Wallpaper is a powerful thing. Like paint, it can completely transform a room by adding color, pattern, and personality when it's needed most. The right design doesn't only have the power to turn dull, drab walls into a stunning focal point, either — when space is tight, the right wallpaper will actually make your room look bigger.
If you want to make a small room look bigger, it's essential to choose a design that works with, rather than against, your square footage. The truth is, wallpaper has a reputation for making a room look 'busy'. When a room is already on the smaller side, the last thing you need is an overwhelming print that makes the room feel more confined and closed-in than it already was.
Whether you're working with a compact kitchen, a paltry powder room, or an attic bedroom with sloped ceilings, when used intentionally, wallpaper can be your best weapon. To help you harness its perceptual powers, discover designers' best tricks of the trade for wallpapering small spaces, and the techniques they use to make tight rooms feel more airy and spacious, below.
1. Use a Large Scale Print to 'Scale-Up' a Room
Large botanical blooms make this small bedroom feel truly transportive.
When working with a small room, consider scaling up the print on your chosen wallpaper idea to create the illusion of more space. This might sound counterintuitive, but the larger the print on the wall, the smaller the surrounding furnishings will seem, consequently making your room look comparatively larger.
Chloe Vince, senior decorating consultant at House of Hackney, recommends botanical blooms as a reliable option for any space. "My advice when using large-scale blooms is to opt for a print with more negative space," she says. "This prevents the blooms from becoming too overpowering and adds a freshness to the scheme."
Jamie Watkins, co-founder of wallpaper brand Divine Savages, shares the sentiment that big and bold prints command a space better than small-scale ones. "Embrace oversized florals bursting with large-scale blooms and unapologetic drama to create spaces that feel expansive and character-filled," he says. "If you have a large-scale pattern on the walls, then it’s a good idea to choose a small-scale pattern for any textiles and vice versa, just be sure to find a point of connection when matching and mixing patterns."
Husbands Jamie Watkins and Tom Kennedy are the co-founders of design brand Divine Savages, and have designed a range of Art Deco-inspired wallpapers that have become modern design classics.
2. Choose a Light and Bright Print
Receding colors, like the pale green of this dotted wallpaper, create an illusion of distance that's most effective in smaller spaces.
As is the case with paint, lighter colors will always work in your favor when space is tight. According to color theory, receding colors, which are typically cool and muted, create the illusion of distance, so think carefully about the colorway of your wallpaper. "Lighter hues aren’t just soothing," says Jamie, "they’re spatial sorcery".
This isn't to say that darker wallpaper doesn't belong in a small room, though. "Opting for a darker tone on all walls can help to embrace the nature of the space and create a cocooning effect," says Chloe, who recommends earth tones in such situations.
Ultimately, your decision should depend on the vibe you want. Do you want to lean into the cozy feel with a rich, sumptuous shade, or do you want to invite the light in for an airy feel? Choose your color accordingly.
3. Use Stripes to Add the Illusion of Height
Stretching vertical stripes up a wall will add the illusion of height to a room, even if you have low ceilings.
Even if there's ample space in a room, low ceilings are a surefire way to make it feel smaller and more closed in. Luckily, wallpaper can fix that. To stretch the walls upwards, consider a vertical striped wallpaper (or pasting it horizontally will work to visually widen the room).
"Stripes are one of my favorite ways to make a room appear taller, especially if you are able to run them up onto the ceiling," says Sarah Randolph, principal designer at Randolph Interior Design. "The shape of your room is essential here, with a perfectly square or rectangular room working best. This allows you to miter the stripes into a point at the center of the ceiling, drawing your eye upward."
If using horizontal striped walls to widen a room, Sarah recommends a thicker, bolder stripe, rather than a small pinstripe. "If your room is really small, you can make it appear bigger by painting the doors and trim to match the striped pattern of the wallpaper," she adds.
Color: Green
With an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and post-graduate studies in Interior Design and Interior Architecture from UC Berkeley, Sarah founded Randolph Interior Design in 2008 after working with high-end residential design firms in San Francisco and Minneapolis. Driven by intuition and a deep commitment to understanding her clients, she brings nearly two decades of design expertise to every project.
4. Play with Small-Scale Motifs and Negative Space
Ditsy prints can still work in small rooms, but choose a design with plenty of negative space.
Lately, ditsy prints have been at the forefront of wallpaper trends. While large-scale prints might feel more fitting when playing with perception, a small print can work well in a confined space as long as there's enough negative space.
"Smaller patterns, especially those with intricate details, can bring charm to a small room without overwhelming it," says Jamie.
