I don't know that I'd call it "out" (because I really tend not to care what the trends are, and just kinda have a mental block against that terminology - LOL!), but it's probably not used as much anymore because it's more or less a permanent fixture. Whereas with paint, you can change that to your heart's content with minimal effort and expense. I do have wallpaper in my house - but it's the textured, paintable kind. Best of both worlds, I guess?
;-)

I think it depends on where you live and what rooms. Borders do seem to be a thing of the past. Many people have turned to faux painting instead of wallpaper. Personally, I like wallpaper, especially in a powder room or above a chair rail in a dining room. We recently moved to Florida and all the homes in our area have textured orange peal walls so you cant wallpaper.

Well, I never pay attention to what other people declare is In or Out, but judging by the trendy people here in Chicago, you'd think that wallpaper, like shiny brass hardware--which is also everywhere I look this year--was a brand new invention. Silly rabbits. Anyway, like they say, everything old is new again.

Then again, you're in Kentucky, not generally known as the cutting edge of trends. There are lots of areas like that, like the town where I grew up. By the time a look first shows up there, it's already a tired cliche around here, and the [i]fashionistas[/i] have already forgotten about it. But it's all good, part of the grand plan known as the Circle of Life.

Don't tell my vestibule that WP is out! I just picked up a sample for the upper portion of the walls & I don't care what anyone thinks!

As MV says, it has been so out, it's in again. You usually see it used in different ways now than it was before. Usually without a border and often just on an accent wall. I've seen lots of bold prints on a neutral background or neutral on neutral on neutral, but usually a big pattern like a damask or wide stripes.

I'm thinking the cost of WP phased it out. Paint is SO much more affordable!

And yes magna... we are a buncha backwards *hillbillies* here in Ky! LOL. We DO have that reputation ya know. There seems to be a difference with the major cities like Lexington and Louisville. They're more like *city folk* around these parts. :-) Ya know Diane Sawyer on GMA is from Louisville KY and laughs and ALWAYS corrects people who *mispronounce* the name of her hometown. It's easy to tell who *speaks southern* when it comes to saying Louisville. Most people try to say "Louis-ville" but around here it's "Lou-ville" or "Loua-ville". I once knew a guy who moved here from NY and he scoffed at our slang and accent and swore we were 'making words up'... till I found a published book titled 'How to speak southern' and gave to him, pointing out all the words he said I 'made up'. (like *youngins*) I told him if he was gonna live in the south, he may as well learn the language! ROFL Well, I got a little off-topic, didn't I?!

I like wallpaper if it's really nice wallpaper... and in limited doses. I do think borders are "out" -- every time I see a border I think it's screaming "No one has updated this room in at least 15 years!" (Not that there's anything wrong with that... but you asked.) I have wallpaper in my house only where I have to -- in my son's room where the walls were crumbling down around him! Basically the paper is holding up the walls. Someone else mentioned wallpaper in a powder room and it's funny, because that is the one room where I keep thinking I wouldn't mind putting up wallpaper. Why is that??

I would do any number of terrible things to be able to wallpaper my house, but I just can't afford it. :-( Of course, all the papers I like are ridiculously expensive, too. Good wallpaper IS pricey, significantly more so than a couple of gallons of paint, so the more fickle types who don't have bottomless pockets are certainly going to gravitate to the cheap, easily-changed option.

(Me, I very much have a "thing" about faux painting - IMO faux painting is truly an art form and most of what's out there is plain terrible, the fault of HGTV and its ilk suggesting that anyone with a bucket of glaze and some baggies can create a professional-looking result. I cannot tell you how much ghastly faux painting we saw when househunting.)

I live in the Chicago area, also. M is correct. I am seeing wallpaper in all the upscale models around here. To me, it's like fabric, there are beautiful ones and ones that aren't.

Personally, I love looking at wallpaper books. So much of it is gorgeous but expensive if you can't do the labor yourself. Everyone loved the wallpaper I had in my master bath when we sold our last house.

I think too many people remember the pain they had taking old wallpaper down. I know some people won't buy a house with wallpaper because of the work involved.

That said, wallpaper always seems to be in style in high-end NYC apartments. But this is super-expensive wallpaper in homes that are probably redecorated every few years, and the homeowner doesn't do the work.

WP is beautiful, and becoming a "high-end" trend again (look at any of the beautiful new tv shows---all the houses and Manhattan apts have gorgeous wp). However, I will NEVER use wp in my house because of having to remove all the wp when we moved into this home. It was the hardest thing we've diy'd in this house---I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I know that my tastes change...what I love now will probably not be what I love 10yrs from now...so no wp for us!

