Wallpaper is the most common option for decorating the walls of different rooms, and the living room is no exception. They are easy to stick without the help of craftsmen; the choice of ornaments and colors satisfies a wide variety of tastes. But the ability to choose sometimes causes difficulties, because within one style you can find many harmonious and interesting options.
The above photo of the interior shows that light wallpaper in the living room most often acts as a background, but may contain patterns and accent inserts. Such coatings can be combined, which provides huge variations in finishing for rooms with different parameters.
Rules for choosing wallpaper for the living room
There are many types of wallpaper, and it is not always easy to make the right choice. There are a number of criteria, the assessment of which allows a detailed approach to the choice of finishing material:
- First of all, owners need to evaluate all possible damaging factors. It is no secret that textile wallpaper is very sensitive to moisture and a number of chemicals, and therefore all risk factors must first be eliminated.
- Next, you should evaluate the features of practical care of the canvas.
- The condition of the underlying surface is important, on which the need for preliminary preparation of the walls, the consumption of glue and finishing material depends.
- Next, the size of the living room is taken into account. For more spacious rooms, you can choose wallpaper of absolutely any color, with a wide variety of patterns, even with a 3D effect.
Some types of materials (such as textiles or vinyl) should not be used in a room with strong natural light due to the risk of color fading. In practice, the quality composition of the wallpaper is important.
Currently, more and more apartment owners prefer natural and safe coatings, such as bamboo and cork.
Choice of colors
First of all, people think about color selection. For spacious and bright rooms, they acquire bright colors that will fill the space with positive energy. Wallpaper plays an important role in the living room interior.
If the room has a high ceiling, then it is better to choose material with a pattern. This solution will make the room brighter and more dynamic.
For rooms with modest dimensions, choose rolls with small patterns and geometric elements.
For tall and spacious rooms, purchase materials with large patterns and horizontal stripes. The living room will be visually smaller, but will become more comfortable.
Paper wallpaper for the living room
The simplest option, which is most often preferred, is paper wall coverings. In finishing materials stores you can find single-layer or double-layer wallpaper.
These coatings are perfect for decorative finishing of the hall, since the purpose of the room practically eliminates high humidity and the risk of contamination on the walls.
Paper-based coatings have many advantages:
- Budget cost.
- A wide range of decor options (a wide variety of images, subject compositions, photo printing for modern interior styles, imitation of other materials, such as brickwork).
- The paper base does not cause allergic reactions.
In addition, such materials are easy to use. Wall pasting can be done without the help of specialists.
Living room in light colors - an eternal and universal solution
A living room in light colors is inextricably linked with nature. The shades used indoors are usually white, beige and gray. Neutral colors also include honey, sand, ecru and ivory.
You can find wall color inspiration in nature. The whitewashed, delicate color is an ideal basis for further interior design. It is also considered a wonderful backdrop for furniture and accessories in any style. Light colors will create a harmonious, non-overpowering whole.
How to create an elegant, bright living room? Fashionable compositions are made in soft colors in combination with elements of wood, glass and metal. This composition will allow you to get a subtle, natural effect and a harmonious, clean space where you can relax after a long day of work.
Non-woven wallpaper
These finishing coatings represent a more expensive option, because they contain polyester.
The advantages of practical choice include:
- Particularly durable coating.
- Natural composition that prevents the development of allergies.
- Like the paper version, they are produced in rolls and sheets, which makes repair work easier.
- Due to their special density, such coatings perfectly absorb noise (very important for apartment buildings).
- Before pasting the walls, there is no need to prepare the underlying surface, because the wallpaper perfectly masks minor irregularities and seams.
- The presence of polyester in the material makes it possible to create coatings with very intricate relief patterns. With the help of such wallpaper you can decorate your living room in an original way.
The only drawback of this material is its high cost.
