Design Trend: Ceiling Wallpaper
As designers and DIYers look for a finishing flourish they’re adding patterns to the ceiling.
2 min
APOLLINA BAKER had every intention of papering the walls of her children’s craft room. Then reality set in. “Paint splatter and markers often end up all over the walls,” said the attorney turned design consultant in Dripping Springs, Texas. “We decided to install wallpaper on the ceiling only.” She chose Hygge & West’s Daydream, in which blue swallows swirl through cotton-candy clouds. “The room seems so much bigger and taller with the ‘sky,’” said Mrs. Baker.
That perception-altering effect of papering the ceiling—and its sheer exuberance—has design experts and DIYers looking up. “More of our customers are making a statement through wallpapering the ceiling,” said Elizabeth Rees, founder of Chasing Paper in Milwaukee, Wis. “It provides an unexpected design moment, something we’ve been looking to create this past year.” Wrapping an entire room like a present skews maximalist, but you can add a more subtle dimension with textured neutrals like grasscloth. “People are starting to realize how much design potential has been hanging above their heads,” said Adam D’Agostine, chief marketing officer of A-Street Prints, another wallpaper company, in Randolph, Mass.
If your room otherwise features wall treatments with presence and a graphic rug, ignoring the topside is like wearing a ball gown without a tiara. “It’s a balance story,” said Karen B. Wolf, an interior designer in Short Hills, N.J. “With a patterned ceiling wallpaper, you tie the room together.”
For cohesion’s sake, paint walls and/or trim a shade you pull from the ceiling paper, suggested Dina Holland, an interior designer in Needham, Mass. A white perimeter looks unfinished, “like you started but got scared,” she said. In her children’s craft room, Mrs. Baker painted the built-in desk and cabinets in Farrow & Ball’s Stone Blue, picking up the color of the birds overhead. Mrs. Holland gave a powder room (shown) personality by combining sparse fish graphics on the walls with a dense coral print above, varying scale to give the eye a place to rest.
A couple of precautions: A pattern that relies on an up/down orientation to make sense can create discord because you come at the ceiling from multiple directions, noted Cathy Purple Cherry, a designer in Annapolis, Md. And removal can be quite challenging. But don’t let that dissuade you. Powder rooms in particular lend themselves to ceiling design, Mrs. Purple Cherry added, because visitors sit with little to do but check out the room, “and it’s kind of a peek-a-boo moment.”
Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: July 13, 2021.
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Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
Capital cities lead the way as median home values see clear upswing
2 min
Home values continue their upwards trajectory, recording the strongest monthly growth in 18 months, CoreLogic data shows.
The property data provider reports that their Home Value Index has noted a third consecutive rise in values in May, accelerating 1.2 percent over the past month. This is on the back of a 0.6 percent increase in March and 0.5 percent rise in April.
Sydney recorded the strongest results, up 1.8 percent, the highest recorded in the city since September 2021. The fall in Sydney’s home values bottomed in January but have since accelerated sharply by 4.8 percent, adding $48,390 to the median dwelling value.
Melbourne recorded more modest gains, with home values increasing by 0.9 percent, bringing the total rise this quarter to 1.6 percent. It was the smaller capitals of Brisbane (up 1.4 percent) and Perth (up 1.3 percent) that reported stronger gains.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said the lack of housing stock was an obvious influence on the growing values.
“Advertised listings trended lower through May with roughly 1,800 fewer capital city homes advertised for sale relative to the end of April. Inventory levels are -15.3 percent lower than they were at the same time last year and -24.4 percent below the previous five-year average for this time of year,” he said.
“With such a short supply of available housing stock, buyers are becoming more competitive and there’s an element of FOMO creeping into the market.
“Amid increased competition, auction clearance rates have trended higher, holding at 70 percent or above over the past three weeks. For private treaty sales, homes are selling faster and with less vendor discounting.”
Vendor discounting has been a feature in some parts of the country, particularly prestige regional areas that saw rapid price rises during the pandemic – and subsequent falls as people returned to the workplace in major centres.
The CoreLogic Home Value Index reports while prices appear to have found the floor in regional areas, the pace of recovery has been slower.
“Although regional home values are trending higher, the rate of gain hasn’t kept pace with the capitals. Over the past three months, growth in the combined capitals index was more than triple the pace of growth seen across the combined regionals at 2.8% and 0.8% respectively,” Mr Lawless said.
“Although advertised housing supply remains tight across regional Australia, demand from net overseas migration is less substantial. ABS data points to around 15% of Australia’s net overseas migration being centred in the regions each year. Additionally, a slowdown in internal migration rates across the regions has helped to ease the demand side pressures on housing.”
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Americans now think they need at least $1.25 million for retirement, a 20% increase from a year ago, according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual
