Striped Wallpaper: The Room-Fixer's Guide

Stripes are the most practical pattern in wallpaper: they don't just decorate a room, they correct it. Low ceiling? Narrow hallway? Boxy bedroom? There's a stripe for each. Here's how designers actually use them.

The optical toolbox

• Vertical stripes raise the ceiling. The eye follows the line up. In rooms under 2.6 m, a vertical stripe adds visual height nothing else can.
• Horizontal bands widen the room. A wide horizontal stripe stretches a narrow room or hallway sideways. Keep bands broad — thin horizontals can feel busy.
• Fine stripes read as texture. From across the room, a fine two-tone ticking stripe reads almost as a plain — structure without pattern.
• Wide, high-contrast stripes are a statement. Navy and white, black and cream: this is the stripe as the room's main event.

Choosing the width

The single most useful trick: check the stripe width in centimetres on the product page, then draw two lines that far apart on paper and stand back. Screens shrink stripes; walls magnify them. What looks delicate on your phone can dominate at full scale — and a $10 sample held against your skirting settles it for certain.

Style directions

• Hamptons & coastal: navy or soft blue on white — see our Coast & Nautical collection.
• Scandinavian heritage: muted two-tone ticking stripes in stone, sage and dusty blue — quiet, structured calm from our Stripes collection.
• Classic English: cream-ground stripes with fine accent lines — happiest in studies and formal rooms.
• Kids' rooms: stripes are the pattern children never outgrow — pair with our Kids collection characters on the opposite wall.

Hanging notes (stripes are unforgiving — in one specific way)

Stripes advertise any lean. Start from a fresh plumb line, never from the corner or a door frame — corners lie, gravity doesn't. Re-plumb after every corner (our tricky spots guide shows how). The good news: straight-match stripes have virtually no pattern waste, so they're one of the most economical papers to hang — the roll calculator will confirm it.

Still unsure? Order a $10 sample, or email us at mary@wallpapertrader.com — we're happy to help you get it right.