I have seen so many beautiful, elegant rooms in wall paper that made me drool. The down side is when you are ready for a change, itÂs a huge job to remove it. the adhesive removal is another story :) I just removed all the wall paper from my kitchen, not pleasant at all. I personally do not think it will ever be out of style .. but it will have to be something you will be pleased to look at for years and years and years and years to come lol!
Ree

All our bathrooms are wallpapered, and we are planning to wallpaper the master closet and possibly the laundry room. I love wallpaper. You can make a very bold statement with it that has more "movement" than paint. In a powder room you can use a very strong or patterned paper that is confined to a small room that you don't live with every day. One of our bathrooms is papered in a red and yellow Chinoiserie toile that is beautifully vivid. I loved it so much I wanted touse it in the dining room, too, but the designer said it had to be confined... and he was right. (The frame holds a nicely worded statement about what--and what not--to flush down a septic tank)

I love wallpaper as well. Dh just can't figure out how I can spends hours online looking at wallpaper.
I am using wallpaper in a few locations in new house, dining room, fromal powder room, laundry room, dd's bathroom, master bedroom but not master bath.
I absolutely love the way it makes a home feel. I am getting it from Farrow & Ball and Thaibut. They both have beautiful papers.

Wallpaper is IN if YOU picked it.

Wallpaper is OUT if someone ELSE picked it.

kswl, that is one gorgeous powder room...very sophisticated!

LOL Canobeans! Style IS a very individual taste, isn't it?

kswl, That is the same WP that I have in my powder room except that mine is tan and black. I love it but I know some people do not like it. I am not sure if I should keep it up when we put the house on the market.

I love WP but it is a major PITA to take down - even if the walls were prepared correctly.

I love wallpaper, but don't have more of it because the cats love to claw at it.

I was out for a walk recently, and I have to admit to looking in windows when I walk past houses - not in a peeping tom way! I just like to glance in to see what the house looks like...from the street, not in the bushes....you know what I mean, right?

Anyway.

So the last time I was out for a walk, I noticed a beautiful house that had the most gorgeous cream and pale blue wallpaper in the foyer. The house is in an upscale neighborhood. Not that people with money necessarily have good taste, but this house was well taken care of and really beautiful.

I love wallpaper. Hate the work of taking it down. This photo makes me think it would almost be worth it though. I just LOVE this.

{{!gwi}}

I can see where this would be super dated down the road, but really, what isn't? If you love it, go for it!

This wallpaper makes me swoon. Unfortunately, I'd probably get sick of it sooner or later and it's too expensive and too time consuming to put up on a whim. Sadly, paint is much easier to change.

{{!gwi}}

(BTW, this is Thibaut paper.)

it's being pushed again... It looks good but I would never ever put up wall paper again for anything..what a PITA to take off.

It is out for me. I just find that I get tired of wallpaper
whereas I don't with paint. I am going with paint thru-out
in my new home.

Robynpa, I love it in black and taupe! Honestly, whether you take it down when you sell or leave it depends on your area and likely buyers. We've always had strong colours and distinctive patterns to wallpaper, paint, and curtains, and have never had a house on the market for
longer than a month. If you house is very nicely decorated, people see themselves living there---even if it isn't really their taste.

Maybe wallpaper was out back in 1951 too. At any rate, that's when my in-laws decided to paint their interior walls, which were all wallpapered. DH was about 3 years old, so they let him draw cowboys and indians all around the walls first. He had a blast. :)

Interestingly enough, the walls had neither plaster or sheetrock. The wallpaper was applied directly over a wooden lath - the type that is often used as a foundation for plaster. They had to hang sheetrock before they could paint.

Here is a link that might be useful: article and pic of lath and plaster wall

Last fall I decided to remove my wallpaper in my powder room and paint. The paper came off like a dream, but the awful paste was another story. My DH spent 4 hrs. in that tiny room using a putty knife and spraying the walls with water mixed with fabric softener (what the guy who originally did the papering told us to use) I am now going to remove the paper I have in my kitchen, dinette, front hall and up my stairs. Is there some trick I should know about? It will be torture to again get the paste off I think. And I will probably never paper again! But no, I don't think wallpaper is out.

Wallpaper is definitely in again in the large metropolitan areas. Graphic patterns like that gorgeous Thibaut paper posted above or updated designs from the 60's are popular.

Problems with wallpaper, as everyone agrees, is it is very personal, you can tire of it quickly, horrid to remove and can hinder selling a home and it can be very pricy. But it can add such a punch of design to a room. Consider thinking outside the box - maybe an accent wall or framing sections of the wall and wallpapering within the sections. I've seen people placing wallpaper in frames to hang on the wall.

