These Historical Wallpapers Are Surprisingly On Trend

After quite the tumultuous year, most are more than happy to look ahead to brighter futures and new beginnings. However, if a home renovation or room redesign is on your to-do list, you might want to borrow from the past — at least when it comes to wallpapers, that is.

When it comes to wallpaper, the bolder and brighter the design, the better. But this concept isn’t new. According to Home Advisor , which compiled a sampling of 12 historical-yet-on-trend wallpaper patterns, bold wallpapers have “never gone out of style.”

“In fact,” the site reads, “[wallpapering] a time-honored tradition with a rich history that stretches back centuries. The Chinese hung decorative rice paper on their walls for a thousand years, and European merchants and everyday people began to decorate with paper tapestries around 500 years ago.”

Home Advisor found a sampling of European wallpapers that would still work in any modern redesign, with some dating back to the 1500s, like the above papers from 1530s Germany and 1550s England.

If you’re looking to douse your space with color, the people of 18th century Europe knew a thing or two about doing just that. Greens and golds were in fashion, and during this time, wallpaper peaked in popularity, making it a taxed luxury in Britain.

In the 1900s, wallpaper designers were inspired by “the birth of mass media and the introduction of artistic movements like cubism and jazz age design,” as Home Advisor reads, to create graphic, modern designs. And wallpaper became more durable and easily purchasable in reams.

You can take a closer look at the entire collection of wallpapers Home Advisor compiled via this interactive carousel . And over on the site, you can see how the patterns look when scaled up to size via a scrollable slideshow.