Wallpaper gets a bad rap among some homeowners, who have been frustrated with outdated wallpaper that won’t easily come off walls or the strong odors of adhesives, dyes and primers.
New geometric prints and bold colors are turning attention back to wallpaper, with some companies offering eco-friendly collections for homeowners to use in dining rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms, nurseries and other spaces.
“I think a lot of people have bad wallpaper left over from the ’80s that’s hard to take down, and it kind of scared them away from using wallpaper, but wallpaper is a really great solution to add pattern and some color to a room,” said Sloan Rhodes Dobrin with Bee, an eco-friendly boutique in Atlanta.
Eco-friendly options are expanding, with wallpapers made of water-based inks, and that are acrylic-coated instead of vinyl-coated, said Jack Poles, owner of Wallpaper Your World in Snellville. Geometric or trellis-related patterns and colors such as blues, greens, grays, and black and white are popular, he added.
Some wallpaper options are made of recycled paper and natural materials such as grass cloth, which provides texture and color and can fit into a residence with modern or traditional design, Poles said.
Wallpapers available for do-it-yourself homeowners also can be easier to install and reused, if you take care when removing it without ripping the wallpaper. Designers Jillian Pritchard Cooke and Katie Kitchens of DES-SYN used Tempaper, a self-adhesive temporary wallpaper, in the pied-à-terre bathroom at the 2013 Atlanta Symphony Decorators' Show House and Gardens. The designers used five rolls of the Edie pattern in champagne, one of about 20 Tempaper patterns available (the company also can make custom designs) in different colors, priced about $85-$98 per roll and sold locally at Bee.
Tempaper’s peel-and-stick application doesn’t require water or paste. Instead, homeowners and designers can peel off the backing to affix the wallpaper to primed and painted surfaces such as walls, doors and tiles, according to Tempaper, founded in 2008 by set decorators in New York City.
Another company, The Detroit Wallpaper Co., now offers more than 60 patterns and prints made on wallpaper rolls (about $60 per roll) printed with eco-friendly ink and paper that is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified.
Poles, who estimates that about 20 percent of the selection in stock at Wallpaper Your World has eco-friendly attributes, adds that the key to keeping wallpaper "green" is following the directions. For example, if you don't use the paste that is recommended for that particular wallpaper, the green qualities could be voided, he said.
