How to choose wallpaper for the living room?

The living room is called the living room because it hosts guests. That is, by the way this room looks, familiar and unfamiliar visitors to your house will learn a lot about how your family lives, what is your well-being, whether the owners have a taste - in general, everything that is usually hidden from prying eyes. In addition, the living room is a place where the whole family gathers and where everyone should feel good and comfortable. The appearance of any room depends on the design of the walls. How to choose wallpaper for the living room? “Let's think about it together.”

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What is your living room?

Wallpaper for the living room is not worth buying just because you liked the flowers painted on them. It may well be that the drawing, very attractive in the catalog and even in the store, on the walls will look completely different. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to evaluate:

• the functionality of the room - whether it will be only a living room or you are forced to use this room somehow else;
• features of natural light;
• the size of your living room;
• ceiling height;
• the presence of niches, fitted wardrobes, arches;
• number of windows and doors;
• Is the built-in appliances (for example, air conditioning) expected?
• Are you going to completely change the furniture or leave the one that is already there;
• will there be paintings, photographs, pendants with flowers, additional lamps on the walls.

Important! In small apartments, the living room quite often performs additional functions, being at the same time an office, library, dining room, workshop or even a bedroom. In this case, it is necessary to provide for zoning, and wallpaper provides an excellent opportunity for this.

Zoning is also used in large living rooms - for example, you can allocate corners for a quiet holiday, a place where there is a home theater and much more.

Living Room Dimensions

Traditionally, the most spacious room in the house is assigned to the living room. But a large room in a small apartment and a large room in a cottage on an individual project are completely different large rooms. Therefore, it is better to simply measure the room. You need to know:

• the area of ​​the room itself;
• total wall area;
• the area of ​​each wall, as well as areas between windows or in a niche.

Important! The area of ​​the room is important in order to roughly figure out which primary color is better to take. The rule here is simple - the smaller the room, the brighter the wallpaper should be and the smaller the picture on them.

As for the area of ​​the walls, it is needed to count the number of wallpapers. This will help to avoid unnecessary expenses. If you are going to combine different types of wallpaper, you need to calculate the area of ​​each site.

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What are the wallpapers?

The times when exclusively paper wallpapers were used to decorate absolutely all the rooms have irrevocably gone. Now in stores a huge assortment of wallpapers made from a variety of materials. Each type has its own characteristics, which must be taken into account if you want to accurately select wallpapers for the living room.

In stores you will find wallpapers:

• paper;
• textile;
• non-woven;
• vinyl;
• fiberglass;
• from exotic materials.

Paper wallpaper

Paper is a traditional material for wall decoration, including in the living room. It has a lot of advantages:

• a large assortment;
• variety of colors and patterns;
• a variety of prices - you can easily find very cheap, but beautiful wallpapers;
• Paper wallpapers are easy to stick on and easy to remove during the next repair.

However, there are significant disadvantages:

• they can only be glued to a well-treated wall, since they do not hide irregularities;
• they get dirty quickly, and not all paper wallpapers can be washed;
• sticking paper wallpapers, it is not always possible to fit the picture.

Vinyl wallpapers

Vinyl is a popular material for wall decoration. Vinyl wallpapers are slightly thicker than paper, they cost a little more, but it pays off with interest:

• manufacturers produce vinyl wallpapers of various colors;
• it’s no harder to glue such wallpaper than paper, to shoot too;
• the most fundamental difference - they can be cleaned and washed by almost any means.

Important! This is an ideal wallpaper for a home with small children, or for small multi-functional living rooms.

Non-woven wallpaper

In modern apartments, you can often see non-woven wallpaper. That is, at first glance it’s rather difficult to understand what the walls are upholstered with - non-woven fabric gives a lot of opportunities to express imagination.

The main advantages of non-woven wallpaper:

• durability;
• moisture resistance;
• insensitivity to ultraviolet light;
• they can be painted, and many times;
• an abundance of colors in stores.

Important! Non-woven wallpaper is ideal for those who love and know how to draw on the walls. You can change the interior at least every week by simply repainting one of the walls.

Fiberglass Wallpaper

You can paint more than once and fiberglass wallpaper. This material has other advantages:

• they can serve faithfully for many years;
• perfectly tolerate washing;
• not afraid of fire - this is a wonderful material for a summer residence, where there is a stove or fireplace.

Textile wallpaper

Fabric wallpaper is an old-fashioned finish, just remember the silk upholstered living rooms of aristocrats. Want to feel like a princess? Textile wallpapers are perfect for this. They are made, of course, from fabric on a paper or non-woven basis. Such wallpapers are quite thick; they provide, among other things, good sound insulation.

