You Had Us at Hello: Bold, Beautiful Entryways Where Wallpaper is the Star

Have a craving for wallpaper but don’t have the money, time or confidence to paper an entire room? Entryways are the perfect spot to dip your toe in the wallpaper pool: they’re generally small but can set the visual tone for your entire home. So get playful, pick a paper, and give yourself and your guests the warm welcome you deserve.

Above is a beautiful Otomi print wallpaper (by Hygge + West) which Batya Stepelman used to warm up the foyer of her 100+ year old home. She chose the print because it is “modern and classic at the same time. It’s always a conversation piece.”

Valorie’s home is chock-full of patterns, textures, and animal prints, so this bird-adorned fabric wallpaper is the perfect taste of what’s to come. The side of the room with the buffet is luxuriously elegant, proving that a playful abundance of colors and textures can still be sophisticated.

When redoing her entryway, Elise of A Beautiful Mess opted for a glowy, sparkly golden-spotted wallpaper. It creates a warm welcome and works beautifully with the marble floors without making too big a statement—a must since the entryway leads to the living room, which boasts bold turquoise floors.

Tara fell in love with her mid-century home as soon as she walked in the door and bought it in large part due to her affection for the wallpaper and lighting fixture in the front entryway. This Orla Kiely wallpaper is certainly lovable and makes walking in the front door so fun, while it might be a bit much if used to paper an entire room.

While the living room in this home is airy and painted in palest grey, the darkly glam entryway gives a hint of what’s to come: boldly patterned and/or hued dining room, lounge, bedroom, bathrooms, and office.

In this cozy English home, the large, public rooms (living room, dining room, and kitchen) are painted creamy white, while the bedrooms, utility room, guest bathroom, and entryway are wallpapered. This arrangement provides pops of color and interest in the smaller rooms, while the main rooms are kept soothingly neutral. The entryway is papered in Lotus by Farrow & Ball.

In a house in the Bahamas toured in House Beautiful, wallpaper that evokes grass, bark, and palm leaves works with rattan furniture, a jute rug, ginger jars, plants, and metal palm trees to create a mini tropical paradise, the perfect transition between indoors and outdoors.

Here’s an example of a wallpaper that, to my mind, would be overwhelming if used over a large area. When applied to a small single entrywayway wall (the other walls are painted white), Marimekko’s Ruutukaava adds whimsy and bold graphic interest without giving one a headache. A wall like this is the perfect spot to take risks.

Here’s a delicately dotted wallpaper from the home of Chris Loves Julia. The color of the spots is echoed in the color of the mirror, railing, door (on other side of entryway), study accent wall, living room rug, and the upper wall of the bathroom. The small bit of wallpaper ties all of the rooms—all of which are visible from the entryway—together so well.

An entryway is generally the perfect spot for wallpaper because it’s small—and therefore affordable—and somewhat separate from the rest of the house, but don’t hesitate to wallpaper your foyer if it happens to be fabulously huge. This open plan entryway from House Beautiful flows into the second story, with the blue and white lattice wallpaper introducing guests to the home’s entirely blue and white palette.