How to choose a wallpaper style
No matter how much you would like to choose one or another type of wallpaper, the choice should always be based on the general style of interior design. Therefore, it will be more rational to decide on the direction of the repair at its initial stages, and only then begin to select a suitable wall finish. Interior design in a classic style is always characterized by the use of expensive materials that emphasize the luxury and certain pomp of the room. Therefore, it is important to use wallpaper with various monograms, golden or bronze details. Such wallpaper can be used to decorate all the walls of the room, or it can be alternated with more laconic monochromatic products and used as decorative inserts.
To create a living room interior in Provence style, you should give preference to paintable wallpaper or look at one of the product options with elegant patterns or small floral prints.
The atmosphere of a Scandinavian-style living room should maintain the spirit of northern latitude homes. Therefore, light wallpaper that imitates brickwork or rough plaster in this case is able to convey Scandinavian originality to the maximum extent possible.
Decorating a living room in the Art Nouveau style requires the presence of metal parts, stone surfaces, wood, leather or fur. Therefore, the ideal choice for decorating the walls in such a living room would be all kinds of natural motifs or mosaics, which lack strict lines and clear shapes.
For lofts, it is important to use wallpaper that imitates the surface of stone or plaster.
As for wall decoration in modern trends such as hi-tech or minimalism, in this case you should opt for monochrome canvases. If such a proposal seems a little boring, you can always choose from a series of wallpapers with geometric patterns, abstraction or a 3D effect.
For lovers of oriental notes, manufacturers offer a choice of wallpapers with fragments and patterns related to a particular country and culture, for example, Japan, Morocco or Turkey.
Choosing the right wallpaper for the living room, at first glance, seems like a rather difficult task. However, if you look at this procedure from the other side, you will not only replenish your knowledge base with all kinds of information related to interior design, but also get an excellent opportunity to turn your own ideas into reality. The main thing is to harmoniously combine taste preferences and features of the room.
Acrylic wallpaper in the interior
Wallpaper on a paper, non-woven or PVC basis, the top layer of which is represented by acrylic coating, is perfect for decorating a room. The two-layer surface is quite durable, but the composition of the acrylic and the base allows the coating to “breathe” properly.
When cleaning the living room, you should remember the low resistance of the combined material to moisture.
Advantages of choosing wallpaper:
- Beautiful relief on the surface, which is obtained thanks to a special production technology.
- Absolute safety of acrylic coating obtained by polymerization of the main components.
- Some varieties can be used for painting, which allows owners to choose their own living room design.
- Lower cost than the price of vinyl, fiberglass, cork and other types of wallpaper.
To carry out renovations in the hall, you should choose the adhesive more carefully. It is better to give preference to a composition with a bactericidal component or use a primer with an antiseptic before wallpapering the walls.
Interesting new products
Natural motifs have been very popular lately. In any interpretation: wallpaper made from natural materials, various landscapes, stylized as a brick wall. This year's fashionable new items are distinguished by their laconic patterns and the absence of catchy motifs.
- Light-colored wallpaper gives the room a feeling of lightness and coziness.
- It is allowed to use a little contrast: A combination of several types of wallpaper of different colors or shades.
- Wallpapers depicting butterflies, flowers, birds and other representatives of flora and fauna are in great demand this year.
Wallpaper with images of vegetables and fruits on a light background is ideal for the kitchen. This year, designs on a dark background are less relevant than various patterns, designs and ornaments on a light background.
Fiberglass wallpaper
A new product on the finishing materials market, which quickly found its fans. The composition of such a coating includes only natural, environmentally friendly materials, for example, quartz sand, clay chips, dolomite.
The advantages of using this coating include:
- They have a long service life, sometimes reaching 30 years.
- Absolute resistance to moisture, detergents, and temperature changes.
- The durability of the coating, which sometimes makes dismantling difficult, deserves special attention.
- The unique composition allows the fiberglass coating to act as a reinforcing structure, preventing the appearance of cracks on the walls.
- All such materials have an antistatic layer, excellently repelling dust.
- Even the brightest varieties do not fade when exposed to sunlight.
Wallpaper with fiberglass is often chosen by people with allergies, because the coating prevents the development of pathogenic fungi and other pathogens.
