“Is Wallpaper Back?”

During my time at the Pasadena Showcase House this year, I was asked the same question: “Is wallpaper back?” I found it so fascinating to hear, because for me, wallpaper never really left. I have used it in projects, and it remains one of the most personal and expressive tools available to a designer. But I understand exactly where the question comes from.

In the 1980s and 1990s, wallpaper reigned supreme, covering every wall, often perfectly matched to curtains and upholstery.

My own bedroom had blue wainscoting, and above it, painterly strokes of fuchsia, pink, and blue swept across the wall. Then minimalism hit hard. Design magazines pushed clean lines, neutral tones, and open spaces. Wallpaper felt cluttered, too busy, too reminiscent of your aunt’s living room. For a long time, paint became the safe and sophisticated choice, while wallpaper quietly fell out of favor.

An entirely new generation discovered wallpaper through social media, with no residual baggage about difficult removal or dated aesthetics. What was once a simple wallcovering is now a design tool capable of shaping a room’s entire identity through new chromatic and material exploration.

Today’s wallpaper landscape is a far cry from the borders and coordinating sets of decades past. Designers are pointing to large-scale botanical murals, nature-inspired motifs, and textural designs that define this moment. After years of minimalism, there is a growing appetite for richer, more expressive interiors, with layered florals, historical patterns, and saturated colors creating spaces that feel deeply personal. The throughline is intentionality: each application tells a specific story rather than filling space for its own sake.

My own approach to wallpaper has always been rooted in that same thinking. I treat it the way I treat art: it is a matter of personal resonance before it is a matter of trend. It can be used boldly in a large, repeated pattern or subtly in a quiet textural stripe. Neither choice is more sophisticated than the other. What matters is that it means something in the space.

So is wallpaper back? I would say it never truly went away. What has returned is our willingness to use our homes as an expression of who we are, rather than who a trend tells us to be. People are gravitating toward interiors that feel lived-in, layered, and expressive, drawn to homes with soul rather than perfection. Wallpaper, used with intention, is one of the most direct ways to create exactly that.