There is a lazy assumption that a plain wall is a blank one, and nothing could be further from the truth. The best plain wallpapers are alive with subtlety: a fine texture that reads like linen or plaster, a soft metallic sheen that shifts with the light, a depth of colour that flat paint simply cannot match.
Where paint gives you a single, uniform surface, a plain paper gives you a surface with warmth and movement, something the eye keeps quietly returning to without ever quite knowing why. That is the secret of the plain. It is not the absence of interest, but interest of the most understated kind.
"The best plain papers are not blank at all. They are alive with subtle texture and depth."
Never Really Plain at All
Look closely and the good ones are all surface. Belgian Linen in Brown and Taupe, from Riviera Maison by Eijffinger, is a woven linen effect that behaves like real cloth on the wall. Uni in Green Mousse, from Mix & Stripes by Caselio, is a raffia weave in soft moss, and Canvas Oyster, from Shades by Boråstapeter, is exactly what its name says, a canvas grain that warms a whole room without doing anything you could point at. Champel in Coal, from Geneva by Sketch Twenty 3, is finer still, an even weave that reads as colour alone from across a room.
Belgian Linen, Brown / Taupe by Eijffinger
Uni, Green Mousse by Caselio
Canvas Oyster, Beige by Boråstapeter
Champel, Coal by Sketch Twenty 3
"Far from the boring choice, a beautiful plain is the confident one."
The Foundation of Everything
Every great room needs its quiet passages, and the plain is what provides them. It gives the eye somewhere to rest, sets off a bold pattern or a piece of art, and holds a scheme together with calm authority. It is also the natural home of one of the most fashionable ideas in decorating: colour drenching, the enveloping look of taking a single rich shade across the walls, and often the woodwork and ceiling too.
Both of these show what that does to a room. Tobermory in Black, from The Highlands by Carl Robinson, is a fine dark herringbone weave taken right round a small study, and the room reads as deliberate rather than dark. Mandu in Phalsa, from Indienne by Arte, does the same in deep plum, and against it a single burnt orange picture is all the room needs.
Tobermory, Black by Carl Robinson
Mandu, Phalsa by Arte
How and Where to Use It
The plain is the most versatile thing in the book. A textured plain brings warmth and depth to any room while letting furniture, art and textiles take the spotlight; a rich, saturated plain is perfect for the cocooning room; a subtle metallic plain adds a quiet glamour that comes alive by lamplight. It is also the ideal partner for a bold pattern elsewhere, the calm to its drama.
Tiger’s Eye in Teal, from Dazzling Dimensions by York Wallcoverings, is that metallic, and in a dining room under a chandelier it changes through the evening. Catalina in Slate, from Valencia by Sketch Twenty 3, is the other kind, a fine grey silk that asks for nothing and flatters everything put in front of it.
Tiger’s Eye, Teal by York Wallcoverings
Catalina, Slate by Sketch Twenty 3
Choose your colour with care, since with nothing to distract, the shade is everything, and consider a texture over a flat finish for that extra dimension. Look to Romo, Mark Alexander and Casamance for plains with genuine depth, and order a sample first, since a plain lives entirely on its colour and surface, both of which a screen struggles to convey.
The plain wall asks for nothing and gives a great deal: calm, warmth, and the quiet confidence that lets everything else in the room shine.
Ready to Keep It Quiet?
Browse the full Plain collection, or look sideways into Grasscloth and Distressed & Plaster Effect.
