Decorating Around Wallpaper

Share:

Decorating Around Wallpaper

Staff Writer · Oct 13, 2010

Once you’ve chosen an apartment with wallpaper, you’ll need to spend some extra time figuring out how to decorate your new place. Unlike apartments with painted walls, decorating around wallpaper requires coordination of a number of different colors, and not every combination works.

Using the Color Wheel

You can easily find your color scheme by comparing color hues on your wallpaper to a color wheel. If all the colors on your wallpaper are the same hue (i.e., different shades of blue), then there is a lot of choice in how you can decorate with additional hues. But if there are two or more separate colors in the wallpaper design, you will need to carefully match the hues to that on a color wheel to find your color scheme.

When comparing wallpaper colors to the color wheel, remember to ignore the value (light tints or dark shades) and tone (brightness/dullness) of the color; if the wallpaper has a bright light red, you should ignore the brightness and lightness of the color and just consider it red for the purposes of finding its place on the color wheel.

Finding Your Color Scheme

Now that you know the colors of your wallpaper and have found the corresponding places on the color wheel, you can determine what kind of color schemes are available to you. Color schemes come in four basic varieties: monochromatic, adjacent, complementary and triadic.

  • A monochromatic color scheme can only be used if your wallpaper only has one color hue in it. For example, if your wallpaper has different shades of red, then you go ahead with a monochromatic red scheme by making all the different decorations in your home feature different values and tones of red.

  • Adjacent color schemes are also available to you if you only have one color hue in your wallpaper, but it can also be forced upon you if your wallpaper uses both colors in the adjacent scheme. You can tell that the color scheme is adjacent if the colors on the color wheel are next to each other. Yellow/green is one example; blue/purple is another. If your wallpaper uses yellow and green, then this is the color scheme you must continue with in your apartment. If your wallpaper only has yellow, then you can always choose green to go along with it.

  • Complementary color schemes are when the color hues are on opposite sides of the color wheel, such as red/green or orange/blue. Again, if your wallpaper has two complementary colors already chosen, then it would be awkward in trying to add a third color to your color scheme.

  • Triadic color schemes offer the most variety. These are when each color hue on the color wheel makes up part of a triangle, such as red/yellow/blue or purple/orange/green. When using this color scheme, the best results occur if you focus on one of the colors and use the other two as accents only.

No matter which color scheme you use, be sure to use varying values and tones on the main hues. Use darker shades alongside lighter tones, and don’t ignore lesser intensities of color such as ‘greyed-out’ or washed out colors.

Ignoring Color Schemes

While you don’t have to follow the color schemes listed above, doing so is easiest for most people’s sensitivities. Colors harmonize the same way sounds do, and following a traditional color scheme will maximize the number of people who will find your decorations attractive. While you might be okay with a discordant color scheme, remain aware that not all of your guests will find the atmosphere quite as inviting.

You might also like:

Moving into a new apartment or rental property can be both exciting and stressful. From packing up your belongings to coordinating logistics, there’s a lot to manage. However, one aspect that is often overlooked is what to expect on move-in day regarding the condition of your new unit. Surprisingly, according to recent surveys, a significant […]

Jessica Lee

 · Mar 12, 2024

On ApartmentRatings, real renters have the ability to rate and review their apartment communities based on their experience touring and or living in the communities. ApartmentRatings offers renters the ability to see what life is like at a community through a report card grade style format called epIQ. Every month we highlight apartment communities whose […]

Jessica Lee

 · Feb 28, 2024

On ApartmentRatings, real renters have the ability to rate and review their apartment communities based on their experience touring and/or living in them. ApartmentRatings offers renters the ability to see what life is truly like at a community through a report card grade style format called epIQ. Every month we highlight a major city across […]

Jessica Lee

 · Jan 31, 2024