Different materials are used for the manufacture of textile coatings, so you can choose wallpaper for the living room, based on:

• silk;
• linen;
• felt;
• velours;
• polyester.

Important! With the right selection of colors, the living room, upholstered in such wallpaper, looks simply gorgeous. The seams are invisible, the pattern and texture are exquisite.

The main disadvantages of textile wallpaper:

• high price;
• complexity of care - the fabric collects dust very well, and washing the wallpaper is not worth it.

Wallpaper made of exotic materials

Design fantasy is inexhaustible. Interior artists offer their customers a wide variety of materials for wall decoration. There are an abundance of options, and traditional and even ancient materials - wood or cork, for example. But there are still quite rare options, such as algae.

One of the materials that is still rare in European living rooms, but gaining more and more popularity, is bamboo. Wallpaper made of this material looks luxurious, easy to care for - like any natural materials, bamboo is great for moisture, does not suffer from sunlight or artificial lighting.

Important! Should I decorate the whole room with such wallpaper? - A very big question. Maybe it’s better to limit yourself to a panel or designate one of the zones with bamboo wallpaper.

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Choose a color and pattern

Construction stores offer customers wallpapers of various colors. Which color to choose? Or, more precisely, what will be the main tone in your living room? The very first rule is that color should not annoy any member of the family. Moreover, it is highly desirable that everyone likes him.

Therefore, to begin with, ask all households what color they like best, select several options, and then give preference to the best.That is, one that matches the parameters of your living room is liked by family members and combined with existing furniture.

Warm or cold?

To choose the right wallpaper for the living room, some information from the area of ​​coloristics can be very useful to you. Colors are:

• achromatic;
• warm
• cold.

Let's deal with them a little more:

1. Achromatic colors are white, black and gray. They blend perfectly with any other, but the living room walls, pasted over with wallpaper of one of these colors, will not look very good.
2. Warm colors - yellow, red, orange, purple with a predominance of red. They have a wonderful property - a room whose walls are painted in warm tones seems lighter and warmer. Warm colors also include beige, pink, brown.
3. Cold tones - green, blue, blue, violet with a predominance of blue. The room where the walls are painted in such colors seems a little colder than it actually is.

Important! When choosing the main tone of the wallpaper for the living room, consider the location of the room. If the windows face north or the house is constantly in the shade of the neighboring one, choose warm colors. The room will appear lighter and larger. Well, for the sunny side, any color is suitable.

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A bit about drawing

Drawings on the wallpaper are very different. However, if you look closely, you can divide all the wallpapers into several large groups:

• plain;
• striped;
• with flowers;
• with small spots;
• with large spots.

How to choose wallpaper for the living room from all this variety? - Not as difficult as it might seem:

1. For living rooms with exquisite furniture and a large number of various decorations, monophonic wallpapers are most suitable.
2. As for the striped wallpaper, the stripes can be both vertical and horizontal. Vertical stripes are good for living rooms with low ceilings, as they visually increase the height. The horizontal pattern allows you to visually push the walls, that is, it is suitable for small rooms.
3. On the wallpaper with flowers can be depicted not only roses or daisies. Designers so name in general any wallpaper with large recognizable objects - birds, animals, fruits. Choose such wallpaper for the living room carefully, because large and closely spaced elements can visually reduce the size of the wall, and, accordingly, the room as a whole.
4. The same applies to wallpaper with large spots, regardless of what kind of spots - abstract strokes or print with the image of a palm tree, a lion. Large spots - for large living rooms, they will make a small room even smaller.
5. But the pattern with small spots is suitable for any room.

Drawing and style

On sale you can find different decor options and choose wallpaper for the living room with or without a picture. Which ones to choose depends on the style in which you decorate your living room. For example:

1. For the very popular medieval style now there is wallpaper with a stone pattern - paper, vinyl, non-woven.
2. For a living room in ethno style, wallpaper with a wood pattern is suitable, while manufacturers are sophisticated as they can. You can find a pattern that imitates oak panels and even ebony panels. True, this style requires a fairly tough selection of furniture.
3. Fashionable Provencal style - a lot of light and space, elegant furniture, exquisite paintings or works of European masters of decorative art. This style requires appropriate wallpaper - light, with noticeable floral ornaments.
4. For the rococo style, wallpaper with intricate curls is suitable. They can be from fabric or paper, and any other materials too. The main thing is the drawing: an antique floral ornament, light colors, golden lines.
5. The living room in the minimalist style is characterized by plain walls without decorations, the colors are neutral or with an inconspicuous pattern. Asceticism in everything.

