Looking to refresh your interiors this year? Wallpaper and wall murals can make an instant impact in a room and bring your interior design scheme together.
As an interior designer and former co-founder of Paper Room, Ponsonby, Annabel Taylor is a wallpaper and wall mural aficionado. She has recently launched her own range, Annabel Taylor Home, featuring designs created from her paintings and drawings of her Hawke’s Bay garden, as well as her photographs. These are printed by the awesome team at Aspiring Walls in Wellington.
Wallpapers and wall murals can be used as an accent wall – great in a bedroom behind the bed, fabulous for kids’ rooms, and also a fantastic addition to living spaces.
You can also use wallpaper above wainscoting for a very traditional farmhouse/cottage look or even use murals and wallpapers in panelling for a totally chic, high-end Paris apartment vibe.
Classic stripes and geometric patterns never go out of fashion. Textured wallpapers are great to use on all walls to enhance a space and make it more inviting – plus, they are more forgiving than paint in high-traffic areas. Floral and botanical prints are timeless, and vintage styles have made a big comeback.
Interior design trends for 2025 are leaning towards vintage nostalgia-inspired interiors, including Art Deco, Mid-century Modern, ’70s, or Edwardian aesthetics (think Bridgerton). The botanical aesthetic continues to encourage us to bring nature in to create calming sanctuaries. Dopamine decor, with its bright colour drenching and pattern clashing, is also on the rise, along with a return to natural textures and finishes with the Japandi style, such as wooden floors and layered surfaces.
When styling a small room with wallpaper, consider how you want to use it. Will it be a soft backdrop to your established furnishings or a focus with an accent wall? The scale of the wallpaper design is very important – smaller busy designs can sometimes be overwhelming, so consider a larger scale than you would expect; you’ll be surprised at the impact it makes. If you need to enhance the light in a room, wallpapers with metallic or pearlescent backgrounds reflect light and make the space feel larger. Have a low ceiling? Vertical stripes or a wall mural that attracts the eye upward will increase the perception of height in a room.
If you’re not 100% sure about a wallpaper, don’t buy it. You really must LOVE your wallpaper choice. Think of it as buying a large art piece – it needs to work in your home and bring all the room’s elements together.
Get a sample and check the colours work with your paintwork, carpeting and any cabinetry in the home. Look at texture options; pearlescent wallpapers add a reflective quality to increase light in a room, while linen textures add depth to the look of your wallpaper or wall mural.
Each wallpaper or wall mural at Annabel Taylor Home is custom-made to fit your walls, ensuring easy installation with Paste the Wall wallpaper, available in a choice of three luxurious textured finishes: eggshell, linen or hessian. Wallpaper designs can also be custom colour-matched to complement your interior paint scheme, and murals can be scaled to fit your walls beautifully, providing a bespoke finish and unique artwork for your home
