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Expert Talk: Treat the Eyes to Dining Room Wallpaper
For a visual feast and plentiful servings of style in the dining room, pro designers show how wallpaper fits the bill
Houzz Contributor. After graduating from UC Berkeley, I found myself utterly unprepared for the real world and at a loss as to what I should do next. Luckily, one day I stumbled through the doors of Architectural Digest and was taken under the wing of legendary editor Paige Rense. She had the vision to look past my uninspiring sociology degree and my general lack of experience—an unlikely journalism career was born. After AD, with my magazine karma still intact, I was hired by yet another publishing legend, the food critic and writer Ruth Reichl. I currently ply my trade as a freelance writer and editor and live in stylish Mid-Century-Modern comfort with my dog, Mike.
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From subtle to very bold, dining room wallpapers can be conversation starters when your guests arrive for a dinner party. And why not? To quote Bonnie Raitt, "Let's give them something to talk about." Here are nine designers who have done just that.
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Dream big. This dining room is in a home in Napa Valley, California, that overlooks a winery. "The views from the dining room are wonderful, and I wanted to add some unexpected flair to the space to send it a little over the top," says Jennifer Visosky of Grace Home Design.
She adds, "I was drawn to the lovely pattern and clever color palette of this Romo paper and opted to cover all the walls in the dining room, the breakfast banquette and the back shelving wall in the kitchen. Each of these spaces is separate, but I thought it was important to visually tie them together. I was inspired by the warm, subtle but still in-your-face quality of this paper. It made me want to crawl in a chair, drink lemonade and dream of wine country."
Wallpaper: Marielle Alpine, Romo
She adds, "I was drawn to the lovely pattern and clever color palette of this Romo paper and opted to cover all the walls in the dining room, the breakfast banquette and the back shelving wall in the kitchen. Each of these spaces is separate, but I thought it was important to visually tie them together. I was inspired by the warm, subtle but still in-your-face quality of this paper. It made me want to crawl in a chair, drink lemonade and dream of wine country."
Wallpaper: Marielle Alpine, Romo
| Be blue. "We built this room around the client's turquoise dinner plates," say Trevor Ciona and Curtis Elmy of Atmosphere Interior Design. "The wallpaper had the perfect color in it, and the Osborne & Little pattern was unexpected and perfect with the client's color story." |
| Dine with drama. This space was also designed by Trevor Ciona and Curtis Elmy. "The walls in the house were mostly white, and this wall needed some drama," they say. The client loves everything black and white, so an easy solution was at hand. "This trellis pattern from Kelly Wearstler has a gloss-black overlay, which provides some depth without being too busy." |
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Provide a visual link. "The wall covering for this dining room was selected to complement the adjacent living room and also to provide visual interest in lieu of painting the rooms the same or a similar color," says designer Michael Abrams. "The same wall covering was also used in the home's foyer. This treatment ties all three spaces together."
He adds, "I encourage my clients to use wall covering to add tremendous depth and visual interest to a room. I mainly recommend textural wall covering, such as grass cloths, linens or silks, since they remain timeless. While wall coverings are more expensive than paint, they provide a huge impact and are worth the expense. And wall coverings used intermittently with paint create unexpected visual interest."
He adds, "I encourage my clients to use wall covering to add tremendous depth and visual interest to a room. I mainly recommend textural wall covering, such as grass cloths, linens or silks, since they remain timeless. While wall coverings are more expensive than paint, they provide a huge impact and are worth the expense. And wall coverings used intermittently with paint create unexpected visual interest."
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| Entertain in style. These homeowners had already purchased their dining room table, chairs and buffet before they hired Peggy Scinta of P. Scinta Designs. "The wife loves the color blue and had the room painted a very deep color that made it seem dark and lifeless," she says. "The goal was to create a glamorous and sophisticated space that would be perfect for entertaining the physician husband’s colleagues. The furniture, a large round table and buffet with mirrored front, was a great start. The wallpaper — silvery blue with a large-scale gold/silver metallic ogee print — became the inspiration for the room. We then selected a small-scale gold damask for the custom drapery and added a soft blue to the ceiling. The room went from ho-hum and flat to soft and shimmery." She adds, "We use wallpaper frequently in our projects, as it is so in vogue right now and the possibilities are endless!" Wallpaper: Julian, Thibaut, Metallic Blue |
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| Go garden green. The inspiration for this dining room was a garden that's framed by the room's windows. "The clients wanted the majority of the house interiors to reflect the cool blues and greens found on property," says designer Elizabeth Gordon. "The grounds were renovated as well, and I wanted many of the rooms to feel like an extension of the garden spaces surrounding the house." Ceiling covering: custom design, Robert Crowder; artwork: "Woods," Lee Jofa |
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| Focus on the positive. "The niche in which the dining table sits is rather deep and far from the outside windows," says Yuval Amitzi of Amitzi Architects. "It therefore lacks natural light, and this top-lit wallpaper surface provides an alternative focus for the dining space." Wallpaper: Moroso |
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Strike a pose. Gray silk wallpaper was chosen as a sensual background for this room in London. "The client’s collection of modern art strikes a dramatic pose on the shimmering background of the paper," says Andrew Fiscus of Bruce Norman Long Interior Design. "The gray silk also provides a nice foil to the colorful drama of the dining chair fabric."
Trick the eye. He sure fooled me. When I asked Garrison Hullinger about this wall covering, he informed me that it's actually a hand-painted custom stencil, not wallpaper. "It was a custom design that I came up with, and I had the artist hand-apply the LusterStone paint with a small palette knife. It takes many layers of the paint/plaster to get this much depth," he says.
Comments
Casart Coverings It "makes my heart sing" whenever I read so many complimentary quotes about wallcovering from designers. I'm confident they'd be even more pleased if they tried using the new types that do not require the installation mess of glue or paste, can also be repositioned for installation ease and are easily removable without leaving any residue behind on surfaces. Another plus-they can be reused or repurposed for seasonal decorating, staging, or moving to another abode.
11 months ago · Like
Donna Frasca Very nice Larry! I'm not a fan of wallpaper at all but when it works - it works. It's always a question, to wallpaper or to paint? With papers like these it'd be hard to decide!
11 months ago · Like
Ideabook published on June 28, 2012.
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