Texture

Wallpaper can have a smooth texture or embossed - bulges and pits are located randomly or in strict order. The choice of a particular texture entirely depends on the style in which you finish the room:

• large irregularities are good for a medieval style or for an ethno style;
• for classics, smooth wallpapers are better;
• and for the Rococo style - small recesses and bulges, arranged in a strict order.

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Combined Wallpaper

The living room does not have to be completely pasted over with the same wallpaper. Of course, you can do this, especially if you have luxurious furniture and a lot of jewelry. But more and more popular is the combined design. There are a lot of options:

• all walls are covered with different wallpapers;
• on one wall a panel is made of wallpaper of a different kind;
• the room stands out and is indicated by different wallpapers;
• trellises with borders;
• photo wallpaper.

Each wall can be “assigned” its own color. True, in this case, you must act very carefully and choose a wallpaper for the living room in colors that really blend well and do not visually reduce the size of the room. Wallpaper is better to choose different in color, but similar in texture.

The panel from the wallpaper of another look will give your living room a very original look. For example, a wall looks good, the main surface of which is covered with wallpaper with a small pattern, and the square or oval in the middle - with a similar pattern, but large. Do not forget to make a spectacular edging.

A panel may also look interesting if the entire wall is pasted with wallpaper in warm colors, and the panel in cold colors. Or vice versa - the door to winter or the door to summer, as anyone likes.

Zones

Zoning is a must for small apartments. Why not split the living room into zones? Here is a corner for relaxation - wallpapers of calm color, an armchair, a coffee table, a floor lamp. And here is a home theater with a bright screen, but a dark background. Or a corner for needlework - a bedside table in the corner, suitable for the plot of the panel.

Tapestries with borders

Great option for the living room. For this design, wallpapers from any material are suitable. For example, the walls are covered with fabric wallpaper, and at the top and bottom wide borders are made of paper or vinyl wallpaper, depicting marble or gilt decorations.

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Photowall-paper

For the living room, you can always choose a wallpaper - for the whole wall or for its part. Of course, do not wallpaper all the walls. But by placing a beautiful landscape on one of the walls, you will visually enlarge the room, in addition, casual visitors will have the impression that the room has more windows than it actually is.

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Little tricks

So, you have chosen the wallpaper for your living room. It's time to glue them. To labor and money did not go down the drain, consider several circumstances:

• humidity;
• surface quality.

Humidity check

In order to assess the humidity of a concrete wall, you will need:

• rolled polyethylene film;
• Scotch.

Humidity check is carried out as follows:

1. Apply polyethylene to the wall (completely covering the surface).
2. Attach the tape with tape.
3. Leave the film overnight.

Important! If drops appear on the film in the morning, dry the wall. Then the wallpaper will fall on her like a glove.

Wall quality

This parameter is checked with a knife or other sharp object. Scratch the wall. If she began to crumble, she will have to be plastered again.

Is it possible to glue wallpaper on a wall that was previously painted? You can, but you need to check the wall too. It is not difficult to do this, you only need tape:

1. Stick a piece of tape on the wall.
2. Tear off the tape.

Important! If there are no traces of paint - everything is in order, you can glue the wallpaper. If the paint comes off - it should be removed if possible. But the whitewash needs to be washed off.

If the wall is not smooth enough, and you intend to use smooth wallpaper, you will have to prime the surface. The composition will be sold to you in a hardware store.

A few words about wallpapering:

1. Gluing wallpaper is better during the day.This is not only preferable from the aesthetic point of view, but also much safer. It is better to turn off the electricity in the apartment at this time, especially when you glue the wallpaper near the switches and sockets. Sockets are better for this time to remove, switches too.
2. Ensure optimum temperature. The room should not be too cold or too hot. The best option is 18-20 C. There should be no drafts and direct sunlight, even if you glue in the summer.
3. If the socket or switch falls directly in the middle of the canvas - after gluing the canvas, make a cross-shaped incision in this place. When the wallpaper is dry, cut a hole in the shape of a socket or switch. After that screw the sockets.

Where to start?

In most rooms it is more convenient to start from some angle, and then glue it on one side and the other. However, if you have an arch, first glue the stripes that will be next to it, and only then the rest. In this case, the first stripes should be a couple of centimeters wider than necessary. Wrap the remainder in the arch. This edge will still stick when you paste over the opening.

Important! Before sticking something, mark the wall. Draw a few vertical lines along the plumb line, this is especially important before gluing the first strip.

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Stock footage

We hope that after reading this article you have no questions left how to choose a wallpaper for the living room. Show your imagination, act confidently, but not absurdly, and then you will always be pleased to be in the relaxation room in your apartment yourself and not be embarrassed to invite your friends there.