Wallpapers for Kitchen
What wallpapers are best for the kitchen?
The main guides when choosing wallpapers for the kitchen should be pictograms — special markings printed on each roll of wallpaper: these pictures will tell you more about the type of wallpaper you have chosen than a sales consultant.
What should you pay attention to?
Moisture resistance indicator: be attentive and choose not just moisture-resistant wallpapers, but washable ones — wallpapers that can undergo wet cleaning using cleaning and washing agents.
Colorfastness indicator of wallpapers to the effect of sunlight. It is not a secret that many coverings fade in the sun. With properly selected wallpapers, such things will not happen soon.
Indication of the method of wallpaper removal. The ideal option is when wallpapers can be removed completely. When replacing wallpapers, removing the old coating will take just a few minutes.
It is also important that wallpapers are wear-resistant. However, especially durable coverings usually cost more and require more effort in wall leveling.
Figure 1 — Pictograms on wallpapers
If you cannot decide on just one coating, try combining several types: combined wallpapers in the kitchen look original, help distinguish cooking and dining zones, and look much more interesting than monochrome wallpapers.
However, do not rely solely on the choice of wallpapers: before decorating the kitchen in a certain 'shell', imagine how the selected coating will combine with the kitchen furniture and the room itself. As is known, wallpaper color and texture can distort or, on the contrary, enhance any type of room. But we'll talk about that another time.
Kitchen Interior: Wallpapers for Any Taste!
One of the advantages of wallpapering walls is that the result of your work becomes visible in just a few hours. Some manufacturers offer a warranty on their products up to 20 years provided that they are used carefully and according to purpose. However, this period can be reduced many times if you accidentally choose textile or, for example, lightweight paper wallpapers for the kitchen. Don't want to frequent kitchen repairs? Choose vinyl!
Let's determine the type of wallpapers.
IMPORTANT! For those looking for Italian wallpaper brands: it is more rational to choose from the offers of domestic manufacturers or German wallpaper factories: Italy, unfortunately, specializes more in textile production than vinyl. The beauty of the presented samples with protective coating for kitchens fades when you see the price, which is many times higher than similar offers from other brands.
Firstly, all wallpapers can be conditionally divided into painted and paintable, i.e., those that were initially produced with a printed pattern/color and often light relief wallpapers intended for painting. The color palette and pattern in the first case are used arbitrarily, while in the second case, the color is strictly regulated.
Secondly: there are wallpapers that are simply water-resistant, and there are washable ones. Don't confuse the first with the second: you risk returning to the renovation stage quickly. Water-resistant wallpapers cannot be cleaned with a brush, and only light stains can be removed from their surface. If you're talking about finishing with water-resistant wallpapers for the kitchen 'apron', they won't withstand the first home feast. Washable ones, however, are more solid in structure, with a stronger surface layer (often they are coated with polyvinyl chloride): such materials are not only resistant to brushes but also abrasive cleaning agents. These can be considered a decent alternative to ceramic tiles.
Washable wallpapers with patterns
This type of wallpaper, as we have already said, has its variations: moisture-resistant duplex wallpapers with latex coating and vinyl wallpapers. The resistance to dirt and their cleaning is provided by a transparent protective plastic film. This material can withstand up to 20 wet wipes while maintaining all its aesthetic qualities.
Vinyl wallpapers — improved washable coatings with high moisture and wear resistance indicators.
Manufacturers: The Muralon series (England) can be mentioned as an example of the product from Muraspec factory. This is one of the few manufacturers specializing in imitating natural materials: the factory produces wallpapers to look like stone (Muralon series), plaster (Colour index series), felt (Chancery series), and paper (Polka series).
Price: The cost of these wallpapers varies from $5 to $35 per linear meter (with a roll width of 1.3 meters and maximum length of 50 meters).
Also, there are more dense vinyl wallpapers designed for kitchen finishing in the catalogs of companies like Crown (England), Ideco (Belgium), Erismann, and Rasch (Germany), Artshow Wall Paper (China).
Also note the wallpaper products of TM 'Versailles' (EDEM factory, Ukraine), as well as wallpapers from the factories 'Gomel Wallpapers' and 'Belarusian Wallpapers', among whose merits are the development of wallpapers to look like tiles, marble, and wood among domestic manufacturers.
Washable wallpapers for painting
The ability to frequently and reliably change the color is a big advantage for wallpaper coatings. Paintable wallpapers are materials with a textured surface. The two main advantages of this type of material over painted wallpapers are: color change durability (bright colors — up to 8-10 times) and a more accessible price range (from $2/m²).
This group of wallpapers includes felt wallpapers, glass wallpapers, and linch.
