I like plain, clean walls. They’re the perfect canvas for art, photographs, you name it. But the minute I open a decorating magazine, I’m mesmerized by all pretty wallpapers! Even though it’s the exact opposite of my plain jane walls, I can’t get this wallpaper from Anthropologie out of my mind. It’s so quirky! It’s not too floral, or too graphic, and it’s definitely original.
I imagine it in a hallway with a great umbrella stand in the corner and some dachshunds running around, which, like the wallpaper, I also do not own. But I bet they’d go very well together. What do you think? Is it busy? Disruptive? Or just the thing?
P.S. — As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to wallpaper a powder room in old New Yorker covers. If you could use anything to wallpaper a room, what would it be? I think your children’s drawings would be so cute, too!
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I’ve also thought it would be great fun to have a powder room papered with old New Yorker covers! I saw a photo years ago showing it done, and it looked terrified.
I think the wallpaper you’re showing here would work really well in a smaller space, done on only one wall. At least that’s how I’m seeing it. I like the idea of wallpaper, but I’ve never had any in the homes where I’ve lived. It seems like a big commitment.
Oh! On just one wall! What a great idea! I really do have a powder room absolutely ready for this… i’m just always so scared to paper. I don’t know why! It’s not really much more of a commitment than the yellow paint I always use, is it?
Regarding the commitment involved, I think that if you paint a room and you’re not happy with the color, you’ll consider re-painting sooner than you’d consider replacing a wallpaper you didn’t like. The likely expense of wallpaper, including the labor to hang it (or the “cost”of your time, along with the possible frustration and aggravation to do it yourself) could make it that much harder to just tear it down. It often seems that the more money that’s invested in a project makes it harder for people to decide they don’t like it after all and change it out.
I always take forever to decide on paint colors – I can’t imagine how long it would take me to decide on wallpaper, considering how many appealing choices are available!
It looked terrific, not terrified! You really have to watch that automatic fill-in feature on the iPad!
I agree – it seems like it would be great on an accent wall, but too much for an entire room.
I have been in very small “powder rooms” with huge prints, bold colors, etc. and really love it…every wall! But it IS something. If you only share one bathroom, like me, this is not the option lol.
I have been really into the “new” old idea of using silks or other textiles to cover a wall…I’m sure I can’t afford it , but it is good to dream! The next house will have more bathrooms than needed!!!
I saw a wall that was wallpapered with sewing pattern pieces once at anthropologie (http://www.annabelvita.com/2012/08/14/decor-inspiration-sewing-pattern-wallpaper) – I thought that was so smart!
Oh what a fun idea!
We just bought a house with loads of wallpaper and border. The amount of scraping and steaming and patching we’ve done over the last six months has turned me off wallpaper for a long time. Of course, if I won the lottery and could afford for someone else to install and remove at my whim… I might change my mind :-)
I feel this way about many things : )
My niece wallpapered her sketchy college apartment walls with old maps. Her room went from scary to fabulous in practically no time at all! And since she bought the maps for next to nothing on eBay, it fit well within her tiny budget.
What a brilliant way to turn a college apartment into someplace that feels like home! In fact, that’s sheer genius on any budget : )
My drive from-home-to-office is like driving in the Antiquarian wallpaper. Yup, my drive is through Hunt Valley; best time of year is when the mares have foaled — the colt-foals and filly-foals are irresistibly adorable as they teeter on their spindly legs.
But back to wallpaper: I too began saving The New Yorker covers in the 1980′s. Just when I had enough for my large powder room, guess what happened? Yup, I moved; but worse, the movers lost 1 box. Guess which one? You got it, the one that held the treasure trove of NY mag covers.
Finally the gloom of depression lifted and I found, drum-roll please, the Scalamandre zebra wall-paper. And now my dilemma is whether I am going to paper or free-hand draw/paint my powder-room walls with my own version of the Scalamandre zebras.
Ideas anyone?
Oooh, those Scalamandre zebras make my heart go pitter-pat, too. I wish I could free hand those! Let us know what you do!
The bathrooms at Hungry Mother (a great Southern/French restaurant in Cambridge, MA) are wallpapered with pages from The Virginia Housewife cookbook. It looks fantastic– quirky but not too busy or fussy because the pages are all text.
On the other hand, I also spent some time recently removing wallpaper and it was not an experience I’d want to relive any time soon.
I’ve never been to Hungry Mother but I’ll have to check it out this summer when I’m up there. If nothing else, I just want to see the wallpaper! And I feel the same way: I like it if someone else has to take it down…
For a powder room, I would not be able to resist a large-scale, metallic Art Deco wallpaper. I love the idea of turning small rooms into jewel boxes, full of the bright colors and glittery finishes that might be difficult to do on a larger scale. Something a little like this: http://www.grahambrown.com/us/product/18103/Diva+%3A+Beige+Wallpaper
Wallpaper is one of those things that other people should have (like a pool or a motorboat). Give any wallpaper enough time and you’ll wish you’d never seen it.