How Do I Choose the Right Wallpaper Pattern?

Choosing a wallpaper pattern is one of those decisions that feels far bigger than it is. Paint feels easy because you can roll over it on a wet Sunday if you hate it. Pattern feels more permanent, so people stall. They fall for something in a photo, then talk themselves out of it before a single sample reaches the wall.

It doesn’t need to be that fraught. The decision comes down to a handful of honest questions. Answer those and the right pattern tends to reveal itself.

Start With One Question: Bold or Minimalist?

Before you look at a single design, decide what you want the room to feel like.

Do you want something loud and characterful that people notice the moment they walk in? Or do you want something quieter, a pattern that sits in the background and makes a space feel calm and considered?

Almost every other decision flow from this one. It sets how much colour you bring in, how large a motif you can carry, and whether you’re matching your existing things or playing against them. There’s no right answer, only the one that’s right for you and how you want to live in the room.

Let the Room Have a Say Too..

A pattern you love can still need a bit of thought once you picture it in a particular space. A few things worth weighing up:

•       Room size. A large, sprawling motif can overwhelm a small room. If your space is tight, scale matters more than you’d think.

•       How long you spend in there. A bold, busy pattern you might tire of in a living room can be a joy in a downstairs toilet or a bathroom. Somewhere you’re in and out, rather than sitting in it all day. Low-dwell rooms are where you can afford to be braver.

•       The property and its setting. I once helped a customer with an open-plan kitchen diner in a New England seafront home. She’d chosen a coastal waves wallpaper pattern, and it was an easy yes, because the pattern spoke to where she lived and the light, airy coastal feel she was after. When a pattern works with the bones of a home, you can usually feel it.

•       How much wall is actually on show. That same customer had panelling across half the wall, so the paper only covered the top section. Once cupboards, panelling and furniture go in, you often have less visible wall than you imagine. Picture the finished room, not the empty one.

Can a Wallpaper Pattern Make a Room Look Bigger?

The short answer is yes, pattern changes how a room feels, even though it can’t change the actual dimensions.

Scale is the first lever. I live in an old property with high ceilings, so I can get away with a big, bold, large-scale pattern that would swamp a smaller room. If you’re in a new build with lower ceilings, the same pattern would feel like it’s pressing in on you. Match the scale of the pattern to the scale of the room and you’re most of the way there.

Direction is the other lever, and the easiest way to picture it is clothing. A vertical striped wallpaper pattern makes you look taller and slimmer. A horizontal one does the opposite. Walls behave the same way. Vertical lines draw the eye up and lift a low ceiling, which is handy in a new build. Horizontal lines pull the eye sideways and make a narrow room feel a bit wider.

And it doesn’t have to be a plain old stripe. There are so many patterns now with a vertical or horizontal feel built into them, floral included, so you get the effect without committing to actual stripes.

 

None of this transforms a poky room into a grand one, and I’d be wary of anyone who promises it will. But used with a bit of thought, these are real effects, and they’re worth keeping in mind when you’re matching a design to your space.

Getting Colour Right

Colour is where most people genuinely wobble. The pattern is often the easy part. The question I hear most is simply, “Do you think this colour will go?”

If You’re Going for Light and Airy

If you want a minimalist, calm feel, tonal harmony is your friend. My seafront customer had white cabinet casings with blue doors, and her wallpaper picked up that same blue. Not a precise match, but in the same family. That gentle agreement between colours is exactly what creates a light, airy room.

If You’re Going for Bold

If you’re a maximalist at heart, you can afford to bring in more colour and let the pattern work harder. Contrast is what gives a bold room its energy, and you don’t only get it by setting the paper against the room. A multi-coloured pattern can pick up one of your existing colours while bringing a contrasting one of its own, so it ties into the space and creates interest at the same time. That’s often where the magic is.

A Few Ways to Take the Pressure Off

You don’t have to commit blind, and you shouldn’t have to. Whether you know exactly what you want or you’re still mulling it over, this is how I’d guide you through it.

Order More Than One Sample

Always order samples, and order more than one. If you’re torn between patterns, sample all of them. If you love the pattern but aren’t sure on the shade, sample a few colourways of the same design. Seeing them side by side on your own wall tells you more than hours of deliberating ever will.

Live With Them in Different Light

Tape your samples up and leave them for at least twenty-four hours. Wallpaper changes character with the light. What looks lovely in bright sunshine can read completely differently on a grey, rainy afternoon. See it in morning light, evening light and dull light before you decide.

Choose the Format That Suits You

There’s more than one way to hang wallpaper, and the format can take some of the pressure off too. Traditional paper is there for the long haul and would be my first choice for a room you’re settling into. Peel and stick is removable, which makes it ideal if you like the freedom to change your mind down the line. And pre-pasted sits nicely in the middle, easier to put up than traditional, more lasting than peel and stick.

You Can Change the Colour and the Wallpaper Pattern Scale

This is the part people don’t always realise. The sample you order isn’t necessarily the finished article.

If a colour isn’t quite right, I can tweak it. Send me a hex code, the name of a paint shade, or a photo of the thing you’re matching to, your cupboards, a sofa, an accent wall. If you’re sending a photo, just make sure the lighting is honest and you’re not casting a shadow over the colour, as that throws the whole thing off.

And it isn’t only colour. If a motif feels like it’s overcrowding the room, I can scale it down. If you’d like it to make more of a statement, I can scale it up. The pattern flexes to your space, not the other way round.

Still Deciding? Just Ask

If you’ve ordered the samples, lived with them, checked them in every light and you’re still mulling it over, talk to me.

My whole reason for doing this is that I want people to end up with the home they actually want. The wallpaper collections on the website is only a small part of what I have, a few dozen patterns out of a catalogue of well over two thousand designs. So if nothing on the site is quite making you fall in love, there may well be something that will. Just ask.

The right wallpaper pattern is rarely a leap of faith. It’s a few honest questions, a couple of samples on the wall and a bit of patience. Get those right and you’ll know.