Felt wallpapers have excellent masking properties, the ability to smooth wall irregularities and hide cracks due to their structure. Felt wallpapers do not stretch, swell, or shrink (a 'disease' of most other coatings on a dynamic basis: after applying adhesive, the sheets stretch and then 'set' in width when it dries).
Manufacturers: You can confidently use felt wallpapers for your kitchen if you purchase products from companies like Novowalco (Netherlands), Graboplast (Hungary), Legocol (Germany), ART (Russia), and TM 'Slavic Wallpapers' (Ukraine).
Price: The average cost of felt wallpapers is from $2.5 to $3/m².
Glass wallpapers are extremely decorative: this material has up to 60 different texture options. In addition, glass wallpapers also mask surface flaws. But the main difference of glass wallpapers is their strength and durability: this coating can withstand even frequent brushing with a brush. You also have the option to repaint the wallpapers up to 12 times.
Manufacturers: Glass wallpapers from brands like Tassoglas, Schuller (Sweden), German glass wallpapers from Wellton, Oskar, and Vitrulan, as well as Belarusian wallpapers from the 'Oskar-Economy' company are popular.
Price: Due to non-standard dimensions, glass wallpapers are extremely convenient for installation. The number of joints decreases almost twofold. The cost of 1m² of glass wallpapers ranges from $1.2 to $4 on average.
Linch is a wear-resistant material, quite easy to maintain. This is a roll textured material intended for wall finishing in rooms, containing natural components (wood shavings, chalk, wax, linseed oil, etc.). Linch gradually acquires the density of stone.
Undeniable advantages of this material are its eco-friendliness. However, removing the coating from the wall is difficult.
Price: On average, you will have to pay $350 for one roll (50 meters of material in a roll).
IMPORTANT! Cork wallpapers, also among the most eco-friendly ones, can also be used for wall finishing in a kitchen. This coating allows air to pass through and repels moisture due to its protective layer. However, for finishing the same kitchen 'apron', it is better to choose more durable coatings against mechanical damage.
Wallpapers for Kitchen Walls: Details of the Installation Process
Regardless of whether your chosen wallpapers have masking properties or not, before wallpapering walls, you must properly prepare the substrate.
After leveling the walls, however, do not rush to start wallpapering.
For those whose kitchens are still fresh with plaster, immediately after external drying of the leveling mixture, it is undesirable to proceed with wallpapering walls right away: according to professionals, fresh plaster needs at least 2-3 months to fully dry. Otherwise, the sheets may not adhere to the wall or start peeling off within a few weeks.
Removing old wallpapers before wallpapering new ones is also not simple. The previous coating should be thoroughly soaked and carefully removed from the wall, then spackled and primed using a weak adhesive solution or special primer. In the end, you should get a flat, solid, non-flaking, clean, and dry base.
Wallpapers for a Small Kitchen
For finishing the walls of a small kitchen in a 'Khrushchev' apartment, some tricks can be used that visually make the room wider and higher, as well as protect the wallpapers from the effects of a humid environment.
Any kitchen, even the smallest one, will look more spacious if you choose monochrome light wallpapers for wall covering: for example, yellow, peach, olive, pistachio kitchens will look wider than red or, even more so, black-and-white ones. Dark saturated colors visually narrow the space, so it is not recommended to use blue, dark gray tones or veneer color on small kitchen areas. Dark colors should be used as accents, but never as a background.
Visually raising the ceiling can also be achieved by wallpapering walls in vertical stripes. Thus, in a kitchen, using stripes (wallpaper for painting) you can highlight one of the walls, and the brighter the colors chosen, the more decorative the surface will look: for example, for a beige kitchen try combining blue, navy, and coral. By the way, the stripe does not have to end at the ceiling but can go all around the kitchen/wall and ceiling/floor.
For a white kitchen (or a milk-white colored one), the choice of wallpaper color and pattern is practically unlimited. White is a universal color, thanks to which you can experiment with various styles: from 'pop-art' to timeless classicism, from 'countryside' and Provence style to glamour, etc.
With low ceilings, you can fight by wallpapering the walls of the room with vertical patterned wallpapers (vertical stripe or bamboo wallpapers) or by using monochrome wallpapers without patterns, and also by painting the ceiling in a lighter color than the walls.
In addition to monochrome wallpapers, you can use wallpapers with a small repeating pattern: flower-print, cherry or apple patterns. Fruit-themed wallpapers in modern kitchen interiors can be incorporated if the design and graphic elements are done stylishly, not in the style of 80s tastelessness, when large red apples, pears, apricots were drawn on a background of crossed rectangles or squares in a floating state, with additional sparkle.
