Geometric Wallpaper

Choosing geometric wallpaper

Where it works

Geometrics suit the rooms with straight lines already in them: a hallway, a bathroom, a home office, a kitchen with plain cabinets. Scallop Fans, powder-blue ginkgo tiles on pebbled white, and Woven Check, three blues woven over cream, are restful enough for a bedroom. Navy Deco and Gold Honeycomb, both navy with gold, are the evening designs for a cloakroom or a bar. Diagonal Plaid, magenta and chartreuse bands crossing over cream and black, is one-wall-only, behind a bed or a desk.

Picking between the designs

Sort by the shape. Arches: Navy Deco, Modern Arches, Blue Arches. Tiles and fans: Scallop Fans, Scallop Tiles in teal and hot pink, Navy Tiles, Patchwork Tile. Grids and checks: Gold Grid in dusty pink and olive with raised gold outlines, Olive Plaid, Woven Check, Diagonal Plaid, Midnight Checkerboard. Circles: Slate Circles, Denim Rings, Indigo Circles, Painted Dots. Then how hard the edge is: Navy Deco and Gold Grid are crisp; Denim Dash, Painted Squares and Painted Dots are hand-painted and wobble, which is what makes them work in an older house. Gold Honeycomb is the exception to everything, engraved gold bees on a hexagon lattice, a geometric with a subject.

Related

The 1950s shapes are in mid-century modern wallpaper, the checks in checkerboard wallpaper, the painted ones in abstract wallpaper. For a classic geometric motif and where it came from, read What is a quatrefoil.