Wallpaper: 10 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know

Paint is paint, but a room with wallpaper on the walls is still cozier. But what do we actually know about this finishing material? We've collected interesting facts about wallpaper and photos with examples of great collections. Get inspired!

1. Eastern Origins

The origin of wallpaper is attributed to the Chinese. There's an opinion that they began covering walls with a rice paper-based material as early as two centuries BCE. The aesthetes and great followers of tradition, the Chinese kept the recipe for making paper wallpapers in strict secrecy for centuries. But then a similar technique was developed in Japan, and paper wallpapers appeared in Europe in the 16th century.

2. From the Word 'To Wrap'

Initially, paper wallpapers were not very popular. Up until the 17th century, ceilings and walls of wealthy European families' homes were upholstered with dense fabric material that resembled carpeting more than wallpaper. It also served as an insulator – after all, the climate in Europe was far from Chinese.

However, hand-painted paper wallpapers were mounted on special canvases that were later stretched onto frames and attached to the wall. This extended the lifespan of wallpapers and made them mobile, allowing them to be taken with you at any moment if a move or war were to occur.

3. Morris and Perfect Floral Wallpapers

In the mid-19th century, William Morris entered the British wallpaper industry with his own vision of decorative aesthetics. Today, the wallpaper brand founded by him, Morris & Co., is one of the most successful and influential in the world, and archival patterns with motifs of flowers and birds from the English garden, hand-drawn by Morris, are reprinted in new and new wallpaper and textile collections.

Paradoxically, William Morris was never a big fan of paper wallpapers and mainly worked with tapestries and fabrics.

4. American Wallpapers Are Shorter Than European Ones

In the wallpaper industry, there are two dimensional standards: European and American. If in Europe the standard length of a roll is 10.05 meters, in the USA it's 8.2 meters. Ten-meter rolls also exist but are much rarer. Keep this in mind when calculating American wallpapers, and double-check the collection catalog before ordering – just to be safe.

Also, wallpapers from the USA are most likely to come with adhesive already applied to the surface. This might slightly alleviate the inconvenience of missing almost two meters of wallpaper in a tube.

5. Photo Panels or Photo Wallpapers?

By the way, these are not the same thing. Photo panels are a single or cut piece of fabric that is 2.7 to 3 meters long. If the design is reproduced and the wallpapers themselves are in standard-length tubes, then you're looking at photo wallpapers.

Some photo panels can also be joined together, continuing the image, but in that case you'd have to buy several separate panels, which are usually much more expensive than photo wallpapers.

6. Wash or Not to Wash?

The "super washable" label on the label unfortunately does not guarantee that if you walk over such wallpapers with a sponge and soap solution, the wall won't get damaged. The reliability of technical information on labels is often a question of manufacturer honesty.

Remember that the "three waves" marking, indicating high moisture resistance of the product, on vinyl wallpapers – is not the same as that marking on felt wallpapers. Felt wallpapers should not be washed, just like textiles. The latter are only allowed to be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner – no moisture at all!

Design: Designers Guild

7. Irritating Seams? There Is a Solution!

No matter how you turn it, wallpaper is a seamed material, and to make the places where seams meet as invisible as possible after installation, it's important to choose quality materials and invest in a skilled craftsman.

Moreover, manufacturers of wallpapers containing natural fibers like bamboo, linen, or sisal warn right away that seams will be visible, and this is normal. If Europeans don't see anything wrong with this, we in Russia find even the most barely noticeable seams painful.

To solve this problem, seamless wallpapers can help. Such material is applied as one full sheet around the room perimeter, and instead of multiple seam joints, only one single seam remains. All you need before starting installation of such wallpapers is to make accurate room measurements and remove window and door trims.

8. An Alternative to Chalkboard

Have you heard about wallpapers with a surface suitable for drawing with chalk? With such wallpapers, it's easier to work than with chalkboard paint, especially if you only need to decorate part of a wall: at least you won't have to struggle with a perfectly straight line outlining the selected fragment. A chalkboard would cost more.

9. Always in Style

For famous fashion houses, launching a wallpaper line in collaboration with some leading wallpaper designer has become a common practice. "Dressing" your home in wallpapers in the signature style of Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Missoni, or Hermès is now as accessible as buying a dress or a handbag from these brands. The price, of course, is steep, but the reason isn't only the famous names: wallpapers from fashion houses always have excellent technical characteristics and flawless style.

Wallpaper Collection by Hermès Maison

10. Van Gogh in the Masses

Interest in the life and work of the legendary Vincent van Gogh has not waned for many years. A wave of popularity among Dutch artists was also sparked by the artist's homeland. There, local wallpaper makers BN-wallcoverings developed wallpaper designs based on Van Gogh’s works, and the launch of the collection was timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the artist. These wallpapers are unique not only for their most accurate interpretation of the artist's paintings, including “Flowering Almond Branches,” “Irises,” and “The Garden of the Yellow House,” but also for their texture: it is three-dimensional and reminiscent of Van Gogh’s characteristic brushstroke technique.

Van Gogh Collection by BN

Van Gogh Collection by BN

Van Gogh Collection by BN

On the cover: wallpapers from the Aquazzura X de Gournay "Amazonia" collection

Also read:

• How to Properly Apply Wallpapers: Instructions + Visual Illustrations
  
• What to Decorate with Leftover Wallpapers: 7 Cool Ideas
  
• Guide to Wallpapers: How to Choose the Perfect Decor for Walls