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Many of us are itching to dip our toes in the sea or have lunch at a sun-soaked cafe. But our reality is most likely a daily dose of nature on our fire escape or a masked walk around the block. Thankfully, there is a way to bring nature home that doesn’t involve traveling (or seasonal allergies): wallpaper.
Covering your space in a lush leafy print might just make you feel like you’re on a mini-vacation every time you enter the room. The best part: the good vibes will last long after quarantine is over. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
The Subtle Pattern
Niki Bergen and Andrew Zuckerman are the creatives behind Ikebana-inspired wallpaper company Superflower Studio, so it’s unsurprising that every wall in their Chelsea apartment is covered in colorful flora. In their living room, they used their Cannonball print, a dainty motif in muted shades of moss, to give their city home a wild twist. While they look out onto concrete buildings every day, they’re immersed in nature at home.
The Common Thread
Designer Summer Thornton gave a Chicago kids’ room the enchanted treatment with a Scalamandre wallpaper inspired by Central Park. She pulled verdant hues from the design to use on the room’s trim, upholstered beds, window seat, and even wall-to-wall carpet for an all-encompassing effect.
The Landscape
In this moody San Francisco Craftsman, designers Leann Conquer and Alexis Tompkins from Chroma lined the hallways in a custom De Gournay wall covering and muddy green trim to frame the tree-filled “views.”
The Sartorial Pick
De Gournay has been creating hand-painted wallpapers in leafy schemes since 1986, and their recent collaboration with fashion designer Erdem feels like a real-life magical garden of brightly hued tulips, hydrangeas, and chrysanthemums.
The Cozy Nook
To combat the London gloom in his apartment, British designer Ben Pentreath brought in a vining wallpaper from William Morris. He paired it with a firetruck red wrought-iron bed frame and a vibrant yellow bedspread to energize the small space.
The Daring Combo
It was never a question that Kate Brodsky Rheinstein’s Hamptons home would be filled with color and pattern (her mom is print-loving designer Suzanne Rheinstein). In her daughters’ room, the founder of KRB, a home and antiques shop in New York City, embraced the orange-and-green scheme in the nasturtium wallpaper by Lake August, using the same colors for the paint, furniture, and bedding.
The All-Out Option
Calico didn’t hold back with their latest wallpaper launch, Overgrow, papering the walls and ceiling of a wood-paneled room at Schloss Hollenegg, a 12th-century Austrian castle, in dripping vines. Applying the motif overhead was no easy feat—the non-repeating sheets had to be tailored to fit in between the coffers so it looked like the vines were trickling down the wall—but the enveloping result was worth the effort.
It’s hammer time: Follow @reno_notebook for easy rental updates, clever DIYs, and tips to nail your next project.