A tiny bit of wallpaper - would that work?

[Nobiggerthanyourhand]

Hello.

I live in a house that is entirely painted white, and I think this is good, but I would quite like to see some colour.

My idea is to wallpaper the tiny little walls that jut out - 20-30cm with something like William Morris, to create a sort of secret ‘lining effect’ - a surprise strip of colour and pattern.

People don’t do this, though, do they?

Can you tell me why not? Or what I would have to think about?

Sounds good to me. That or a single wall in larger rooms - but maybe this is passé now. I also really like the idea of a William Morris print.

Thank you for the vote of confidence @MaggieBsBoat . Not an accent wall and not a border, but like a colourful sleeve under a jacket or a lovely fabric lining.

I can’t find this on the internet, though.

Maybe my house isn't as interesting as yours - I don't really have small areas of wall that jut out? Could you show what you mean?

I love wallpaper but can't afford to do large areas, I'm interested to see what this might look like, it sounds cool.

My aunt has just wallpapered her tiny office with William Morris paper and it looks beautiful!

You could try it on for size on one or two areas first to see how you like it.

Love your description of glimpsing the lining of a garment. It could be amazing, you should try it and find out!

Not seen exactly what you’ve described done with wallpaper but it made me think of this – it might fall into the categories of border or feature wall or neither but I think it looks lovely, so thought I’d share it

www.instagram.com/p/C7oXsfzIuJW/?igsh=ajllcXEyMjR2eW14

I think your idea sounds great, a very creative way of adding some colour and interest.

I quite often do a statement papered wall. Our plaster is pretty bad so I tend to paper all the walls but mainly fairly plain paper on most of the walls (cheapish), with one or two in a bold more expensive paper. A couple of small walls papered boldly seems like a good idea to me.

It's your house you can do whatever you like

Not the OP, but here’s a funny bit of wall. That sort of size?

Go for it. I live in a painted white flat. I have two small random walls (eg a small section between two floor to ceiling windows) in a really bold wallpaper (not William Morris’s but a really strong navy geometric shape) and I love it!!

This is an example of a bit of wall. I think there might have been a fireplace behind this. There are a few places like this in the house. It is Edwardian.

Oh I don’t think it attached.

Oh, the side bits of the chimney breast (might be called 'shoulders'?). I think that sounds like a good idea. Love the comparison to sleeve linings! Back in the day I used to sew bright linings into jacket sleeves and then roll the sleeves to reveal (Don Johnson in Miami Vice style 🤣)

Which Morris prints are you looking at? I love how they have been playing with the colour palette's of William Morris prints lately to bring them up to date.

@Nobiggerthanyourhand
I wonder if it would a bit strange? Could you get a cheap roll of wallpaper, cut it to size and blutack in place to see what it look like?
A cheap way to test it out.
My dad moved into a house in 2016 and all the rooms were painted in 2 colours with opposite walls matching. Looked a bit dated then but he was 84 and not into interior design.

Excellent idea - might be a bit tricky to do, but it sounds lovely op. A lot of the William Morris prints you can get as fabrics, if you wanted to tie them in, you could do blinds/cushions?

That sounds fun! If it turns out to be unhinged instead it's a small amount of work to undo it.

Is your picture showing the side of the chimney breast, OP? (I can't quite make it out)

I've seen this idea a couple of times - I know MN seems to hate panelling, but it's a similar way of introducing a little bit of wallpaper.

Yes. It must be the side of a chimney breast.

If you are just going to wallpaper the sides, you'd find it very difficult to get a neat edge.

@Gloriainextremis

Right. So this would be one reason why people don’t do it.

i think I may try the blutack idea from @AllFurCoatAndFrillyKnickers Thank you everyone.

I think it sounds like a great idea.

I have done similar in small walls and it adds a bit of interest.

I've also painted small walls a slightly darker colour then the main wall which also adds interest (like the little bits of wall around a bay window).

I've also wallpapered the inside of cupboard doors.

Go for it!!

I think it could look beautiful and interesting. The sticking-out walls are probably where walls were removed and 'pillars' were left to support beams.

Do you mean to paper all the way around the sticking-out wall, or just one face? If only one face, is there a risk that the edge of the paper exposed along the corner could be peeled away by paying traffic? Also, edges of walls are rarely 100% straight, and that would show up very strongly against the straight edge of the paper.

...passing traffic. Unless it's so beautiful that you decide to turn it into a pay-per-view exhibition 😄

I like the idea, id be inclined to find a few places, maybe the back of bookshelves or the insode of cupboarda if you have any with glass fronts, that kind of thing. And matching it with soft furnishings or curtains sounds a good idea.

If its not doable to hide the edges of the paper then an alternative might be to use a stencil to paint a design?

Or I was intrigued by one of the other suggestions, if you do an image search on framed wallpaper panels there are some interesting ideas.

You might want to tidy/secure the edges with some moulding - either patterned or plain like:

https://www.manomano.co.uk/coving-and-cornices-460?model_id=13845189

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Pine-Cushion-Corner-Moulding---13-x-13-x-2400mm/p/121311