Brown wallpaper

Brown wallpaper came back the way brown furniture did: quietly, then all at once. Chocolate, cognac, tobacco and clay have replaced gray as the color designers reach for when a room needs to feel finished rather than fresh, and they behave very differently from the browns of the seventies.

Why brown reads as luxury again

Dark brown absorbs light instead of bouncing it, which softens the edges of a room and makes the corners recede. In a dining room or a den that is exactly the effect you want after dark. The trick is to let the brown be genuinely dark — a half-hearted mid-brown reads as dated, while a deep chocolate reads as deliberate.

Warm browns also solve a problem that gray never could: they sit comfortably with wood tones instead of arguing with them. Walnut, leather, unlacquered brass and terracotta all belong to the same family.

Where brown wallpaper works

Dens, libraries and dining rooms first. A powder room in a deep cognac with a lacquered finish is one of the most reliable small-room moves there is. In bedrooms, the lighter clays and tobaccos give warmth without the cave effect. Avoid brown in a room that only gets weak north light and has no lamps to speak of — brown needs a light source to show its depth.

Roll sizes in feet and inches

Rolls are 33 ft long (10.05 m); 20.5 in wide (52 cm) covers about 56 sq ft, the equivalent of a standard American double roll, and the 27.5 in (70 cm) rolls cover roughly 75 sq ft. On dark colors the wall underneath matters: a white wall showing through at a seam is far more visible in chocolate than in a pale neutral, so prime in a tinted base if your walls are patchy.

Where to look next

Texture carries brown well — cork wallcovering, wood veneer wallcovering and linen wallpaper all work in this range. For pattern, historical wallpaper and architecture wallpaper hold deep tones best. Among the mills, Elitis, Pierre Frey and Mulberry are strong here. Neighboring shades: beige wallpaper, taupe wallpaper.

Ordering from the US

Dark colors photograph poorly, so order a sample and look at it after dark under your own lamps. Duties and taxes are included in the price shown; orders ship insured from the Netherlands.