Summer’s just around the corner, the pubs are opening up, restaurants are ready to welcome us back indoors, and soon, we’re even allowed to see friends and family in a room with a roof, doors and windows…
You’d be forgiven if redecorating was the last thing on your mind right now. But just as the blacksmiths would encourage you to strike while the iron is hot, we think that this period of hopeful optimism represents the perfect time to give your interior design a refresh. So, let’s celebrate new beginnings and a sense of buoyancy in the most prosaic but potent way possible; by putting up new wallpaper.
No redecoration project is more all-encompassing and impactful, and this season welcomes in several trends synonymous with forward thinking and freshness. And that’s exactly what we need right now. With the help of help of an adhesive specialist, Henkel, who know a thing or two about wallpaper adhesives, here are 5 key wallpaper trends to look out for in summer.
FAR EASTERN FLORALS
Recent years have seen tropical wallpaper, replete with palm leaf and the odd parrot, enjoying huge popularity in design magazines and Instagram alike. And whilst such aesthetics are still, admittedly, on trend (more of that later), a more understated botanic design looks set to be huge in summer 2021.
Indeed, putting up new flower wallpaper is becoming a more global endeavour, all from the comfort of home. Elegant Far Eastern florals, such as cherry Japanese blossoms, Chinoiserie garden murals and Vietnamese lotus flower designs, all in subtle pastel and warming hues, bring a soothing quality to the home, particularly in the living room.
Though the previous few years have seen restraint where patterns and imagery are concerned, expect such floral motifs to take centre stage this year, rather than being reserved for a corner of the room or a single section of the wall. Which brings us to…
MASSIVE MURAL LANDSCAPES
Feature walls be damned; the second half of 2021 is the very antithesis of the first; no more hiding indoors, looking inwards and finding only emptiness.
This one’s all about newly minted maximalism and showing off your bullish side. As such, expect entire walls to be canvases, ready to express the homeowner’s personality in a loud, proud way. Full walls dedicated to murals, particularly showing landscapes and scenes of nature and wildlife, are a major trend for summer 2021, and we love it.
TROPICAL & BOTANICAL
Tropical palm leaf wallpaper might sound like a bad idea, particularly in gloomy old Britain, but this style has been bang on trend for some time now, and shows no sign of slowing. A bit Kardashian, a little Love Island, perhaps, but there’s no fighting fashion sometimes. Fortunately, there’s more versatility than you might expect in its deployment; you can find deep forest greens, bluey emerald or even bright lime green palm leaf wallpaper prints out there.
That said, it’s important to practice contrast and restraint here; palm leaf wallpaper looks best surrounded by walls with a contrasting, single colour. Keep the neighbouring décor natural and subtle, or the effect will be jarring. Because most palm leaf wallpaper is highly detailed and abundant with beautiful patterns, simply designed furniture is a must, too.
Finally, do not, and we repeat, do not combine a tropical wall design with a floral, Far Eastern print in the same room.
TACTILE TEXTURES
‘’I wanna reach out and grab ya.’’ Though Steve Miller surely wasn’t singing about wallpaper in 2021, he might as well have been. Because wallpaper in tactile textures is everywhere right now, providing a strange kind of comfort in these incommodious times.
Some of 2021’s key textures are cork – popular for its sustainability – linen cloth, chenille and grasscloth, with cooling shades such as light grey, ecru and duck egg the preferred visual vehicle for these tactile flourishes. Though interior design has been keen to champion feature walls in the past, a textured wallpaper should, ideally, cover an entire wall or even room, allowing the comforting, dense nature of the choice to envelope the inhabitant.
GEOMETRIC DESIGNS
The first step in keeping your house interior up to date is, conversely, by casting your gaze backwards. Taking inspiration from abstract expressionist artwork, this year we’re embracing the abstract wall trend. While geometric wallpaper has been around for a while now, this trend takes things a step further – painting bold geometric shapes and playful big blocks of colour onto the wall itself. In some more daring designs, elements of the geometric pattern are in 3D, giving further life to that textured vibe we were previously extolling.
Painting geometric patterns in blocks of colour on your walls adds colour, texture, and vibrancy to a room, and has the canny ability to look both modern and transport you back to an era which interior designers love to label ‘vintage’.