Photo 1 — 'Correct' fruit wallpapers Sanderson Wallpaper, Morris & Co Fruit , Limestone-Artichoke
Among the most common requests are olives: for a green kitchen, such wallpapers are like 'prescribed by the doctor'. There is nothing to object to in terms of color or theme. Of course, if they are not done like the 'floating' fruits with sparkle.
The same olive color harmonizes nicely with bright sunny colors: it can also be used for an orange kitchen.
Choosing Wallpapers for the Kitchen
Suppose the kitchen cabinet has already been chosen and it's just a matter of selecting wallpapers of the appropriate style or color. For your help — a universal guide: color matching table.
Figure 2 — Color Matching Table
Besides, for an orange kitchen, turquoise shades are suitable, while orange wallpapers will be contrasted with a purple kitchen or beige-toned furniture, and green (salad) ones with brown-colored kitchens. Keep in mind that not always combining three or more bright colors looks like a mess.
If the space between the cooking surface and the hanging shelves is small, it is undesirable to use wallpapers with a large pattern: most of these wallpapers have a shifted print pattern — the repeat is usually 64 cm, so with a space of 70-80 cm you cannot fit the pattern properly. In such cases, it is better to choose a print without shifting: the pattern on the sheet is positioned at the same level or the wallpapers should be filled with a pattern completely (as in the photo below — a kitchen with sunflowers). The desired offset from the bottom shelf to the beginning of the pattern should be one-third of its size. In this way, any complex design has all the chances to 'play' in the interior.
Photo 2 — Example of finishing the space between the cooking surface and hanging shelves. Using the table, we will go through the manufacturers' catalogs
English manufacturers
We find the kitchen wallpaper catalog at Graham & Brown. The latest series of 2012 kitchen wallpapers Contour Kitchen is vinyl wallpapers on felt. A typical 'kitchen' design: simple geometry, pastel tones, and a coffee pattern (espresso). Such wallpapers suit pink kitchens (a wallpaper variant in pink and peach tones), dark kitchens (a wallpaper variant in gray tones) or white kitchens. For other colored kitchens, this type of wallpaper will look out of harmony.
Photo 3 — Graham & Brown Kitchen Wallpapers, Series Contour Kitchen, $23 per roll
German manufacturers
Kitchen wallpapers in a wide range of options are available from Rasch, AS Creation, and P+S factories.
Vinyl on felt base: Aqua Deco (Rasch), Delft (AS Creation), Long Island (AS Creation), Kitchen Dreams (AS Creation).
Vinyl on paper base: Tiles & More (Rasch), Faro (AS Creation), Home Sweet Home (P+S).
For a purple kitchen, vinyl wallpapers on paper base from the Home Sweet Home series (P+S) will be suitable. A rich background and a bright pattern (yellow, magenta, and pink tableware) will look harmonious. Such a rich dark color, for example, can be used to decorate only the 'apron': both practical in use and looking clean with the color of the melamine.
For a purple kitchen, you can also use light wallpapers from the Kitchen Dreams series (AS Creation) with a plant pattern in a bright salad-purple stripe. In this way, the kitchen space will not be overloaded with dark color, and the connection between kitchen finishing and furniture color will be maintained.
Photo 4 — Home Sweet Home (P+S, Germany) Kitchen Wallpapers, $17 per roll
By the way, this same 'tableware' pattern is also available in beige tones and bright blue/purple/gray colors on a white background, so these wallpapers can be chosen for white kitchens and kitchens in natural tones.
For a red kitchen, there are several successful options in the Tiles & More catalog (Rasch). With a monochrome color of furniture, black wallpapers with a red/gray pattern or for lovers of English checkered patterns — white/milk checkered wallpapers with red gridlines. The last option, by the way, can be considered more successful: a light milk or white background of the wallpapers slightly dilutes the intensity of the active red color, and the checkered pattern sets a particular style for the red kitchen.
Photo 5 — Tiles & More (Rasch, Germany) Kitchen Wallpapers, $22 per roll
The same type of wallpaper will also suit a blue kitchen and a salad-colored kitchen, as it is also available in corresponding colors with an unchanged light background.
Checkered patterns are also present in the Long Island series (AS Creation). The design of this coating, however, does not just set the tone for the room but rather imposes Scottish themes on a burgundy kitchen (also suitable for red kitchens with matching color).
The main difference and advantage of this series of wallpapers: the colors and patterns are chosen so that an atmosphere of home warmth and comfort is created. The series includes wallpapers with dominant red, burgundy, pale blue, muted beige and gray colors. For a classic 'home' kitchen, this is one of the best choices: restrained, functional (due to the use of practical vinyl on a solid felt base) and stylish.
