As I followed my brother up the steps of his best friend’s brownstone located on a quiet street in Brooklyn, New York, I was reminded of just how popular it was around the turn of the twentieth century to put garish wallpaper on every inch of one’s home.  From the street level to the third floor loft, this particular dwelling was like a wallpaper museum, highlighting several decades of styles.  It made me realize how wallcovering is one of those design elements which is always either going “in” or “out” of style.

With every season of new textile introductions in the interior design industry, wallcovering seems to be either featured prominently or completely snubbed.

Paper pasted to walls is the most commonly thought of form of wallcovering, yet it is only a small part of the story of wallcovering.  In ancient China, rice paper was glued to the walls of homes and was usually embellished with paintings of birds and flowers.  Like most new ideas, this trend spread and transformed through generations and across landscapes.  European upper class combined style with practicality by hanging woven tapestries on walls to add color while keeping out the cold weather.  The middle class had only the budget to mimic these designs on large sheets of paper.  It was a Frenchman who first began to design wallpaper with repeating patterns.  The British were the first to print wallpaper in the form of rolls using steam powered printing presses.  When the trend made its way to America it took off and has ever since fluctuated between being the design industry’s darling or forgotten friend.

What covers the walls of a room is as important to a designer as what covers the floor, furniture and windows.  For me, selecting a wallcovering for a client is a process not limited to considering only paper.  Experience has shown that when I include such items as fabric, decorative tiles and murals (painted directly on walls, or painted on canvas and applied to walls), wallcovering becomes more like a commissioned piece of art created especially for the client.

Even with the ebb and flow of its popularity, in my opinion, wallcovering of all varieties will be an important part of most interior design projects.