Luxury & Exclusive wallpaper

Luxury wallpaper from European houses, sized for American rooms

Luxury wallpaper is the finish most US interiors skip, because paint is fast and drywall forgives a lot. That is why a woven or hand-worked wall lands so hard here: it gives a room relief and shadow where paint stays flat. Everything on this page comes from European design houses, which changes a few practical things by the time the boxes reach your door.

What a European roll in this range actually covers

These houses supply by the European roll: 20.9 in (53 cm) wide and 32.8 ft (10 m) long, close to one American double roll. The narrow width helps on the tall walls newer US homes tend to have, since a slim drop is easier to keep plumb over a two-story entry. Count drops per wall instead of square footage, and buy the full quantity at once so every roll comes from one run.

Drywall asks more of the prep than an old European wall

Nearly every wall in an American house is drywall over joint compound, and a heavy wallcovering finds each ridge and unsealed patch. Sand the taped seams flat, seal the surface with a proper primer, and let new construction dry out. Woven and silk-faced widths want their seams aligned by hand and an adhesive matched to the backing; at that weight a professional hanger earns the fee.

Where these designs do the most work in an open plan

Open plan is the American default, and it is hard on pattern: fewer walls, longer sightlines, more daylight. A quiet tone-on-tone texture usually wins in the main space, with the outspoken design kept for somewhere enclosed. A powder room is the classic spot, where two minutes at a time carries a metallic or a large-scale print easily. Entries and stairwells gain from a dense top layer that wipes clean; a home office wants a restrained textured wallpaper.

Silk, linen and vinyl: the materials behind luxury wallpaper

Silk wallpaper and metallic grounds return light softly, quiet by day and full of relief once evening light arrives at an angle. Linen wallpaper and the natural fibers of paperweave wallpaper add warmth without asking for attention, while a dense vinyl face is the sensible answer in a busy hallway. Deep texture also softens the echo in a hard-surfaced open kitchen.

The European design houses in this collection

Elitis leans on material experiments and surfaces you want to put a hand on, Casamance and Pierre Frey work from a French sense of color, and Dedar is the address for refined weaves. Mind the Gap, Cole & Son, Coordonne, CMO Paris and Thibaut carry the bolder patterns. Because so much of it is woven or hand-painted, no two drops come out quite identical.

Ordering these papers from Europe

Orders ship from Europe to US addresses with import duties and fees already settled, so nothing extra arrives with the courier. Start with a sample: silk, linen and relief surfaces photograph poorly and need judging in your own light.