Bird wallpaper

Bird wallpaper behaves differently in an American home than in the European rooms it was drawn for, and that is worth knowing before you order. Ceilings here sit higher, walls are drywall rather than plaster, and the spaces that get papered first tend to be the powder room, the entry hall or the wall beside an open staircase. Choose the wall before you choose the bird.

Where Bird Wallpaper Works in an Open-Plan Home

Open plan is the real complication. When kitchen, dining and living share one sightline, a dense pattern has to hold its own against every other surface in view. These designs land better in a room you can close off: a study, a guest bedroom, a stair landing. A powder room is the classic case, and its small footprint helps, because you take in all four walls at once and the design becomes the room rather than an accent. Our bathroom wallpaper selection shows what else holds up in that space.

Ceiling height steers the motif. At nine or ten feet a heron or a crane has room to stretch, which is why those designs suit halls and dining rooms. Under a lower ranch ceiling, a small repeating songbird print or a botanical wallpaper with birds tucked into the leaves keeps the wall quiet.

European Roll Sizes and Hanging These Papers on Drywall

European rolls run narrower than the American standard: commonly 20.9 in (53 cm) wide and roughly 33 ft (10.05 m) long. Expect more seams across the same wall, and hand your installer the metric numbers instead of a rounded conversion. Much of what we carry is non-woven wallpaper, hung by pasting the wall rather than the back of the paper. Prime fresh drywall before the first drop goes up.

Cranes, Hummingbirds and Tropical Motifs

Motif comes down to how loud you want the room. Cranes and herons are the quiet end, spare silhouettes with a Japanese feeling, suited to a bedroom or a reading corner. Hummingbirds sit in the middle: small subject, strong color, as in the graphic design from 1838 Wallcoverings that sets fine botanical line work against island birds on a warm ground. Peacocks push further, usually a dark ground with gilded feather detail. Loudest are the parrots, toucans and the Birds of Paradise design by Mind the Gap, which belongs beside our tropical wallpaper. Owls and sparrows carry the same idea into kids' room wallpaper.

Ordering Bird Wallpaper from Europe

Orders ship from Europe with duties included, so nothing follows later from customs. Since the stock sits on the other side of the Atlantic, order samples before you commit: a warm ground can go cool under north light, and a lamp at night shows a print you did not see at noon. Order every roll at the same time so the batch matches from the first drop to the last.