Wallpaper has come a long way from the garish, floral-patterned vinyl wallpaper used to decorate homes across the country throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
The styles, materials and uses for wallpaper have changed dramatically over the past several years, lifting it from the design waste bin to a trendy feature in many of today's most contemporary homes. fluted panel round
"Wallpaper makes a statement," said Danny Russo, an award-winning interior designer and social media influencer who owns Daniel Russo Home in Columbus, Ohio.
"All of our clients are asking for wall coverings in some way shape or form," Russo said. "It’s a trend that’s picking up a ton of steam."
Demand for wallpaper “really never went away," he said, but it's experiencing a renaissance thanks to advances in technology that allow wallpaper to be made in different patterns and textures with a variety of features.
Today's wallpaper can be found with integrated LED lights – 3D wallpaper has raised patterns made up of layered wood, fabric and other textiles. A Brooklyn, New York-based company, Flavor Paper, even makes scratch-and-sniff wallpaper designed to stimulate the sense of sight, smell and touch.
Wallpaper is also more customizable than ever before with the advent of inkjet printing and other techniques that allow digital prints and custom designs to be applied directly to the paper or wallpaper panels used to create giant murals and other graphic wall art.
"It’s not your mother’s or grandmother’s wallpaper these days," Russo said. "The technology has completely changed. We don’t even call it wallpaper anymore. We call it wallcovering."
The demand for wallpaper is expected to drive the total global market for wallcoverings − including wall tiles, wall panels and other non-paint wall treatments − to $38 billion by 2026, up from about $31 billion in 2022, according to a market study from Global Industry Analysts Inc.
The U.S. is expected to account for about $7 billion of the global market in 2026, according to the study.
Consumers' newfound affinity for wallpaper has flipped the script for many interior designers whose customers have traditionally shunned the thought of wallpaper, said Marjorie Smyth of Adorn Interior Design in Cincinnati.
“We used to come onto a project and the first thing they (the client) would say in a new house is 'I want to strip this whole house of wallpaper,'" Smyth said. "We'd do that. Then they would say some spaces just don’t feel complete; what else can we do? That’s when we add wallpaper."
Smyth said she and her partner, Megan Berger, recently encountered a similar situation when their client decided to wallpaper several rooms in her more than 8,000-square-foot estate in a tony Cincinnati suburb after tearing out the interior walls and replacing them with drywall.
"I think wallpaper just gives a room that finishing touch and adds timeless beauty and elegance to a room that you can’t really capture with paint," said the homeowner, Annie Wittekind.
Wallpapers that are scrubbable, stain resistant and colorfast are also ideal for commercial use, according to Smyth, who recently installed wallpaper at the upscale Fueled Collective co-working space at the Rookwood Exchange in Cincinnati.
Prices for wallpaper vary greatly depending on materials, design and sourcing.
Wallpaper imported from Europe or handcrafted by artisans, for example, will generally cost more than wallpaper mass-produced in the the U.S. In the same way, custom wallpaper panels or murals are generally more expensive than off-the-shelf rolls of wallpaper.
"When it comes to wallpaper, it can get pricey. But you can get wallpaper in all budgets," said Russo, noting wallpaper comes in different lengths and widths and is usually priced by the roll, sold as either a double or triple roll.
But buying the paper is only the beginning. Most homeowners will probably need to hire a professional installer for best results, Russo said.
"They make peel-and-stick wallpapers that you can install yourself, but I wouldn't advise it," he said. "You're always going to get better results with a professional installer."
Those results will cost you.
In fact, the material costs typically represent only about 20% of the cost of professionally hung wallpaper, according to an industry report conducted by IT Strategies.
outdoor wall panel bamboo The cost of the labor can be as much as 70% of the installation cost, while the cost of supplies, such as wall primer and paste, make up the remainder of the cost, according to the Columbus, Ohio-based Wallcovering Hangers Association.