Before carrying out repairs, you should familiarize yourself with the rules for wallpapering to avoid mistakes. For example, strips of wallpaper are glued end to end; it will take about 48 hours for the glue to dry completely; when gluing the walls, care should be taken to avoid drafts.
Unusual options
Wallpaper made of bamboo or cork looks unusual in the living room. Moreover, eco-style is becoming more popular. They are ideal for an oriental-style interior, but they can also become a highlight for a modern one.
Bamboo wallpaper hides wall unevenness well
One wall can be made of painted bamboo. The material dictates the style.
Brick or stone walls are popular in many modern interiors. It is not at all necessary to lay tiles or plaster for this. You can use textured wallpaper made of foam or heavy vinyl.
Brick wallpaper in the living room
They very well imitate brick and stone masonry of various types. It is difficult to visually distinguish it from a real wall.
Brick or stone masonry is the latest fashion when decorating a living room
Advantages of liquid wallpaper for the hall
Another interesting option for interior decoration is liquid wallpaper. They are a dry mixture, which, immediately before application to the walls, is diluted with water and stirred thoroughly.
- The presence of cotton or cellulose filler in the composition gives the coating a special porosity, due to which the wall panels “breathe”.
- To apply liquid wallpaper, you do not need to prepare the walls, because the thick mass perfectly masks all unevenness and defects.
In the production of decorative coatings, additional inclusions (sparkles, acrylic threads) are often used, which provides a wide range of products for renovation: cotton, silk, combined wallpapers. There are smooth and textured coatings, wallpaper that acts as a base for painting.
Combined types of wallpaper
A non-standard room shape or low ceilings are just some of the nuances that you may encounter during renovations in the living room. Therefore, a solution such as combining wallpaper on the walls with different colors, textures and patterns, in most examples, will help correct many shortcomings. One of these “secrets” of arranging a living room is considered to be the correction or correction of the space of the room by highlighting one of the walls with wallpaper that is more contrasting in color. The vertical arrangement of patterns or prints visually raises the ceiling. Horizontal, on the contrary, expands the walls. In this example, companion wallpapers that match each other in color but differ in patterns or vice versa look very interesting.
An equally original and successful solution can be called zoning the living room space using different combinations of shades and textures on the wallpaper. In this way, you can highlight the reading area, fireplace area, study area and the place where you plan to install the soft part and watch TV with brighter or more embossed canvases. This idea will make the living room both a multifunctional and cozy space, which is especially important in open plans or walk-through rooms.
Another fashionable solution is considered to be a method of wall decoration in which wallpaper plays both the role of the main covering and the role of decor. In such examples, as a rule, two types of canvases are used, for example, plain light ones and products with a pattern. At the same time, the latter partially decorate the walls, like paintings or decorative inserts. This option looks especially interesting when wallpaper with patterns is additionally decorated with various types of frames.
Benefits of cork wallpaper
Cork wallpaper will allow you to create an absolutely safe interior with a unique decor.
The advantages of practical choice of material for the living room include:
- Excellent protection against noise and loud sounds.
- The special structure allows you to retain heat in the room.
- The material has an antistatic coating that repels dirt and dust.
The cork itself has antiseptic properties, which prevents the development of pathogenic fungus.
The cork covering is easily attached to the underlying surface, without requiring the help of a specialist.
Photo wallpaper
Once such a fashionable topic is back again: photo wallpapers have become popular again. Only the level of printing is different. Modern technologies allow you to transfer any photo to paper, and large-format printing allows you to print everything on one sheet. So no seams and photographic clarity create a 3D effect.
In newfangled interiors, city landscapes are often used. The night metropolis looks the most impressive, but black and white options are no worse.
The urban theme is in favor. Black and white photo wallpaper on the walls of the living room can be no less impressive
The second frequently encountered topic is nature and landscapes. Very often you can see forests in different seasons, different species and countries.
A complete sense of presence. The autumn forest promotes relaxation. A path in a bamboo forest...
The next popular motif is flowers. In photographic or graphic design for different styles.
Beautiful flowers create a romantic atmosphere For fast-paced interiors, graphic photo wallpapers