New wallpaper 2014: technology and design

Recommendation points

• Wallpaper with unusual properties
• Magnetic wallpaper
• Interactive digital wallpaper
• Wallpaper with LED backlight
• Metallic wallpaper
• Facade wallpaper
• Fresh ideas in wallpaper design
• Wallpaper with digital printing
• Futuristic wallpaper with visual illusions
• Wallpaper “destroying” space
• Watercolor wallpaper
• Cinematic Wallpaper
• Wallpaper imitation
• Black and white wallpaper
• Wallpaper Stickers
• Wallpaper to renovate furniture

What interesting things did wallpaper manufacturers prepare in 2014? We will tell you about wallpapers with unusual properties: magnetic wallpapers, interactive wallpapers, LED wallpapers, facade wallpapers. We will also tell you about the latest trends and fresh ideas in wallpaper design.

Wallpaper as a practical and aesthetic decorative wall covering is experiencing a new surge in popularity. Inexpensive and quite diverse in design material, wallpaper allows you to experiment with color, texture, pattern, visual effects on the way to creating a cozy and harmonious home environment. Innovative engineering solutions and technologies, volumetric design and flight of design imagination are a “fresh wind” breathing new life into a traditional coating with a long history. What is so extraordinary that wallpaper manufacturers offer in 2014??

Wallpaper with unusual properties

Magnetic wallpaper

Wall decoration is an expensive and time-consuming thing; it does not imply a frequent change of “decorations”. But with magnetic wallpaper, you can quickly and easily transform the appearance of the room. Wallpaper with magnetic properties is a fundamentally new decorative material in interior design. They differ from standard finishes by the presence of a specific coating – ferritic vinyl applied to a paper base. There are a lot of options for the execution of this original finishing material – from monochromatic solutions to canvases covered with a complex pattern. They are accompanied by a set of decorative magnets that match the background in style and color.

An entertaining game with magnetic wallpaper is a good alternative to watching endless cartoons on TV. Developing a baby in early childhood, such wallpapers will also help him, as an adult, organize himself in elementary school.

A great place to use such wall decoration is the interiors of children’s rooms, because children like to constantly change something, so wallpaper with a magnetic layer becomes part of an unusual game that entertains and develops the child. Kids can create their own stories by interacting with fairy-tale characters – flying pigs, lambs and frogs, moving them along the wall. But not only the gaming moment is available with such a coating – by pasting the workplace area with magnetic wallpaper, you can use them as a board for reminders and posting, say, a student’s schedule or daily routine. At leisure, the child will be able to play with magnets, alternating educational activities with an exciting game..

Interactive digital wallpaper

Expanding the scope of wallpaper, engineers and designers are trying not only to make everyday life more comfortable, but also to diversify it with vivid impressions and emotions. Not so long ago, the Austrian company Strunk introduced a revolutionary digital wallpaper. The wall covering is original in that it can reproduce any image – not only static, but also dynamic. Visual images are generated by a projector located under the ceiling and displayed on the wall. Another company, High-Low Tech, has gone even further in mastering new technologies by integrating various sensors and devices into traditional wallpapers. The intelligent system integrated into the decorative finish includes: lighting elements, audio, network interface, sound generator and more. You just need to touch the desired area on the wallpaper with your hand and the coating will begin to regulate the room temperature, light level or sound level.

With an interesting design, digital wallpaper will not only decorate the room, but also perform many useful functions – from lighting to heating a room. “Smart system” is activated by simple finger touches of certain zones on the wall

Another type of unusual wallpaper called “Virtual Bouquet” was invented by Chinese designer Shi Yan. When you touch the finish and warm it up with the warmth of your hands to a temperature of 25 degrees, pink buds appear in the ornate pattern of green branches, and if the temperature rises further – up to 35 degrees, the flowers begin to bloom.

Special educational digital wallpaper was created to decorate children’s rooms – they allow kids to take an interactive journey through a magical forest. The cover identifies the presence of the child and begins to create animated images of animals.

