Choosing minimal wallpaper

Where it works

Low-density pattern is what you reach for when the furniture or the view should win: a loft with a single good sofa, a study, a bedroom kept deliberately bare, or a rental where the walls should stay quiet. Half Moons and Fan Rows go anywhere. Foam Crest, seafoam and jade waves in soft bands, suits a bathroom. Thistle Puff and Dandelion Seedhead, seedheads in fine line on butter yellow and cream, are nursery and bedroom designs. Blush Plaster, washes of blush and lilac with no repeat, reads almost as a painted wall and is the choice for a whole room.

Picking between the designs

Decide between texture and motif. Texture, no motif: Blush Plaster, Woven Blocks, Silk Ribbon. Small motif, wide spacing: Thistle Puff, Dandelion Seedhead, Teal Stars, Soft Corners, Little Pots. Large motif, low contrast: Half Moons, Fan Rows, Foam Crest, Olive Ogee, Kiln Arch. Then colour: Half Moons and Fan Rows are grey and black on pale; Foam Crest is seafoam; Blush Plaster is pink and lilac; Gold Rain is the one dark ground here, bottle green with gold. Eames Parlour and Stepping Stones are the least minimal things on the page, four colours each, included because the drawing is spare.

Related

The pale grounds continue in white and cream wallpaper and beige wallpaper, the shapes in geometric wallpaper. For a quiet pattern on a textured wall, read Can you put wallpaper on textured walls.