Photo 6 — Long Island (AS Creation, Germany) Kitchen Wallpapers in Burgundy Color, $17 per roll
Photo 7 — Long Island (AS Creation, Germany) Kitchen Wallpapers in Beige Color, $24 per roll
French manufacturers
The Ugepa factory offers the choice of kitchen wall covering from the Botanique catalog. Based on the name, you can easily determine the main theme of the series: vinyl wallpapers on paper base with flowers. Mostly this is grapevines, orchids, and large roses. Color palette: from delicate lavender and pink (wallpapers with orchids), beige tones to rich magenta and golden (wallpapers with roses).
Photo 8 — Ugepa Kitchen Wallpapers (Series Botanique), $18 per roll
Ukrainian manufacturers
The most interesting catalogs of kitchen wallpapers are from TM 'Lanita' (series MNK) and the 'EDEM' wallpaper factory (series 'Versailles'), as well as wallpapers from TM 'Slavic Wallpapers' (especially Komfort Maria wallpapers).
In these catalogs, you can find wallpapers to look like brick, ceramic masonry, pastel striped wallpapers, and beautiful fantasy wallpapers suitable for black-and-white kitchens.
Photo 9 — Versailles Series (EDEM Factory) Kitchen Wallpapers, $13 per roll
Kitchen Wallpapers: Photos of Wallpapers in Interiors
Photo 10 — Rasch Wallpapers in Kitchen Interior
Photo 11 — AS Creation Wallpapers in Kitchen Interior
Photo 12 — Long Island (AS Creation) Wallpapers in Kitchen Interior
Trendy Kitchen Wallpapers
A kitchen can be called trendy in several cases, and following the latest trends is far from the first reason. The main thing: the style of the kitchen should be consistent from skirting boards to cabinet handles. Any detail can darken the overall pleasant image and stand out stylistically.
How to avoid this? You can entrust the kitchen to professionals. But that's extra expenses, and not always what a designer offers matches your vision of the room. You can do it simpler and make the kitchen in a simple minimalist style: maintain the color palette and don't overcrowd the kitchen with complex forms. To avoid monotony in such an important room as the kitchen, place bright accents on the apron above the work zone or decorate the kitchen with contrast textiles or household items.
It will look interesting in a kitchen decorated with wallpapers that have the same pattern but in different tones.
The main condition: to make sure you are comfortable in your kitchen. And designers' advice and guidance are secondary.
Today, trendy wallpapers are non-standard ones — 3D liquid coatings. However, they are not yet so widespread due to their high cost.
Photo 13 — Rasch Wallpapers (Germany) in Kitchen Interior
Let's summarize.
What wallpapers are best for the kitchen?
Vinyl wallpapers on felt base. Samples of such coating you can easily compare with vinyl wallpapers on paper base in any store selling wallpaper coatings. The difference will be noticeable right away.
What wallpapers to choose for the kitchen?
Start your selection by determining the color of the coating suitable for the color of your kitchen furniture. Once you're attached to the desired color, you can start experimenting with patterns and textures. Before selecting or purchasing wallpapers, take a sample of the wallpaper 'on trial' if possible: maybe the color of the furniture and wallpapers won't harmonize (or, by analogy, when choosing wallpapers, take a sample of the kitchen cabinet).
What wallpapers to apply to the kitchen?
Based on the examples and manufacturers' catalogs we provided above, the best wallpapers are German. They combine quality and reasonable price: these are beautiful, stylish, and minimalist wallpapers. In our review, we deliberately avoided American and Italian wallpapers: factories like York, undoubtedly, can also be considered industry leaders in design, and few other manufacturers can present something similar to American wallpapers, but the price of such wallpapers often exceeds the acceptable price limit.
Decorating the kitchen with wallpapers: how to do it correctly?
The main criterion here is your daily comfort. Psychologists, however, recommend choosing natural, non-aggressive colors: brown, green (salad), beige, milk-white. Bright colors should be used for decoration: for tableware color, textiles, and furniture elements.
Before applying the wallpapers, think again: have you considered all details.
Buy Kitchen Wallpapers
Kitchen wallpapers can be bought not only in a store and not only for the kitchen: Internet trade is becoming more popular due to the relative cheapness of the product and convenience in its selection. However, make a correction based on the store rating and customer reviews to avoid falling into the hands of fraudsters and take into account that the color of the wallpaper on the monitor and the real coating color can differ slightly.
An online store where you can try to buy kitchen wallpapers should have a decent design, feedback form, and provide users with all necessary information about the delivery method, payment options, and return procedure of the purchased item.
Price of Kitchen Wallpapers
- Kiev — from 87 UAH/roll;
- Moscow — from 450 rubles/roll.