Wallpaper with LED backlight

Meystyle has combined 2 in 1 – now wallpaper and lamps are one whole. Thin LED fibers are integrated into the embossed pattern of the wall material and are designed to spread a soft glow in a small radius. Some wallpaper options are equipped with Swarovski crystals – refracting through the edges of tiny pebbles, light rays create unusual patterns of light and shadow on the planes of the walls, stream, floor. Wallpaper combined with a lighting system is an excellent energy-saving solution for illuminating rooms at night. The shimmering stylized pattern on the wallpaper now carries not only an aesthetic load, but also acquired practical application.

Wallpaper in neutral shades with subtle patterns is the main theme of the collection with LED backlighting. With such a decorative coating, the issue of delicate lighting in the evenings disappears by itself.

Complementing the glowing wallpaper with designer fluorescent curtains, in the evenings you can fill your home with romance and mystery. Optical fiber, “implanted” into ordinary tissue, is a storage element that accumulates solar energy during the day and releases it in the evening in the form of unobtrusive light. The French company Lumigram has created another version of the luminous curtain fabric with a different principle of operation – the LED filaments that make up its composition are connected to a power source and do not depend on the intensity of sunlight. The scope for imagination in the decoration of the room is endless with such curtains – the color of textiles can be changed remotely using the remote control. When the curtains are disconnected from the power source, they turn into a regular fabric that can be washed and ironed.

Metallic wallpaper

Wallpaper with a metallized coating is not entirely new, but an actively developing trend in the production of decorative materials. The use of the finest foil, spraying, reinforcement – many technologies are used in order to achieve the effect of a metal surface. Depending on which metal the wallpaper imitates – gold, silver, aluminum or steel – you can achieve different goals in interior design. For example, glossy stainless steel brings a touch of modernity to the decor, while gold and silver add sophistication and chic, especially in tandem with velor, mother of pearl and Swarovski crystals..

The classic interior in shades of blue, gray and aqua looks much richer with metallic wallpaper in silver. A vivid example of how modern technologies harmoniously coexist with a rather conservative and canonized classical style

A dark wallpaper in a traditional classic style looks much more attractive with a complex damask mother-of-pearl pattern. The contrasting combination of black walls and white furniture is not a very common use of a black and white color scheme, but very successful

Metallic wallpapers, to a greater or lesser extent, have a gloss, so they visually expand the space and create a contrast with matte surfaces. The special expressiveness of the interior decoration is achieved with the help of wallpaper, in which fragments of metal of a warm palette (gold, brass, copper, bronze) are combined with blue, green, purple shades, and cold colors (steel, aluminum, cast iron) – with yellow, red, orange tones. Metallic inclusions in wallpaper are combined with many background colors and, as a rule, act as an accent.

Metallic wallpaper that combines the glitter of gold with deep black – the development of designer Karim Rashid for the company “Marburg”. A fairly modern wallpaper pattern perfectly coexists with ethnic details of the interior and fills the room with luxury

Facade wallpaper

Have you always thought that wallpaper is only for interior decoration? But Wall&Deco decided to break the accepted dogma and created a collection of OUT wallpapers for the outer walls of the building in various styles, with interesting textures and bright images. This is a completely new look at the finishing of facades – now your home will be visible from afar. A nondescript blank wall will immediately transform – from boring and indifferent it will turn into an expressive accent plane. Wood and metal, frescoes and architectural details – the whole range of imitations is presented in this collection. Resistant to various influences, facade wallpaper can also be used for pasting walls of balconies, loggias, terraces and for interior decoration – in bathrooms, saunas, swimming pools, kitchens.

Filigree decor in oriental style gives the facade wallpaper an expressive color, combining the once blank wall with the sky and the sea thanks to the delicate nuances of blue

Contrasting wallpaper for facade walls in black and white contains painted architectural elements – this “crushes” the blank surface and gives it a more natural look

Fresh ideas in wallpaper design

Wallpaper with digital printing

Digital printing on wallpaper is a fashionable trend in wall decoration, which creates the basis for a striking design unlike any other and allows you to “play” with graphics, color combinations, and optical illusions. At Heimtextil 2014, Hewlett-Packard unveiled a new collection of wallpapers printed with the HP Wallart app, a program available to everyone. Having come up with your own wallpaper design in the Wallart environment using photos, drawings, symbols, you can practice as an artist and add a personal touch to decorating your habitat. Walls decorated with 3D printed wallpaper will turn into a spectacular room decoration, into a spectacular and impressive accent.

