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Writer's pictureSusan Wilson

Wallpaper on sloped walls, a perfect solution!

'Wallpapering both walls and ceiling creates a seamless and cozy wrap-around feeling in those problematic sloped wall bedrooms'


Hello to all my lovely readers! Question: Hot enough fer ya?


My husband and I just spent the Canada Day long weekend with some very dear friends at their little piece of paradise on Lake Clear in Bonnechère Valley. Phewf! Good weekend to be at the lake!


While there, my friend was telling me that she wanted to redecorate her guest bedroom, and what colour would I recommend for her paint-wise?


Well, my friends' home is a charming farmhouse outside of Ottawa, with the sloped ceilings that often come with older homes in the upstairs bedrooms.

e. pfeifler

Here is a picture of the room she wants to change up. It was her son's room, then her daughter's room at one time, and she now describes it as 'a hodgepodge'. Her kids are grown now, so she would like to make this into a guest room.

(Although if they're anything like my kids, they'll keep arriving with a whole bunch of stuff to store in the garage/ basement/spare room/middle of the front hallway)


Sloped walls can be challenging: Where do I end the wall colour and begin the ceiling colour? At the angle of the ceiling? Where the wall begins to slope? How do I de-emphasize all those angles?


The simple answer to these questions is to eliminate the problem altogether by painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls. It looks fabulous and disguises the lines where the wall and ceiling meet.


This bedroom from Mabey She Made It painted a lovely moody dark teal-blue is a great example of this idea (and aren't the hits of yellow lovely in this room to complement the blue?).


So painting walls and ceiling in the same colour is a great way to treat a room with sloped ceilings.


However... ;)


This is also an awesome opportunity to use wallpaper to great effect, an opportunity that should not be squandered! Wallpapering a bedroom with sloped walls really ramps up the potential charm of those slopes and angles. And it suits an older home like that of my friends to a tee. Take a look at this bee-yoooo-tiful bedroom with the vintage (or vintage look, perhaps) wallpaper below:

Vintage-wallpaper-bedroom-interior-design
Michael S. Smith in Veranda

Or this one, where the slope starts just below the ceiling line:

wallpaper-bedroom-interior-design
Lauren Liess

How cozy would it feel in these rooms, envelopped in these gorgeous florals? Now obviously these papers bring a lot of pattern to a room, and you see how the designers of the above two rooms have chosen plain solids for the bedding and floors in order to balance this busy-ness and ensure a calming space for sleeping.


In this room by Elizabeth Swift Designs a light and airy feel was created with a lots of white, and a quieter pattern in the wallpaper.


Just looking at this room makes me feel like breathing deep and relaxing!

wallpaper-bedroom-interior-decorator-mississauga

In this attic room Christopher Spitzmiller has balanced the pattern of this vintage looking wallpaper with the sleek expanse of blue floor and the plain white bedding with minimal trim.


Old meets new, and country meets tailored.

Love the interesting window!









If you can't get enough of toile or oversized florals, this is a great way to surround yourself with them. These patterns really suit the old-fashioned feel of sloped walls...

wallpaper-toile-interior-decorator-mississauga
Jenny Wolf



The black and white colour scheme in this

bedroom by Laura Wolf, along with the modern farmhouse ceiling light lend this room a modern up-to-date feel.












Three different toiles have been used in this room, and have been complemented by grounded, historical paint colours on the floor, bed frame and window trim.

via lonny









Notice that in the bedroom above, the small strip of ceiling has not been papered, but has instead been painted in a colour very close to the ground colour in the wall paper in order to blur the line between wall and ceiling.


Another thing to consider is that , if you wish to paper the ceiling, a non-directional print is easiest to install, eliminating the need to make a decision about where the 'top' of the pattern should end. The tree motif wallpaper below is an example of a directional print, which is probably why the ceiling has been painted in a blending colour rather than papering the ceiling.

I love anything with birds on it, so I'm pretty taken with this room!

tree-wallpaper-attic-bedroom-interior-designer-mississsauga
Caitlin Wilson Design

Wallpaper on a sloped ceiling can create a whimsical look, like in the above photo. This makes it a popular choice for children's rooms, which can often be on the top floor. An attic nursery, so sweet!

Susan Simonpietri Osbourne and Little


A stripe is a more subtle choice to envelop the whole room. I think something like this would be a perfect choice for a guest room. It could easily be skewed more masculine or more feminine just by changing out a throw or pillows:

French Ticking Joanna Gaines


Here is what a slightly bolder stripe could look like:

striped-wallpaper-interior-decorator-mississauga
Bruce Budd

And of course bedrooms aren't the only rooms on the upstairs floor of a home, so wallpapering is also a great solution for those sloped walls in bathrooms, laundry rooms and studies:

via House Beautiful Cole and Sons Lauren Liess


One last thing, actually one last disclaimer is more like it--hanging wallpaper on a sloped ceiling is not for the faint of heart. The results are worth it, but unless you have experience hanging paper, it might be best to do like my friend and hire a professional. As she said, 'it's not worth risking my marriage for!"


I'm looking forward to seeing what my friend does with her guest room. She has lots of lovely vintage pieces that she will be able to incorporate into the room to give it a feel that fits perfectly with the style and age of their home. And on that note, one last photo of a wallpapered room just oozing a vintage vibe:

wallpaper-bedroom-interior-designer-toronto
Gil Schafer

Keep cool, my friends, and until next time,

Susan

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