For centuries, the grandest rooms in Europe had their skies painted on. The Baroque and Rococo masters worked open heavens and drifting cherubs across ceiling after ceiling, so that a room seemed to dissolve into infinity somewhere above the cornice. The instinct behind it was never really about the cherubs. The sky has always stood for the same handful of things: calm, space, escape, a little wonder. Putting it on your own wall is a quietly radical thing to do, and a much older one than it looks.
It is also, quietly, one of the most useful patterns you can hang. At its best a painted sky does something no other design quite manages, and cloud wallpaper has become one of the calmest, most dreamlike looks in decorating precisely because of it. Here is where the idea comes from, and the designs on the site that do it properly.
"A painted sky makes a wall recede, a room breathe, and a low ceiling lift."
Painters Have Always Reached for the Sky
Cloud wallpaper simply brings that ancient instinct down from the ceiling and within reach of the rest of us, and the most painterly designs are the ones that admit it. Eón in Rosa, from Tres Tintas' Bucólica collection, is a mural of blossom branches drawn across a soft, warm sky, closer to a fresco than a wallpaper and all the better for it. Air in Golden Light, from Harlequin's Colour 4, goes further towards drama: great banked clouds in buttery gold and cream, with a thin crescent moon set among them, the sort of wall you decorate a whole bedroom around.
Eón, Rosa by Tres Tintas (mural)
Air, Golden Light by Harlequin (mural)
Clouds Can Whisper or They Can Roar
It is no surprise that clouds have surged in popularity just as we have started craving calmer, gentler homes. Depending on the treatment, a sky can be serene and barely there, a wash of pale grey-blue that reads almost as a texture, or genuinely dramatic, a brooding sky that turns a wall into a painting. Moln in Light Blue, from Sandberg's Mons Klint collection, is the whisper, and the name is simply the Swedish word for cloud: a soft tonal wash that lets a room breathe rather than announcing itself. Bamburgh Sky, from Sanderson's Embleton Bay, carries a little more colour, a gentle wash of blue and sea green that suits a bedroom under the eaves. Bonnie in Graphite, from Sandberg's Familjen, draws its clouds rather than washing them, a finely etched grey repeat that will carry a whole room instead of a single wall.
Moln, Light Blue by Sandberg (mural)
Bamburgh Sky by Sanderson
Bonnie, Graphite by Sandberg (mural)
"Clouds can whisper or roar, and both feel like a breath of fresh air."
The Fifth Wall
The most magical place for a sky is overhead. Papering a ceiling in clouds, the so-called fifth wall, turns a bedroom or a nursery into something dreamlike, and children adore it. Sandberg print a dedicated ceiling version of Moln, designed to be read from below and lovely above a plain, quiet room. Cumulus in Blue, from Eijffinger's Magnifique, is the braver choice, a proper daylight blue with real weather in it, and it looks wonderful running up to an old plaster rose.
Moln Ceiling, Light Blue by Sandberg (mural)
Cumulus, Blue by Eijffinger (mural)
Where Else a Sky Works
On the walls, a pale, airy cloud design brings light and a sense of space to a small or north-facing room, while a moodier, more painterly sky makes a wonderful, atmospheric backdrop in a study or a dining room. Keep everything else soft and simple, so that the sky remains the still point of the room, and let the natural light do its work across the day. It is worth remembering that most of these designs are murals rather than rolls, sold as a panel to a set size, so measure the wall before you fall in love. Look to Sandberg, Sanderson and Eijffinger for skies worth losing yourself in, and order a sample first, since the subtle tonal shifts that make a good cloud design are exactly what a screen flattens.
We spend most of our lives wishing we could see more sky. Cloud wallpaper is the simplest way to keep a little of it, whatever the weather.
Ready to Bring the Sky Indoors?
Browse the full Cloud Wallpapers collection, or see where a sky suits a smaller sleeper in Children's Rooms & Nursery and Bedroom. If you are not sure how a pale blue will read in your own light, our Sample Service lets you order a swatch of any design before you commit.
