The Other Wallpapers I Considered for the Kitchen
/I debated over a hundred wallpaper pattern options for the kitchen. And I mean hundreds. I started with a giant stack, then narrowed it down to about 20 that sat on the walls for months.
Here are some of the final contenders. I’ll break them each down below.
And here’s the paper we chose (Whitehall in the Cedar colorway)! I shared more photos of the installed paper here.
I’ve had wallpapers taped to various walls of the house since November 2021. Putting a dozen up, removing three, getting 5 more samples, removing 2, getting another sample, etc. A few favorites have been in rotation since the beginning, and a few popped up at the very end.
The wallpaper patterns shown above (from top down, left then right) are: Gråäng, Nippon, Kvitten, Whitehall, Anton, and Arboretum.
I got most all of these samples for $1 each on wallpaperdirect.com, others I got from the manufacturers website (mostly Sandberg Wallpaper), and some came from to-the-trade-only contacts.
Here are all of the wallpaper sources I shopped:
Wallpaperdirect
Sandberg Wallpaper
Ottoline
Kate Golding
Relativity Textiles
Sian Zeng
Rebecca Atwood
Anewall
Abigail Edwards
Trustworth
Farrow & Ball
Bradbury & Bradbury
Milton & King
William Morris
Wallpaper from the 70s
Decorators Best
Lulu & Georgia
Boråstapeter
Fine & Dandy Co.
Lulie Wallace
Zoffany
Susi Atkinson
Supply Showroom
Hygge & West
This list is always published on my Favorite Shops page of the blog - bookmark it because I’m always updating these links.
I waffled back and forth between two-color designs that mostly added texture, and multi-colored patterns that were artwork in themselves.
I have to give a shout out to my blogger friends Alison and Natasha who helped me narrow down the papers over the last several months! I’d still have samples on the walls if it weren’t for those two.
I painted the cabinets a neutral (Urban Putty by Sherwin Williams) in hopes that I’d have more opportunities to add color and pattern. But, quite the contrary happened and I had to eliminate a lot of designs because the neutrals felt too similar yet not the same.
Had I planned to do wallpaper from the get-go, I probably would have ended up with a different cabinetry color. But, we do like the taupe color, and we love the wallpaper we chose, so everything worked out in the end.
Shown above is Bellflower.
Many moons ago I considered painting the cabinets Sherwin William’s Hushed Auburn, so it was funny to come full circle with this pattern (Gråäng) in a very similar dusty rose color!
This pattern isn’t in many of my “kitchen wallpaper contender” photos even though it was a favorite. It was actually my number one paper for a few weeks, but I ended up nixing it because I want to use it elsewhere. I think it would work really well against the woodwork in the living room, dining room, or hallway, so you just might see it in one of those rooms in the future. ;)
1. Karolina Green by Sandberg
2. Anton by Sandberg
3. Bellflower in Grey/Fennel by William Morris
4. Bellflower in Saffron/Olive by William Morris
5. Millefleur in Masquerade by Little Greene
6. Millefleur in Garden by Little Greene
7. Arbutus in Thyme/Coral by William Morris
8. Mallow in Chalk Duck Egg by William Morris
9. Ash Branch in Light Moss by Crown Wallpapers
10. Mallow in Powder Blue by William Morris
11. Whitehall by Little Greene (the winner!)
12. Gilly Flower by Robert Kime
13. Acanthus in Pink/Beige by Boråstapeter
14. Ipswich Sprig in Colorway B by Adelphi
I love so many of those papers (and the others in the stack of rejections that I only nixed because they didn’t work in this room) - you can bet you’ll see me papering with one of those in another room of the house soon. In the meantime, check out the kitchen with the winning paper here, admire the nursery wallpaper, and stay tuned for the full kitchen reveal.
