Transform Your Space

Tips for Displaying Art on Bold Wallpaper

Feature walls with vibrant colours or busy scenes can bring real character into your home, and wallpaper is a wonderful way of demonstrating your taste and personality within your space. But when your whole wall is a feature, can you combine this with art? 

Bringing together the right combination of artwork and wallpaper, you can transform your room; such a display will reflect your style and bring a unique energy to your home. So, what do you need to consider when you’re looking for art for that patterned wall, or to decorate your space?

Embrace Themes and Colours

Following a theme can be incredibly powerful. The stunning Matt Herring portraits in the picture above work because of the shared natural elements tying the art and backdrop together.

While in this second image, the almost geometric patterns of the branches on the wallpaper reflect the more dramatic forest scene in Inam’s piece, Emerald Whispers. Although the scale of each element is so different, the shared tones and subject balance beautifully.

Muted Patterns

If your wallpaper has a muted colour scheme, even a very busy pattern can sit comfortably alongside the right scene. Whether it’s swirls and whirls or regular geometric patterns, subdued hues in complementary tones can create a quiet backdrop so your artwork still gets all the attention. You can see this above, where Gary Walton's The Cove looks stunning in this serene room.  

Playful Celebrations

Sometimes the most effective displays come while raising a smile. The winner of our recent Doug Hyde photo competition showcased this brilliantly—pairing Hyde’s smiling figure with their zebra companion against this wonderful wallpaper featuring its own rows of zebras. This fabulous display can’t help but draw you in.

Enhance the Mood

Have you ever thought about how wallpaper can amplify an artwork’s emotional impact?

Pairing Philip Gray's powerful seascape against wallpaper with a subtle abstract wave pattern creates an echo of the painting’s movement and depth, for example. 

When you’re selecting your combination, consider how the wallpaper’s colour and pattern influence the feeling you want the piece to evoke.

If you’ve got your eye on an artwork, but don’t know how to display it, our team at the Rose Gallery will be happy to help.