Digital printed 3D wallpaper from HP is the wall finish for the bold. Dynamic and somewhat unearthly shapes in rich luminescent shades – such wallpapers need space for harmonious perception

Futuristic wallpaper with visual illusions

A couple of years ago, Zaha Hadid’s architectural studio developed four exclusive collections of abstract wallpapers for the German company Marburg, combining technical innovations and an unusual artistic vision of the world. Remaining relevant to this day, wallpaper from Zaha Hadid is a perspective image of geometric fluid forms that create the illusion of dynamics and movement. Four color schemes are characteristic of these completely extraordinary wallpaper collections:

1. Elastika – a layering of rich berry tones combined with silver, white, black, copper and deep greens.
2. Stria is a bold graphic design that breaks through the wall with wavy spirals in silver and gray.
3. Swirl – a fusion of “petrol” rainbow tones with warm reds and cool grays.
4. Cellular – the effect of volumetric voids with a gradation of black on a white-silver background.

Zaha Hadid suggests adding light futurism with a predominance of rich colors to the design of the walls. The collection of 3D wallpaper she created for the Marburg company is an unusual shape woven from the finest transitions of tones and flowing volumes

Wallpaper “destroying” space

Decorating walls with digital photos of landscapes, architecture, plants is a “new-old” trend in the world of wallpaper. In the article “9 Fashion Trends in Wallpaper Design” we have already mentioned this trend in interior decoration. Why did the designers remove such an old technique of filling the plane of the walls from grandmother’s chest? Probably because 3D wallpapers create spectacular, eye-pleasing optical illusions and refresh home design with realistic pictures of life. In addition to a powerful aesthetic accent, images of nature calm and relax, and also create an illusory “breakthrough” of space, expanding the boundaries of the room. 3D wallpaper, along with mirrors, is an effective tool in decorating small rooms, allowing you to visually increase their volume.

Rocky mountains, a wheat field or the seaside – each has a corner of nature where you feel easy and comfortable. So why not create a similar oasis of dreams in your home with wallpaper? You will immediately feel how it will become much easier to breathe indoors.

Watercolor wallpaper

Black Crow Studios has developed a colorful and slightly extravagant wallpaper design, giving it a completely unique look through abstract painting. The watercolor painting technique gives the walls a certain airiness, while simultaneously filling them with colors and dynamics through subtle color transitions. But it is better not to paste over all the walls with such wallpaper – the room will become somewhat overloaded, but it is quite possible to create an accent on one of the planes in a monochrome or “white” interior.

Creative people will love abstract watercolor painting in wallpaper designs. Saturated and, at the same time, transparent paints add expressive color to the decoration of the walls

An interesting solution for rooms with low ceilings is finishing with one-color wallpaper with a watercolor stretch of tone – from dark at the bottom to almost white at the top. This color gradation looks fresh and elegant. Watercolor wallpaper is a combination of traditional painting technique and modern approach to wall decoration. They will favorably emphasize both the classic style in the interior and any interior in the postmodern style..

The multifaceted palette of shades of blue already carries a powerful charge of freshness, and in combination with the watercolor technique, it becomes even more airy and light. The nuanced gradation of tone from intense color to white is an excellent technique for visually raising the level of the ceiling, combined with any design style – from country to minimalism

Cinematic Wallpaper

Pixers art studio has created a catchy “cinematic” collection of self-adhesive vinyl wallpapers, made in a peculiar mosaic technique. With colorful triangles and rhombuses that make up a movie mosaic, this vibrant and bold wallpaper doesn’t look like an ordinary movie poster or poster. Characters of iconic films placed on the wall can revive the interior of even the most prosaic and nondescript room. But it is imperative to take into account the nuance that for a harmonious perception of such a large contrasting pattern, a considerable area is needed – in small rooms such a composition will not be entirely appropriate.

