How to Make Peel and Stick Wallpaper Look Expensive

The best compliment a wallpapered room gets is a guest asking who your installer was. Peel and stick can earn that question. What makes a wall look custom has very little to do with how the wallpaper is attached and almost everything to do with seven choices you make before and after it goes up. Here they are.

The short answer

Choose a matte material, pick a pattern scaled to the room, run every strip floor to ceiling, keep the trim crisp and light, wrap corners instead of stopping at them, light the wall warmly, and hang one good piece of art or a mirror on top. Do those and nobody will ask whether it is removable.

1. Go matte

Shine is what gives away a budget wallcovering. Our fabric peel and stick has a matte finish over a very fine micro-weave, so it reads like a traditional paper and does not glare under a flash or a pendant light. In bathrooms and kitchens where you want vinyl for wipeability, ours has only a slight satin sheen, and a dark or textured pattern hides it completely.

2. Scale the pattern to the room

A small repeat in a large room turns to static from across the space. A large repeat in a powder room never gets to show itself. As a rule, small rooms suit tight patterns and dark grounds, and large rooms suit bigger repeats and texture looks. Midnight Floral, in the bathroom above, has a 77 inch repeat, so no two eye-level sections look alike, and that irregularity is exactly what makes it look hand-painted.

3. One strip, floor to ceiling

Horizontal joins halfway up a wall are the clearest sign of a fixed-length roll. Order rolls cut to your wall height so each strip runs from baseboard to ceiling in one piece. Ours come in 60, 96, 108 and 122 inch lengths for exactly this reason. Measure the wallpapered height and choose the length a few inches longer; the method is in how much wallpaper do I need.

4. Frame it with crisp trim

Wallpaper looks most expensive when it stops at something: a baseboard, a door casing, crown moulding, wainscoting. White or light trim against a dark pattern is the classic designer move. If your trim is scuffed, a coat of paint on the trim alone does more for the finished wall than any other single step. Trim the wallpaper with a fresh blade against a straightedge so the line is clean.

5. Wrap the corners

An accent wall that stops dead at a corner can look like a sticker. Where you can, carry the pattern around the corner, into a window return, or across the whole nook. The customer dining nook in our dining room guide wraps a bay window and a corner, and that is why it looks built in.

6. Choose patterns that hide seams

Florals, botanicals, plaids, geometrics and texture looks all disguise the join between strips. Most of our patterns are a single-roll repeat, so every roll is identical and they match edge to edge. With 24 inch wide rolls there are also fewer seams to hide in the first place.

7. Light it and layer it

Warm bulbs and a pair of sconces make any wall look richer. Then put something on it: a mirror, a framed print, a shelf. A patterned wall behind a brass mirror reads as a decision; a patterned wall with nothing on it reads as unfinished. Wait a day after hanging before you put the art back.

Patterns that look like a finish

• Texture looks: linen, plaster, rattan and canvas from the surface and texture collection read as a wall treatment rather than a print.
• Dark florals: Midnight Floral and the darker grounds in the floral collection.
• Art deco and damask: Elegant Modern Leaves in Peacock and Damask Classic.
• Marble: the marble collection for powder rooms and bar nooks.
• Tailored stripes and plaid: Linen Look Stripes and Cozy Plaid.

Frequently asked questions

Does peel and stick wallpaper look real?

Yes. In a matte material, cut floor to ceiling and finished against clean trim, it is indistinguishable from traditional wallpaper once it is on the wall.

Which peel and stick material looks most high end?

Fabric. Its matte micro-weave finish has the look of a traditional paper.

Do designers use peel and stick wallpaper?

Yes, especially in powder rooms, dining rooms and rentals, and for clients who like to change a room every few years.

How do I see what it will look like before I commit?

Order a $5 sample, or the 24 x 24 inch sample for $27, and tape it up for two days.

Start with the dining room and bathroom collections, which is where a statement wall pays off most, or send us a photo of the room for two or three suggestions.