· By Studio
Ways with Excess Wallpaper
After you’ve finished decorating, chances are you’ll have some wallpaper going spare. To minimise waste, we’ve come up with some ideas to help you use up your leftovers and embrace more colour and pattern in your space.
LOVELY LIGHTING
Creating a lampshade is relatively quick and easy, and only requires a small amount of wallpaper. There’s some great kits available which come with all the instructions you need. We like the look of these lampshade kits from Dannells.
Here, a sense of continuity has been created with our Old Oak (Pomona Green & Fawn) in both wallpaper and lampshade form.
@sarahletchford_photography
SPRUCE UP SHELVES
A lovely way to add impact to your space is to line the back of your shelves or bookcase. We’ve seen some great examples, including creating a bar area in a small nook, or beautiful storage in alcoves.
See if you can spot our Love Leaves (Cameleopard & Prussian Blue) peeping out from behind the crockery…
@homeandfound
EMBELLISHED FURNITURE
Wallpaper can be applied to various surfaces, including your furniture. You can line drawers, or decorate the inside of cupboards or wardrobes. It would work especially well in glazed furniture where the pattern can shine through. Plus, if you move house, your wallpaper will move with you!
In this dressing room, our Dressing & Undressing adorns the wardrobe doors.
Paul Massey
THE PAPERED CEILING
Wallpaper isn’t just for walls: covering the ceiling gives a room an amazing immersive quality. It might be a bit tricky to achieve (and maybe one for the more adventurous decorators!) but the result is worth it.
Our Lucky Leaf print papers every inch of this downstairs loo…
Mariell LindHansen
A CURTAIN TREATMENT
While we don’t create fabrics, a way to work wallpaper into the aesthetic of your curtains is by papering a pelmet. You can build the pelmet yourself, paper and paste it, and to finish it off, cover it with a decorator’s varnish. Jali is a great supplier for these made-to-measure pelmets; we used this kit with a scalloped edge, along with our Old Oak print.
BEAUTIFIED BOXES
If you don’t have much wallpaper leftover, but you’re keen to put it to good use, try covering boxes. These little details which echo the eye-catching walls will help to give a sense of flow to the space. Plus, it makes for a lovely a storage solution.
In The World of Interiors April ’20, our Love Leaves (Cameleopard & Prussian Blue) was used in Maude Smith’s millinery masterpiece.
Anders Gramer, Condé Nast Britain
CREATE A COLLAGE
If you’re feeling creative, try your hand at a collage. Take inspiration from the best: Picasso famously used wallpaper in collage…
Pablo Picasso, Femmes à leur toilette, Paris, Winter, 1937 – 38
…and his contemporary Eileen Agar abstracted everyday cuttings to create vivid imagery.
Eileen Agar, Erotic Landscape, 1942
A PAPER CHAIN PARTY
If you’re feeling festive (but fancy something low-effort), have a go at making paper chains. All you need is scissors and glue, and they look wonderful for a party or hanging in a child’s bedroom. It could even be a fun activity for you to get stuck into together.
CommonRoom is really proud to have partnered with Ecologi, who will plant a tree for every roll of wallpaper sold. Check out the incredible work they do to preserve our precious planet here.
We hope this has given you some decoration inspiration. We’d love to see how you bring our wallpapers to life in your homes. Tag us on Instagram @commonroom.co or get in touch with images via email to info@commonroom.co.
Words by Alice Hodgson.