How to Use Printed Wallpapers: Professionals' Opinions

To start, we suggest drawing inspiration from our collection of great interiors with printed wallpapers — and then learn the tricks professionals use to make these wallpapers look so effective.

Alena Chekalina: "Geometric prints can adjust the proportions of a room"

"A geometric print creates an optical illusion of volumetric and even transforming space. In a shabby-chic project in Hamovniki for the entrance to a bedroom from the living room, we used a hidden door: we masked it with wallpapers featuring a print."

Viktoriya Zolina: "Beautiful, expensive wallpapers can be used to paper part of a wall"

"Transform an interior in the finest French design traditions using expensive wallpapers with a pattern. One roll is quite enough for one wall. See how we implemented this idea by gluing wallpaper pieces into moldings in the bedroom."

Marina Sarkisyan: "Printed wallpapers are great for decorating a bedroom wall"

"Paper the wall behind the headboard with bright wallpapers, and paint the other walls in a color echoing the pattern's tones. By the way, in this same project, we decorated a fireplace portal with bookshelf-style wallpapers — it looks great."

Anna Veretennikova: "Don't be afraid of unconventional solutions!"

"My clients, owners of Stalin-era apartments in Nizhny Novgorod, weren't afraid of bold decisions and agreed to use wallpapers in the bathroom. They chose Martinique A Wallpaper — it created a tropical corner in an ordinary apartment. These wallpapers were not originally intended for humid rooms — to protect from water, we coated them with special lacquer and designed a powerful ventilation system."

Checklist: How to Incorporate Printed Wallpapers into Your Interior?

• Use geometric prints to visually correct the proportions of a room. They work particularly well in small rooms — making the space deeper and more voluminous.
• Printed wallpapers can be used not just on walls, but also on doors — if you want to mask them and blend them into the interior.
• A good way to save budget is to use expensive wallpapers locally. For example, decorate them in moldings or paper only the wall behind the headboard of the bed.
• If you use prints in several rooms, let them be united by one theme — for example, botanical motifs or geometry.
• Experiment! Bright wallpapers with an active pattern in the bathroom — why not? Just make sure other details of the interior are monochromatic.

What do Western designers think?

Tisha Guild: "Floral patterns will never go out of style"

"Our brand Designers Guild has many floral patterns in its collections. Flowers bring the beauty of the natural world into our homes — and that, in my opinion, is something that will never go out of style. Textiles and wallpapers with floral motifs will always be the dominant element in an interior."

Max Redd: "Play with Contrasts!"

"What I love about bright wallpapers is that they immediately set the mood of an interior. To balance the interior, play with contrasts. Wallpapers have a very "feminine" nature — it's good to balance that with massive, rough elements."

Jean-Louis Denio: "Don't try to decorate all the walls in one room, especially a small one, in the same style"

"This is not only a dull design solution but also always an unsuccessful choice for small spaces: visually, the space will remain unexpressive and equally tiny. My advice is to decorate a couple of walls with wallpapers featuring an interesting print, and paint the other two walls in neutral colors — you'll see that the size of the room won't matter anymore."