The Art of Pairing

When we think of wallpapering a wall, we may believe that is the beginning and end of the wall’s story. But that is rarely the case: pattern and colour rarely ever work in isolation. Whether a bathroom, kitchen or lining a chest of drawers: wallpaper always exists in a chatter with its colourful counterparts.

Have you thought about what paint colour you may use for your ceiling to pair with your wallpaper? Or perhaps you are working with wood-panelled dado walls, and you’re deciding what colour paint to pair nicely with the wallpaper. It may not be even as large a project as that: perhaps it’s the skirting boards, the cornicing: all these precise details are a wonderful opportunity to create conversations of colour between wallpaper and paint.

To get you thinking about your next wallpaper to paint pairing, we’ve rounded up our selection of eight of our favourite wallpaper to paint pairings.

Powdered Chalk & Lent Lily

Pairs needn’t be twins; they can be sisters. This case is true for our Powdered Chalk paint and Lent Lily wallpaper: sometimes you don’t need to colour match, they just work alongside each other, striking its own unique chord.

Muddy Warren paint & Strawberry Thief wallpaper

One way to bring out the wallpaper’s design with paint is to bring out its distinctive ground colour – this is complemented nicely with our Muddy Warren paint here – against Strawberry Thief.

Inky Fingers paint & Daisy wallpaper

Similarly evoked in this pairing, echoing the ground colour of the wallpaper within a skirting board allows a ‘flooding’ of this colour across the whole wall, creating elongation and a thoughtful finish to the room.

Sunflower paint & Chrystanthemum Toile wallpaper

Our paint – Sunflower, with its ochre undertones can boldly border whether through cornicing or on a windowpane in a fresh, bright, finish.

Olive Fuit paint & Pimpernel wallpaper

With a pairing like this, between a darker brown and ink - you can find an earthen ground to work from – casting a more serene tone to a space.

Double Boughs paint & Monkshood wallpaper

Here in this pairing, the darker shade of green in Double Boughs brings out the sinuous lines of the stem detailing with Monkshood. A wonderful counterbalancing pairing.

Strawberry Thief paint & Hyacinth wallpaper

Often, we can bring out certain motifs within a wallpaper through its painterly counterpart; this is cleverly achieved in this painting.

Maddox Madder paint & Strawberry Thief wallpaper

A wonderful bordering effect of a richer darker shade, this paint combination would work well for skirting boards, and dado rails.