Movie fans now have the opportunity to place images of their favorite heroes in the pop art style on the wall. Open colors, unusual mosaic stylization – everything in these wallpapers suggests that they will perfectly brighten up the monotony of black and white interiors

Wallpaper imitation

As we already wrote in the article “9 Fashion Trends in Wallpaper Design”, the use of imitation wallpaper for wall decor is one of the most active techniques in interior decoration. Expensive materials – leather, marble, wood, fur and others, which seemed almost unattainable, with imitation wallpaper become reality. If it is necessary to visually expand the internal space and give the room depth – here, trick wallpapers with the effect of the presence of niches, bookshelves, doors, windows, and other architectural details will come in handy.

Starting with the imitation of trivial surfaces of stone, plaster and fabric, the designers of famous wallpaper brands have gone further in their creativity – modern wallpaper collections are filled with extraordinary solutions for wall decoration. Sophisticated leather upholstery, aged wood, rusty metal – there are tons of textures for the limitless search for “zest” for wall decoration

Black and white wallpaper

How you can decorate a living space that is almost devoid of furniture is a backfill question for many. Surprisingly, the simplest solution in this case is decorating the walls with black and white wallpaper with a complex pattern that imitates volumetric architectural details, furniture, stairs, lamps, windows and other elements that can divide and fill the space of a room. Drawn wallpapers in black and white are replete with small details, for this reason they look quite realistic, despite the monochrome.

Drawings in antique style or comics – contrasting wallpapers for walls in black and white colors always look advantageous, filling the interior with missing touches. If there is practically no furniture in the room, it does not matter, wallpaper with the image of all the attributes for life will fill this gap

Wallpaper Stickers

A custom solution for wallpaper décor is vinyl decals, giving everyone a lot of creativity. With a background wall covering in your preferred color, you can apply any decorative motif to it in the form of a vinyl decal that can be moved over time. Such wallpaper design will never get bored, because it can be changed and supplemented, bringing variety to the interior design.

Contrasting notes in wall decoration will bring a variety of shapes, colors and styles of vinyl wall stickers. Floral motifs, household items, numbers and letters – wallpaper manufacturers provide a wide range of wall design solutions using self-adhesive elements

Wallpaper to renovate furniture

After the repair, there are always scraps of wallpaper, which are both a pity to throw away, and there seems to be nowhere to apply. Far from a new idea of ​​using leftover wallpaper to renew old furniture, it is still relevant again. Redesigning old furniture with wallpaper is the simplest and most easily accomplished task. Renewing your obsolete headboard, chest of drawers or wardrobe, covering damaged fragments of shelves or doors at no special cost – all this is quite doable with ordinary wallpaper. With a fresh finish with companion wallpaper (in the same color scheme, but with a different pattern), well-worn furniture will look like a kind of work of art and will perfectly fit into country or Provence style.

Do not rush to throw away your old furniture – the good-quality grandmother’s cabinets and sideboards made of wood updated with wallpaper will last you longer than modern structures made of chipboard and plywood

The current market for building materials is so saturated and multifaceted that, at times, it is difficult to understand and make the right choice in favor of this or that type of wallpaper. Initially, decide in what color you would like to buy wallpaper, not forgetting an important principle in decoration: warm shades are good for poorly lit rooms, cold ones for sunny ones. Correctly estimate the dimensions of the room – the saturation of the wallpaper color and the size of the picture will depend on them. Do not turn your home into a faceless beige box – feel free to experiment and fantasize. If the room is small, it is better to choose a darker floor and medium color saturation of the walls so that all planes of the room are clearly read. Highlight the accent wall with wallpaper with catchy decor, make the rest plain or paste over with companion wallpaper. Add a couple of interesting details to the design – pillows, vases, paintings, which are combined with wallpaper in style and color scheme. We hope that you will be able to create a cozy atmosphere at home – a corner where you will want to return again and again..