I've never been fond of the typical border print, but there are gorgeous and expensive William Morris styles that make graceous borders.

Sky

I have lots of old decor mags and books, I don't think wallpaper has ever been out. Certainly some styles, yes...probably won't see many geese-with-bonnets anytime soon.

I myself prefer paint, because I can change it with little trouble.

I am always ready to be awed by a lovely foiled wallpaper in someone's swanky foyer or bathroom, however.

Joanna

kentucky,

Thanks for the input. When I took my paper off, there was fortunately no layer left underneath. The guy who papered did a really nice job with sizing. It was literally just the paste that was left but it was really annoying to deal with. My DH and were just talking, and I think I'm going to remove this next paper myself but hire someone to get rid of the paste. My DH says he just doesn't want to deal with it in such a large space.

Ohhhhh, I love wallpaper. I think it can create such drama in a room like the above pictures - which I love!! It can also be very subtle. I also love contrasting wallpaper on the ceiling - esp in a powder room. I do not have any in this house....but will. I put in a Thibaut toile in my Mbath in my previous house & 5 years later I would still love to have that wallpaper.
I am also kinda snobby with wallpaper - only like the expensive stuff (maybe that is why I have none)

I was trying to talk DH into switching the guest room to a room with sloped ceilings - my plan was to cover every inch in wallpaper. I got vetoed:(

Smiles:)

Smiles:)

I have a love-hate thing with wallpaper. In the right style house, with the right subtle pattern, and broken up with something -- wainscot, chair rail, only one wall, etc. -- wallpaper can be very pretty. OTOH, I HATE HATE HATE removing wallpaper. Our guest room, which doubles as a playroom when we don't have guests over, has the previous owners' navy, red and white plaid PLAID wallpaper, peeling in corners, and a badly installed chair rail. My DD, who is turning 4, was laying on the guest bed with me the other weekend. We were just having a chat. She starts squinting at the wallpaper. "That's ugly, mommy." "You mean the wallpaper?" "Yeah. Those blue squares on the wall. They're ugly." "I know, but it's really hard to remove." "Oh," she says. "It's still ugly."

Now, if I had an old, traditional house instead of my 1964 California side split level, I would seriously consider some wainscot and one of those gorgeous papers posted by Val or Dee. Instead, I'm trying to find time to strip ugly Navy americana plaid wallpaper from my guest room. You can bet I won't be replacing it with more paper, either. The nice thing about paint is that when the wall gets dingy or I get tired of the color, I can go out and buy a gallon or two and slap it on the wall. I can even splurge with expensive paints and still come out ahead of the game.

Sarchlos, you have my deepest sympathy on the wallpaper issue. Perhaps the following will make you feel better. One of the bedrooms in my house had a chair rail, with a nursery wallpaper, call it "contemporary-bears-with-balloons. Above the chair rail was raised/textured/sponged easter-lilac and powder blue splotches.

Underneath the nursery paper was kind of a country gingham pattern. Still wanting to get to the paneling underneath, I started to pull that off, and found the original paneling was actually alternating strips of orange and brown melamine-finish paneling, glued to the walls (house was built in '71).

When I saw that, I gave up and had the whole room resheetrocked :-)

Joanna

Oh, Joanna, I can totally picture that nursery! I'm afraid we may have to have the room resheetrocked, too. I've tried peeling part of the wallpaper off and it looks like the walls weren't primed before they put up the wallpaper.

I put wallpaper in my powder room. Even for such a small space, it was a LOT of work! I think part of the reason for people using less wallpaper is the expense/work of the labor. Paint seems a lot easier and less permanent.

A pic of my powder room - I haven't started decorating yet:

{{!gwi}}

Can't say whether it's in or out, as I don't pay much attention, but a definite selling point of this house was the lack of wallpaper. Neither my husband or I wanted to deal with removing wallpaper from the walls.

I've noticed wallpaper used more & more in the decor magazines, usually a subtle tone on tone style like some of the above pictures (beautiful, btw). Unfortunately, for the average homeowner, the bulk of the affordable patterns are ugly, in the same old dull colorways, and in medium sized prints that look too busy.

To my shock, I've seen small print & mini-print wallpapers in pictures of old or historic homes, and they seem so...refreshing! I thought that style was dead & gone!

I'm w/the above - beautiful wp is IN!!

we put wp in kids bath (could not find a paint color that worked) & DR (Friend convinced me) Thiabut has beautiful choices

Here is a link that might be useful: Thiabut

I see several of you have mentioned having it in your bathroom. I have it in mine also and love it. However, I'd like to get rid of the wallpaper in my kitchen. Do you think of wallpaper as being more outdated when it's in the kitchen or is that coming back too?

Laurie