Should You Wallpaper A Whole Room Or Just An Accent Wall?

Wallpaper can be a fun and easy way to add all kinds of patterns and personality to your room. So you might be wondering if using wallpaper on an accent wall is going to look strange without adding it to the rest of the room. This can make a big difference in your workload and transform the whole scene. As such, we have thoroughly researched the topic to bring you the answer.

Because there are so many different kinds of wallpaper, it is acceptable to wallpaper the entire room or just an accent wall. Selecting the right pattern, texture, and color for your wallpaper can make sure that the accent wall or room will not be visually overwhelming. And because the accent wall is already intended to be a unique focal point, its wallpaper will not look out of place.

Wallpaper can be easy to apply, especially with simple peel-and-stick products on the market. But choosing the wrong wallpaper can create a lot of unbalance in your room. So, keep reading to learn how to wallpaper different numbers of walls and even how to make your room look bigger or smaller.

Glueing Wallpapers with Armchair, Should You Wallpaper A Whole Room Or Just An Accent Wall?

Is it OK to wallpaper one wall?

It probably seems odd to add wallpaper onto a single wall, but it can work as long as you choose the right wall. You can read the post Which Wall To Wallpaper? (Including Illustrated Examples) to learn more. Mainly, you just need to make sure that the wall is your room’s definitive focal point.

You can create a focal point using wallpaper. Or, you can determine an existing focal point by following the natural flow of your room’s decor or structure. For example, the ideal wall is typically smooth and doesn’t have unique angles or windows that interrupt the scene. It may also have a noticeable fixture, piece of furniture, or decor. That might include your TV in the living room or a tall headboard in your bedroom.

This is why accent walls are the perfect home for a single display of wallpaper. An accent wall is already designed to highlight something in particular. It usually involves sentimental or unique decor, particularly artwork. That means the accent wall already stands out and should comfortably welcome a unique background.

Consider that an accent wall will also serve as a visual break from the pattern in the rest of the room. So, you can make your own accent wall just by adding wallpaper alone. This method works so naturally; you can actually choose to wallpaper the entire room and leave one wall as it originally looked.

However, keep in mind that the size of the room is always going to have a large impact on your approach. It isn’t always best to wallpaper the longest wall in the room. Even if you use wallpaper that makes the wall appear smaller, it can potentially feel more like an accident than an artistic statement. This is especially true when a large room has more than one focal point. 

Click here to find this peel and stick wallpaper on Amazon.

Does wallpaper on one wall make a room look smaller?

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It’s common practice to keep all the walls in your room the same color because that consistency does open up the room. Meanwhile, using wallpaper to create or reinforce an accent wall is always going to divide the room into pieces.

But adding wallpaper to one wall doesn’t always have to make the room look smaller, as you can use patterns or colors that balance out anyway. For example, you can use darker shades of the neighboring colors to shift the attention around. That’s because darker walls can appear to add depth when used correctly, such as accentuating the longer walls in a room.

Unfortunately, smaller rooms don’t have as much surface area to work with. Applying wallpaper to a single room in the bathroom can make the enclosed space feel even more cramped. There isn’t enough of a visual rest between the walls, so you’ll probably notice a modular wall from every point of view.

So, applying wallpaper to one wall can definitely make a small room appear even smaller. But the right patterns, scale, and texture on your wallpaper will have enough space to create an optical illusion in a large or mid-sized room. You can read the post 11 Fun Wallpaper Ideas For Living Room Feature Wall once you're sure you want wallpaper for your accent wall, which is also known as a "feature wall."

What wallpaper makes a room look bigger?

cozy blue themed Scandinavian bedroom interior design. barnyard blue wallpaper

You can adjust the way your room appears in size by changing the brightness of the colors or the scale of the patterns. The scale of a wallpaper pattern refers to the distance between the repeating patterns. These designs will offer much more freedom than a solid painted wall ever could.

Color brightness

You can use the same color relationships for your walls on your wallpaper. Brighter colors are known to reflect light and tend to open up the space. This is why white, a pure neutral that reflects all color, is used to open up smaller areas like the kitchen.

But darker colors are still useful in small spaces, too. A wallpaper with darker shades can make your walls seem deeper than they actually are. Bright and dark shades can also be used together to change the way everything is perceived.

Pattern shapes

And just like the paint on the walls, you can actually use the shape of your wallpaper patterns to make a room look wider or taller than it actually is. This is especially easy because wallpaper is often intentionally purchased for the unique patterns and styles.

For example, you can try to find wallpaper that uses stripes. You can also use a wallpaper pattern that has clear lanes which resemble stripes. This is the most common way to trick the eye in small rooms. If the wallpaper has lots of verticality in its design, then you can draw attention upwards. The ceiling will appear to be taller than it actually is. Similarly, people use ceiling-to-floor curtains.

But you can also use wallpaper that has horizontal lanes, which is a unique ability. That will make the wall seem wider than it really is. Either of these stripe methods can be used to balance out the room, but you should be careful not to throw it off either.

Pattern scale

Repeated patterns of any kind are generally able to make a wall seem larger because your focus can often end up on the distance between the patterns instead of the overall space. This means that the more airy your patterns are on the wallpaper, the larger your room can appear. So, you can purchase wallpaper with a larger scale for its pattern repeats.

How to wallpaper two adjacent walls

bathroom interior with bright wallpaper, wooden elements. How To Wallpaper Around Bathroom Fixtures

If you’re going to wallpaper the entire room, it’s possible to wallpaper two adjacent walls. This is true even if the designs are different. The walls in the room just need to look symmetrical and have coordinated styles.

However, applying wallpaper to just two individual walls is usually too risky in a typical, mid-sized room. That’s because you are essentially creating two focal points right next to each other. The only way to get around this is to make sure the walls are perfectly coordinated.

That means their colors should remain within two to three shades apart. Each of their styles should also agree, and both need to pair nicely with the overall theme of the room. You may also be able to soften the transition between the two using decor and furniture. This is easiest to achieve if you give them neutral colors, which are unusually flexible.

How to choose wallpaper for an accent wall

The most important part of choosing any wallpaper is to identify the purpose of the room. And the point of an accent wall is always to highlight the focal point against it, such as a large piece of furniture or a new painting.

So, the wallpaper should also serve that focal point. If you want to highlight your brand new television, you don’t want a pattern that is too distracting. That will be problematic when you’re trying to watch a movie. You also wouldn’t want the wallpaper to be more elaborate and attention-grabbing than your artwork. But an intricate design could be just right for a cozy piano space.

In closing

Interior of the living room with living room

Wallpaper adds a lot of freedom to your room, but it still needs to be handled properly. Otherwise, the entire scene can appear unbalanced, especially by an elaborate accent wall. Now you understand how wallpaper can be used to affect the size of your room and shift the focus around. So now you only need to decide what personal style is right for you!

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