Say "Swedish interior" to most people and the same picture appears: white walls, pale wood, a single sheepskin, not a great deal else. It is a lovely image, and for a decade or so it was more or less the law. But it was only ever half the story. Long before the world fell for stark Scandinavian minimalism, Sweden was a country of pattern: hand-painted Gustavian panelling, folk florals, botanical prints and the kind of deep, characterful colour you find in an old manor house outside Stockholm. That older, warmer, altogether more interesting Sweden is having a moment again.
It is no coincidence. After a decade in which interiors leaned cool, grey and carefully blank, the mood has tipped decisively the other way, towards warmth, texture and rooms that feel as though they have a memory. Designers talk now about "warm minimalism," about brown being the new beige, about layering pattern and bringing personality back to the walls. What they are describing, though few of them say it, is something Sweden has been doing quietly for well over a century.
Which brings us to Boråstapeter. Founded in 1905 by Waldemar Andrén in the town of Borås, in the south west of the country, it is Sweden's oldest and best loved wallpaper house, built on a rather democratic idea: that every home, not just the grand ones, deserved beautiful walls. More than a hundred years later, the company still prints in Sweden, still draws on an archive of more than ten thousand designs, and does so with an environmental conscience that runs deep, from responsibly managed forests to water-based inks and renewable energy. It is little wonder the collections have become some of the most popular on our shelves at Wallpaper Sales, and they are the perfect way to bring a little of that real Swedish spirit home.
Forget what you think Swedish design means
The single most useful thing to understand about Boråstapeter is that it decorates the Sweden most people have never seen. Yes, there are quiet, pale, small-patterned papers for those who want calm. But there are also sunlit botanicals, painterly stripes, storybook murals and rich historical prints, all of them unmistakably Nordic and none of them remotely cold.
The Österlen collection is a good place to begin, a tribute to Swedish summer with hand-painted florals and stripes that draw equally on rustic folk tradition and the pale, elegant restraint of Gustavian style. It is proof, if you needed it, that "Scandinavian" and "colourful" have never actually been opposites.
La Belle Epoque, Österlen by Boråstapeter
Pärlrand, Österlen by Boråstapeter
If you do only one thing, let go of the idea that Swedish means bare. Choose the pattern that makes you happiest to walk past, and build from there.
Decorate with a piece of design history
Because the archive stretches back to 1905, a Boråstapeter wallpaper often comes with a genuine story attached. The house has worked with some of the great names of Nordic design, and its Scandinavian Designers collection reintroduces patterns by figures such as the celebrated Swedish ceramicist Stig Lindberg, whose mid-century motifs have lost none of their charm on a wall.
Then there are the historical papers, faithful reprints of Swedish designs from as far back as the eighteenth century, and the Anno collections, which raid museum holdings and the company's own vaults to bring long-forgotten patterns back into the light. It is a rare thing: pattern with real provenance, at a price that does not require a stately home.
Göteborg, Anno II by Boråstapeter
Skenninge, Anno II by Boråstapeter
Let the colour do the warming
If there is one shift defining rooms in 2026, it is the retreat from cool blue-whites towards warmer, softer, cosier neutrals. Boråstapeter is well ahead of you here. Its palette leans naturally into putty, clay, oat, faded ochre and gentle greens, the colours of a Swedish landscape rather than a showroom.
The trick, if you want that warm-minimalist feeling, is to keep the whole scheme in the same temperature. Pair a patterned paper with walls a shade or two softer, add wood with a visible grain and a little linen or wool, and let the pattern be the one thing that lifts the room. There is no need for hard contrast. A dozen warm near-neutrals, doing quiet work together, is a far cosier way to live than the crisp white boxes of a few years ago.
Solängen, Nordic Folk by Boråstapeter
Use pattern with a little lagom
The Swedes have a word, lagom, that roughly means "just the right amount," and it is a useful thing to hold in mind with wallpaper. You do not have to paper every wall to make an impact. A small-scale sprig or geometric can run happily through a whole room; a bolder botanical or a mural earns its keep on a single wall, a chimney breast, or the space behind a bed.
My Secret Garden, Graphics by Boråstapeter
Gotain Sweet Pea, Gotain x Boråstapeter
The beauty of Boråstapeter's range is that it gives you both registers. Keep the pattern generous where you want drama and restrained where you want calm, and the room will feel considered rather than busy. That, in the end, is the real Swedish skill: not the absence of pattern, but the balance of it.
Where to put it, room by room
Living rooms. A characterful botanical on one wall, echoed in a cushion or two, gives a room personality without shouting. Warm neutrals keep it grown-up.
Bedrooms. A soft, small-scale print or a gentle floral makes the most restful walls of all. This is where Boråstapeter's quieter collections come into their own.
Hallways and stairs. The place to be brave. A historical or archive design turns the most overlooked part of the house into the one guests remember.
Kitchens and cloakrooms. Small rooms are the perfect low-risk place to try a bolder Swedish pattern. Boråstapeter also makes durable, wipeable ranges built for exactly these spots.
Children's rooms. The storybook Fairyland and Newbie collections were made for them, and are gentle enough that you will not tire of them either.
Anemone, Österlen by Boråstapeter
Ängsflora, Österlen by Boråstapeter
Rose Garden, Newbie by Boråstapeter
A note on shopping it well
Two small habits make all the difference. First, order a sample before you commit. Colour on a screen and colour on paper in your own light are rarely the same thing, and Boråstapeter's soft, warm palette in particular shifts with the room. Second, buy with a clear conscience: because everything is still made in Sweden to a high environmental standard, and built to last on the wall, a Boråstapeter paper is one of the more responsible ways to bring pattern home.
The full Boråstapeter collection, one of our most loved ranges, is available at Wallpaper Sales. It is warm, characterful, quietly clever and properly Swedish, which is to say a good deal more colourful than you had been led to believe. Exactly the kind of wallpaper this particular moment was asking for.
Fairies Green, Fairyland by Boråstapeter
Browse the complete Boråstapeter collection at Wallpaper Sales, or order samples to find your colourway.
