgic? Full of life?
Once you know the feeling you're looking for, colour and pattern become much easier to navigate.
You aren't simply trying to find something that matches. You're looking for something that adds to the story of the room.
The joy of committing to pattern
Wallpaper is a commitment.
And I actually think there's something rather wonderful about that.
We're surrounded by encouragement to constantly update our homes. New trends, new colours, new things we're apparently supposed to want.
Wallpaper asks something different of us.
It asks us to choose something we genuinely love and live with it.
A beautiful pattern becomes part of the architecture of everyday life. It's behind birthday candles being blown out, sleepy cups of tea, toys scattered across floors, dinners with friends and ordinary Tuesday mornings.
Over time, you almost stop consciously noticing it. But you continue to feel it.
And when wallpaper has been chosen because it evokes something in you - rather than simply because it's fashionable - I think that's when it can give the most back.
Let the pattern give you clues
If you are at the beginning of decorating a room, wallpaper can be a wonderful place to start.
A single pattern can give you an entire palette.
Perhaps you pull a quiet green from a painted leaf for the woodwork. A faded pink finds its way onto a cushion. A tiny blue detail becomes the colour of a chair you've been searching for.
Instead of trying to make dozens of separate decisions work together, you have something to respond to.
But if, like my mum, your room already has its own story, the process simply works in reverse.
Look at what you already love. What colours keep appearing? What objects would you never want to remove? What is the atmosphere you've already begun creating?
Then look for a wallpaper that feels as though it belongs amongst them - while perhaps bringing just a little something new.
Choose the one you keep returning to
I don't think choosing wallpaper should feel frightening.
Considered, yes. But also exciting.
Order samples. Pin them to the wall. Look at them in morning light and again in the evening. Walk away from them for a few days.
And notice which one you keep coming back to.
Because you're not just choosing something to cover a wall.
You're choosing part of the backdrop to your life at home.
Choose it with care. Choose it with feeling. And then enjoy the wonderful commitment of living amongst something you truly love.
Considering wallpaper but not sure where to begin?
Join the Eldie Creative list (link at top 🔝) and I'll send you my free Thoughtful Wallpaper Guide - a gentle guide to choosing where to wallpaper, pattern, colour and scale, and creating a room that feels like you.
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