Choosing Wallpaper
Without Second-Guessing Yourself
Wallpaper can feel like a big decision.
You want wallpaper and find yourself looking at a floral you can’t stop thinking about. But then you start wondering if it’s too much. So you look at a stripe. Maybe that feels safer. Then somehow you’re comparing twelve slightly different shades of cream and have wandered so far from your initial instinct that you're no closer to making a decision than when you started.
Will I get tired of it? Is the pattern too big? What if I choose the wrong colour? Should I just go more neutral?
Whenever I watch old movies from the 80s, one of the first things I notice is the wallpaper.
It made those homes feel personal. It made them feel safe. It made them feel like home.
And there was pattern everywhere. Different rooms had different wallpaper. Sofas had patterns. Rugs had patterns. Somehow, it all lived together without feeling like everything needed to be perfectly coordinated.
Somewhere along the way, I think we became a little afraid of wallpaper. We started treating it as this enormous decorating commitment we might eventually regret.
But I don't think choosing wallpaper needs to come with that much pressure.
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1. Notice What Grabs Your Attention
Before worrying too much about what the future holds, pay attention to what grabs you now.
What rooms make you stop scrolling? What do you save over and over again? What have you loved for years?
Maybe it’s florals. Maybe you always notice stripes. Perhaps you’re drawn to delicate botanicals, block prints, tiny geometrics or patterns that feel a little nostalgic.
Those are clues.
Our tastes evolve, but I think there’s usually a thread running through the things we genuinely love.
And this is where the idea of timeless can sometimes trip us up.
Timeless doesn’t have to mean neutral, tiny or barely noticeable. A floral can be timeless. A stripe can be timeless. Colour can be timeless.
If you genuinely love the quiet neutral pattern, choose it.
But if you keep returning to the beautiful botanical and choose the neutral one simply because it scares you less, that’s something different.
Your home doesn’t need to appeal to everyone.
It needs to feel like yours.
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2. Pay Attention to Scale
Scale can completely change the way wallpaper feels, and it’s one of the hardest things to judge from a little image on your phone.
A pattern that looks quite busy in a small square online might feel beautifully balanced once you see the full repeat. A delicate floral may be much larger than you imagined when it’s covering an entire wall.
And you don't need to follow rules like small room equals small pattern.
Sometimes a larger pattern in a small room is exactly what gives that space its character.
Instead, think about what you want the wallpaper to do.
Do you want it to sit quietly in the background and add texture?
Or do you want to really see the movement and artwork in the pattern?
Neither is wrong. They simply create different feelings.
Whenever you can, look at photographs of the wallpaper in a full room and pay attention to the scale of the pattern against things you already understand, like a bed, chair or window.
And then...
3. See It in Your Own Space
Please, please, please order the sample.
I will probably repeat this one a lot around here.
Screens just aren't reliable enough to make a wallpaper decision from. Colours shift from one device to another, and the light in your home can make a colour look completely different from the beautiful room you saw online.
When your sample arrives, put it on the wall where the wallpaper will actually live.
Then leave it there.
Look at it in the morning. Walk past it in the afternoon. Turn the lamps on at night and see what happens to the colour.
Hold it near your flooring or furniture. Step back from it.
And give yourself a little time.
You may know immediately.
Or you might discover that the pattern you weren't completely sure about is the one you keep stopping to look at every time you walk into the room.
That's what the sample is there to help you figure out.
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4. Know When to Stop Looking
This might actually be the hardest part.
At some point, stop searching.
There will always be another wallpaper. Another Pinterest room. Another colourway. Another beautiful pattern you could compare it to.
More choices don't always make us more certain. Sometimes they just give us more things to second-guess.
If you've found a wallpaper you love, you've seen the sample in your space, the colour works, the scale feels right and you keep coming back to it...
You may already have your answer.
You don't need to find the wallpaper that is somehow better than every other wallpaper out there.
You just need to find the one that feels right for your home.
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Trust What You Love
You can't guarantee you'll love every decorating decision forever.
Our homes change. We change. Our tastes evolve with us.
And that's okay.
The goal isn't to predict exactly what you'll love ten years from now. It's to make a thoughtful choice based on what you genuinely love now instead of making a fearful one based on what you might regret later.
Notice what grabs your attention.
See it in your own space.
Give yourself a little time with it.
Then trust yourself enough to choose.
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Want a Little More Guidance?
If you love the idea of wallpaper but still have questions, I created my free Wallpaper Guide to help make the process feel a little easier.
It walks you through choosing wallpaper, measuring your space, understanding materials and preparing for installation, so you can feel more confident before you order.
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And when you're ready to start looking...
Already found your wallpaper? Read Let the Wallpaper Be Your Starting Point for ideas on using it to guide the rest of your room.