Design trends 2023: How to zhuzh up those boring walls

What do you do when you wake up to see flying saucers beaming up hapless humans in a forest or a classy female frog walking around with a parasol? It’s simple. You get out of bed, make a cup of tea and sip it while enjoying the whimsical design of the wallpaper you have chosen for your room.

Wallpaper also makes it to news headlines once in a while. Remember former UK PM Boris Johnson getting flak for a leaked expense list of his Downing Street apartment makeover that included ‘hand-crafted’ gold wallpaper costing £840 (Rs84,000 approximately) a roll?  And the outrage that followed chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s revelations after a visit to said flat to find the wallpaper starting to “peel off its own accord,” that had “actually been painted over by Liz Truss”?

Disaster for wallpaper PR, you might say, but in India demand is on an upward trajectory, say designers. Even though you might think paint and lipai-potai are the only solutions given the country’s extreme temperatures and humidity.

The beginnings

Interestingly, our neighbours, the Chinese, seem to have invented wallpaper during the Qin Dynasty period between 221 BC and 206 BC. It was rice paper first before they graduated to silks and linen, all beautifully hand painted. European traders with links to China and Japan and desperate to show off their nouveau riches brought the wallpapers first to their countries in the 17th century, making Chinoiserie, a movement inspired by Chinese and other Asian countries’ motifs and art traditions, quite the rage.

Today you get varied options from plain old paper to leather, faux leather and vinyl, metal (with a special two-layer coating, the base made of porous paper and the top made of the aluminum foil), grasscloth (made with jute, hemp, sisal fibre, cork, reed and grass) and even scratch and sniff wallpaper!

Clients of Sarabjit Singh, founder and architectural designer of New Delhi-based boutique architecture and interior design practice, Villa Ortiga, are now choosing wallpaper over paint to create accent walls for “providing a warm and inviting finish to any space.” Installation is easy thanks to advanced technology. Improving quality also means durability, with little need for maintenance, he adds.

New designs, new material post-Covid has altered the demand, says Rakhee Bedi Kumar, co-founder and principal of Gurugram-based design, build and architecture firm, RSDA.

Clients of designer Rubina Dhankar, also based in Gurugram, have been asking for wallpaper after word-of-mouth recommendations from people she has worked with previously.  That and “we are often told we use wall papers in a rather adventurous fashion,” she laughs.

Quick solutions

Wallpaper makes for a “quick solution for tight deadlines. It’s also one of the most viable solutions if the residents are allergic to paint or dust. Additionally, the versatility of wallpaper in terms of design and application has made it a popular choice in Indian homes,” says Devika Khosla, creative director of New Delhi based interior and furniture design studio, The Works Interiors.

Bedi Kumar agrees. When short of time she has convinced clients to opt for wallpaper, which “by virtue uplifts the space instantly.” Someone whose go-to brands are Casamance, Sanderson, Zimmerman, Nilaya and Andrew Martin, she has also taken the paper route when lack of space has prevented other wall treatment applications. “Sometimes, paint also tends to look boring,” she says.

Check for seepage before hanging wallpaper. “It's the dampness related to construction flaws that causes damage,” advises Dhankar.

Wallpaper can last for six to 10 years, which is almost twice the lifespan of regular paint. Maintenance is relatively easy and if done regularly will mean a longer lifespan. Vacuuming once a week or cleaning with a semi-dry cloth is all it requires. Any tear can be patched up to restrict further damage, advises Singh.

Avoid abrasive cleaning agents, says Khosla.

Installation is easy for the non-pasted, pre-pasted or self-adhesive varieties. Non-pasted requires a premixed paste/adhesive, which is applied to the paper with a roller after the walls get a coat of primer. Pre-pasted paper comes with a paste backing which has to be wetted before it’s put up.

Most products today are peel and stick types which require removal of the protective cover before installation.

There’s a lot to choose from. You have digital to abstract and floral prints, landscapes, seascapes, copies of famed masterpieces – yes, even the Great Wave off Kanagawa by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai – etchings on leather, even 3D designs in all kinds of colours and textures. Why, US-based company Flavor Paper has even featured Andy Warhol art and audaciously created scratch-and-sniff wallpaper with water-based adhesive containing micro encapsulated fragrance oils.

Make your choice

To make that decision right now, “pick a floral printed wallpaper for a vibrant and tropical look. On the other hand, for spaces with a neutral and classic look, a monochrome wallpaper with embossed texture or a three-dimensional wall finish will be dynamic,” advises Khosla.

If in any case one is not bored with the style and the product is well maintained then four to five years is a good period of time to opt for a change, adds Bedi Kumar.

Question of money

The approximate cost of a standard-size wallpaper roll of about 32.97 ft x 1.73 ft, which covers around 57 sq ft, is around Rs 8–15 per sq ft. “However, we prefer using premium ones that offer better finish and aesthetics and are durable too. They start at about Rs 200 per roll and can go up to Rs 1 lakh. One roll covers about 60 sq ft of the wall finish area,” says Singh.

It’s personal

Khosla loves textures, geometric patterns and tropical prints.

Bedi Kumar too is “biased towards” textures, especially silk and fabric ones in mellow or vibrant colours for their “elegant appeal and understated aesthetic.”

Singh, whose top picks include Sanderson, Zoffany and Ananbo Paris, the all-time favourite being Villa Ortiga, loves a blend of classy with eclectic, “so it's stripes and botanical themes that we favour,” he says.

Out of harm’s way

Since it’s smart to be safe, buyers should ask for products free of arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium and tin. The pigment inks used should be non-toxic. Avoid products coated with PVC/vinyl that have plasticisers or toxic flame retardants. PVC-free vinyl fabric is made from polyester which is also plasticiser-free and phthalate-free. It can be recycled and does not release any harmful microplastics, lead, mercury, or chlorine, keeping indoor air quality healthy.

Trend forecasts for 2023

Khosla is batting for neutral colours like ivory and grey, which, apart from their “calming effect”, make rooms look large.

Stripes go well with neutral furniture. (Photo courtesy: Villa Ortiga)

Colour pops are being introduced into neutral spaces through accent walls or wallpapers, says the designer, who has special preference for the Asian Paints collections created in collaboration with brands such as Nicobar, Good Earth, and Sabyasachi; as well as Floor and Furnishings; and Cottons and Satins.

Bedi Kumar feels florals, botanicals and deep-coloured silk textures will dominate even as Singh forecasts a takeover by bold, vivid prints, bohemian style patterns, avant-garde themes and monochrome designs.

Views on use

Singh has found best use of wallpaper as backdrops for larger spaces. This has worked well for him in living rooms where a neutral sofa rests against a bespoke or eye-catching accent wall. The lobby he had done up for an equestrian club had a back wall which got a fabulous landscape theme, “giving off a very tropical vibe.”

With the peel and stick wallpaper options available today, people can experiment and play with multiple options. If one has a particular design in mind, many vendors offer customisation. Some artists even hand-paint the wallpapers, says Khosla.

Bedi Kumar has banked on wallpapers for projects that have a tight timeline and handover looming up.  “There have been instances when we have not been satisfied with the texture of the wall and want to add a pop of colour without intervening in any civil work or wood work.”

All in all, interiors are really getting zhuzhed up. “In almost all homes we have done, wallpapers have livened up the spaces with just the right amount of colour and warmth,” says Dhankar, whose favourite brands are Cole & Sons and Good Earth.

Someone who “vibes well with textured and woven styles,” Dhankar says checks tick all the right boxes for her. “We could drown ourselves in checks if we could. Stripes, checks, large, life size, it’s all very us,” she adds.