Good style has never really been a matter of budget. It is a matter of knowing the look you love and finding your own way into it, and wallpaper proves this better than almost anything else in a room. The same mood, the same colour story, the same idea, can turn up on an easy everyday roll or a fuller, more considered one, and the room built around either will feel every bit as intentional. Here are five looks we keep coming back to, each shown two ways.
Texture, Practically and Considered
Antiga Herringbone is the cheaper way in: a woven herringbone texture printed flat, giving you the warmth of a woven wall covering without the cost of one. Espiguilla costs more and looks it, a genuine raffia weave, eco certified, with all the grain and shadow that only actual texture can give. Side by side they prove the same instinct, wanting a wall that feels woven rather than printed, just at two different points of spend.
Practical Pick: Antiga Herringbone, Taupe by Grandeco
Considered Splurge: Espiguilla, Beige/Nude 2 by Coordonné
Chinoiserie, Roll and Mural
Birds Prosperity is the affordable way into this look, a hundred birds chirping through a plum tree scene printed as a standard roll, exuberant and colourful without the outlay of a mural. Peonies Pure costs a good deal more and earns it, the same chinoiserie world reimagined at full mural scale, slender trees carrying roses and peonies rather than birds, sized to cover a whole wall as the single statement moment in a room. Different focal motif, same exuberant garden mood, just a very different level of commitment.
Practical Pick: Birds Prosperity, Swan by Coordonné
Considered Splurge: Peonies, Pure by Coordonné (mural)
A Trailing Leaf, High and Low
Ivy Sky Green is the affordable route in, a climbing ivy print that has barely changed in spirit since it first appeared decades ago, still doing exactly the same job of softening a room. Cabbage Check costs more and, despite the name, is another trailing leaf print rather than anything checked, drawn in a quieter, more painterly hand with a slightly looser, more contemporary repeat. Both prove that a leaf trail earns its place at any price point, the difference is really just in how loose or how formal the drawing feels.
Practical Pick: Ivy, Sky Green by Cath Kidston
Considered Splurge: Cabbage Check by Josephine Munsey
Squiggle, from Playful to Polished
Wiggle Geo Blue is the wallet-friendly pick, a scribbled, hand-drawn squiggle printed small and dense for an easy, versatile background that reads as texture from across a room. Wiggle by Sophie Robinson costs considerably more and earns it: a designer collaboration that blows the same squiggle motif up into something bolder and more maximalist, styled here with the kind of clashing colour and pattern-on-pattern confidence Sophie Robinson is known for. Same wiggle, two entirely different budgets and personalities.
Practical Pick: Wiggle, Geo Blue by Next
Considered Splurge: Wiggle by Sophie Robinson for Harlequin
A Japanese Water Garden, Two Ways
Jasmin is the more affordable of this pair, a water garden of willows, Japanese irises and reeds inspired by a 1920s Parisian mansion designed by the architect Hector Guimard, its lightness of touch owing a clear debt to Japanese art. Hasu costs more and goes deeper into that same influence: lotus flowers, revered in Japan as a symbol of purity, floating among the same willows and irises, rendered here in a darker, more jewel-toned palette that reads as considerably more indulgent on a wall. Both from Casamance, both from the same Japanese-inspired garden world, just pitched at different budgets.
Practical Pick: Jasmin, Square by Casamance
Considered Splurge: Hasu, Hikari by Casamance
A few more pairs from the same edit worth knowing. Hattie Gingham Sage from Superfresco Easy against Vichy Flower Market by Casadeco, one soft and everyday, one more French and decorative, both gingham at heart. Silvi Clouds Elysian from Sanderson against Harlequin's full-mural Air Colour 4 Golden Light, the same dreamy sky motif at two very different scales. Falling Foss Oakham Midnight from Scion against Nina Campbell's La Quintinie, a painterly waterfall scene against a true toile de Jouy, both worked in a single inky tone. Wiggleton Navy from Josephine Munsey against Coordonné's Gestural Silver mural, Harlequin's Paisley Indigo Zamora against Anna French's Campania Paisley Sage, and Scion's Scallop Frill Jade against 1838 Wallcoverings' Calico Shell Verde Green round out the edit. Wherever you start on that list, order a sample before you commit. A pattern this considered rewards seeing it in your own light before it goes on the wall.
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