Think disty florals in a polka-dot formation, or vintage block prints that are simple yet elegant. From a distance, they almost pass as a single wall color, but the intricate details will invite you into the room.
5. Reflect the Light With Metallic Print Wallpapers
This "Crane Fonda" print from Divine Savages has a beautiful sheen that bounces light around the room.
If you want a small space to feel airier, find ways to bounce light around the room. As well as using mirrors, you can do it using a wallpaper with a metallic motif.
"A hint of shimmer adds depth and decadence and reflects the light to create a sense of movement that brightens up every corner," says Jamie, who recommends Divine Savages' Crane Fonda wallpaper, pictured above.
"The stunning copper metallic detailing coupled with the grandiose gilded mirror in this room gives a subtle exuberance, reflecting light around the room and making the space feel bigger, brighter, and lighter," he adds.
6. Match Other Furnishings for a 'Drenching' Effect
Pattern and color converge to blend the boundaries of this room.
Pattern drenching and color drenching are two of the biggest design trends of recent years. When a room has a small blueprint, coordinating your wallpaper with other elements of the room can help blur the boundaries of your walls, furnishings, and decor to create the illusion of more space.
"By extending the same bold or rich hue across walls, ceilings, and even furniture, you are creating a seamless, expansive look," says Jamie. "The key is layering textures to prevent flatness, and when done with patterned wallpaper, it adds depth and character without overwhelming the space."
7. Don't Forget the 'Fifth Wall'
Choosing to wallpaper the ceiling alone will instantly draw the eye upwards.
The fifth wall should always be part of your design plans, but it's especially pertinent in a small space.
"Ceiling wallpaper is guaranteed to create maximum impact and can completely change the feel of the room," says Jamie. "By encouraging you to look up, the room seems so much larger."
You can either continue the design on your walls up to the ceiling, or wallpaper the ceiling alone for a more dramatic effect. "The former allows the eye to flow from the walls to the ceiling and back down again," says Sarah.
Meanwhile, the latter is a great way to add height to a room, plus it lends itself especially well to minimalist schemes if you want to avoid overwhelming your walls.
8. Add Depth to a Room With a Scenic Mural
Invite the eye beyond your four walls with a dramatic mural like this one, from De Gournay.
If you want the eye to continue beyond your four walls, a scenic wall mural is one of the best ways to make a room appear larger. "When done right, a mural is pure theatre that transforms tight spaces into enchanting escapes," says Jamie. "Mural designs can wrap entire rooms, offering transportive vistas, often nature-inspired with calming palettes of soft greens and blues."
Hannah Cecil Gurney at premium wallpaper brand de Gournay points specifically toward the brand's scenic collection (with "Malmaison Gardens" pictured above). "Panoramic designs are composed of distinct, hand-painted sections of foreground, mid-ground, and background plains, creating amazing depth of field," she says. "This transportive use of landscape within a room has a transformative effect on the existing scale, opening up even a rather reduced setting."
9. Try a Trompe-l'œil Technique
Trompe-l'œil is an artistic term for the optical illusion of three-dimensional shapes on two-dimensional surfaces, and it's gaining popularity with wallpaper designs.
"By using ‘trompe l’oeil’ effects such as faux columns or classical gardens or window view designs, the visitor can get a wonderful sense of traveling beyond the room," says interior designer Isy Jackson. "Like mirrors, it tricks the eye into the effect of a large expansive space, if only for a second."
Consider renaissance-style columns or windows that invite the eye to look beyond your walls.
FAQs
How Do I Make a Room Look Taller With Wallpaper?
The best way to make a room look taller with wallpaper is by drawing the eye upwards.
"Vertical stripes are fantastic for this," says Isy Jackson. "Alternatively, by taking wallpaper onto the ceiling, you can blur the room's edges to add height."
Drenching your space in wallpaper helps to blur the abrupt line between wall and ceiling, distracting from the lack of height instead of accentuating it.
How Do I Make a Narrow Room Look Wider With Wallpaper?
To make a narrow room appear wider, striped wallpaper can also be useful, especially when pasted horizontally.
"Another way to make a room appear wider is by focusing on one dominant wall and papering it in a bold, colorful patterned paper, and then using a coordinating lighter paint color for the surrounding walls," says Sarah Randolph. "If you want additional drama and impact for your wallpapered wall, you can paint both the walls and trim the same color."
Wallpaper is an unsung hero when it comes to adding height, depth, and dimension to small rooms. True, it takes some courage to initially commit to pasting your walls, but when done right, it comes with great rewards.
Now you're convinced, find out where to buy wallpaper in all the most beautiful, trend-setting designs.
