Los Angeles Times - 09.11.2019

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Location, location,

location

Falling in love with a wallpaper
is one thing, but deciding where to
install it is a more challenging con-
sideration. Should it blanket a
room or serve as an accent? Is it
best in a busy foyer or a formal din-
ing area?
Sarah Sherman Samuel, a de-
signer based in Grand Rapids,
Mich., said she likes to use it in
areas with limited natural light.
“Hallways, laundry rooms and of-
fices often lack windows,” she said.
“Sunlight playing off painted walls
really enhances their visual inter-
est, but when you don’t have it,
wallpaper can play that role.”
Rooms with less natural light
also tend to be small, so taking a
bold approach does not feel over-
powering. Tapert Howe said she al-
ways uses wallpaper in powder
rooms, which turns them into jewel
boxes. “You can do something dar-
ing because you are in there for four
minutes.” Small rooms are also a
great canvas to innovate without
overspending, she said. “It’s a
cheap thrill. You only need three
rolls of a fabulous paper versus a
fortune in a larger room.”
When it comes to wallpapered

accent walls, that old trend has

moved on. “I never want to see that

again,” said Tapert Howe. “If it’s

your dorm room or first rental

apartment, it’s fun and econo-

mical, but otherwise it looks ran-

dom.” That does not mean wall-

paper should never be used to ac-

centuate part of a room if you do

not want it throughout. “Find an

alcove or the back of a bookcase or

do a ceiling, which is like a fresco,”

she suggests.

A dash of wallpaper almost al-

ways succeeds in kids’ rooms, said

Rasken. For a boy’s bedroom in

Westport, Conn., she used a fun

boombox wallpaper by Aimée

Wilder on some walls but painted

the others a matching color. “If you

aren’t going to wallpaper an entire

room, find a way to tie things to-

gether cohesively,” she said. “Coor-

dinating paint with wallpaper is a

great trick.”

Picking a paper

When selecting a wallpaper, al-

ways order samples. “Get a whole

roll of your top contender,” sug-

gests Tapert Howe, because it will

show how the pattern repeats. “A

small square cutting will have one

flower, but seeing 700 may make

you realize it’s too much.”

The size of a room also offers a

helpful filter. Typically, larger

rooms require a larger pattern. “It

looks dizzying if it’s too small,” said

Tapert Howe. Small rooms can

handle a greater variety of designs,

but even professionals can be sur-

prised by how a pattern looks in-

stalled. When she saw the wall-

paper she chose for her daughter’s

nursery on the walls, Sherman

Samuel realized it had to be re-

placed. “The monkeys in it were

suddenly terrifyingin person.”

Wallpaper is also much more

than patterned paper. Silk, linen

and other textiles can be paper-

backed and applied like traditional

wallpaper. A perennial favorite of

designers for a textured, minimal

look is grass cloth, which is made of

woven natural fibers and can cost

$50 to $600 per roll. “It can go any-

where,” Tapert Howe said. “You

can dress it up in a chic New York

apartment, and it looks equally at

home in a Malibu beach house.”

One more way to narrow the

field is with the style of the home.

An English floral paper might not

gel with a midcentury home, for ex-

ample, but some brilliant pairings

are less obvious. For the foyer of her

Westport project, a modern farm-

house, Rasken chose a black-and-

white grid with irregular lines from

Lee Jofa. “It looks like someone

took a Sharpie to the wall,” she

said, adding it gave the room the

perfect edge. “It’s a contemporary,

neutral play on a traditional pat-

tern, and so it really worked.”

Measure a million

times, install once

Finding an expert installer is as

important as picking out a wall-

paper you will enjoy for years. De-

signers recommend doing this

early in the process, as installers

can help with selecting the right

amount of paper following a site

visit. “I don’t order a paper unless

the installer comes first,” said

Rasken. “There’s so much room for

error.”

Sarah Merenda, a master in-

staller with her own line of papers,

has been working with wallpaper

for 20 years, having studied as an

apprentice under her uncle. She

advises designers and clients to

pick someone accredited on the

Wallcovering Installers Assn. web-

site.

An installer’s fee will vary some-

what but Merenda, based in New

York, requires a $700 minimum and

charges $5 per square foot of the

job, plus extra costs for materials

and wall preparation. She can per-

fectly put up wallpaper anywhere a

client wants it but says it is impor-

tant to think of the material as a liv-

ing organism with a temperament,

just like the homes and homeown-

ers involved.

“You’re dealing with humidity,

heat, dryness and cold, plus so

many other factors,” she said, add-

ing that she’s had wallpaper peel

off after installation and pull the

plaster off the walls. “Wallpaper is

an art and a science and a mood,”

she said. “It is magic and always, al-

ways worth it.”

ONE-STEP MAKEOVER

Is wallpaper

in the home

still a thing?

By Lexi Mainland

In its five-century history, wallpaper has come and gone from the

spotlight too many times to count. But whether loved or loathed, it al-

ways inspires strong emotions.

The Victorians were so obsessed they covered every wall and ceiling

with wallpaper — to such an extreme that it occasionally poisoned them.

(Color-enhancing arsenic was an unfortunate 19th century ingredient.)

Later, the Franco-Swiss architect and wallpaper hater Le Corbusier fa-

mously decreed, “Every citizen is required to replace his wallpaper with a

plain coat of whitewash.”

Despite its massive popularity now, homeowners can be hesitant to

take the wallpaper plunge, said Lauren Rasken of Lauren A. Balkan

Designs in New York. “It’s a much bigger commitment than paint,” she

explained. Wallpaper can, however, have a more transformative effect,

said Georgia Tapert Howe, a Los Angeles-based designer. “It creates a

world, more than anything else,” she said. “When you walk into a room
with beautiful paper, you’re completely transported.”

GEORGIATapert Howe decorated this beachy Santa Monica dining room with Eskayel wallpaper.

Sam Frost

PINKagate wallpaper by

Sarah Sherman Samuel lines

the walls in a guest bedroom.

Sarah Sherman Samuel

DESIGNERGeorgia Tapert

Howe says powder rooms are

the perfect place for wallpaper.

Sam Frost

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