4 min readIn our opinion, nothing gives a room a personal touch quite like wallpaper. Even if all of the furniture is the same, a living room whose walls are adorned with turquoise chinoiserie will look completely different than the same setup with neutral painted walls. If your space is in desperate need of a personality boost, we have a suggestion—and it's not adding one wallpaper, it's adding two.
When it comes to wallpaper, the options are truly unlimited, with thousands of patterns, colors, and textures to choose from. Moreover, there are plenty of picks that will go beautifully together, so you won't have to play favorites next time you go to pull together a scheme for your living room or bedroom. To confirm our theory, we spoke to several designers who have masterfully combined two complementary wallpapers in one space, so if you're curious how it's done, you've come to the right place.
Stick to a Color Story
If you think the architecture is complicated in this bedroom, imagine how the designer felt. When Lilse McKenna started on this project, she decided to embrace the visually complex walls rather than fight them, turning to pattern to help. "Two wallpapers create a cohesive envelope that softens awkward lines and redirects the eye," she explains. "For pattern-loving clients, it becomes a form of camouflage that makes the room feel intentional rather than disjointed." People living in older homes with strangely sloped walls and ceilings: Take note!
McKenna didn't just choose two random wallpapers she enjoyed and install them willy-nilly. though. She did a complete color analysis to decide on two patterns that complemented each other in a very specific way. "In this case, keeping both papers in the same blue and white family helped quiet the architecture," she explains. "More generally, I think about how the two papers will relate once the furniture and textiles are in place. The goal is for the room to feel cohesive, not overly coordinated."
Opt for Micro Patterns
For a smaller space within the same project, McKenna took a similar approach with the wallpaper. "This room was small and architecturally quiet, so it needed warmth and energy," she explains. Luckily, the client loves pattern and playfulness, so McKenna got to have some fun with this little nook. "Small-scale patterns in a limited palette almost read as texture rather than print, so they feel calmer than a large multicolored design would." She also made sure to choose pale colors so as not to make the space feel too small, a risk you run when going with darker hues.
Make One More Mild
Designer Betsy Wentz does not recommend choosing two bold wallpapers that, more often than not, end up competing with each other rather than complementing one another. "My clients fell in love with the floral wallpaper, and I thought it would be a perfect statement piece on the ceiling," she says. "It draws the eye upward, making the room feel more intentional and luxurious, kind of like a beautifully painted canvas overhead." She's not wrong, but the rest of the walls couldn't just remain white; they needed a little touch of color as well. "We then balanced the bold floral ceiling with a textured, deep purple wallpaper to add a visual and physical depth that you can't achieve with paint."
Play With Patterns
This room is, undeniably, about the wallpaper, and that was designer Cary Ray's intention. "The space is very cozy, and I wanted to be very intentional about the layers and how they would impact the experience of being in this room," she notes. "I wanted people to feel enveloped, even transported, forgetting they were in a residential attic. The pattern play really helped accomplish what I was hoping for in this space."
She started with the mural, which she admits was a huge focal point of the space. "However, it needed a partner that wouldn't overshadow it, yet still be a good supporting actor. With the larger-scale paper as the star, the smaller scale of the plaid really gave the room the hug it needed."
Tuck One Away
When one of the two wallpapers is bolder and more colorful than the other, give it its moment to shine. Luckily, J.D. Ireland has offered a masterclass in exactly how to do it. Here, principal Joe Ireland allowed the sunny pink mural to take center stage, while the built-in textured niches support it in the background. "Because the mural already brings strong narrative and movement to the room, we wanted the secondary wall treatment to add depth without introducing another pattern," Ireland suggests. "The key is assigning hierarchy." Clearly, the mural is at the top of the pyramid.
Pull Out a Tone
Some rooms, like the kitchen, work better when bathed in sunny, light colors, but others set the mood with a much more dramatic palette—and that is exactly what Rajni Alex was thinking when she outfitted this media lounge. "I wanted it to feel moody, cozy, and very sophisticated," she insists. "The curved wall creates a sense of embrace—almost like the room is cocooning you—while the texture and subtle sheen of the grasscloth adds depth and that rich, layered mood."
Why, you may be wondering, did she enlist two wallpapers in this specific way? Luckily, she has a compelling reason. "Ceilings are often overlooked, but I see them as an opportunity to really define the atmosphere of a space." For this room, she used a Phillip Jeffries suede on the ceiling because, as Alex explains, "it deepens the mood while also helping absorb sound, which is important in a media room."
