Wallpaper is back in vogue

Wallpaper is making a comeback, but it's had a makeover.

Wallcoverings have changed considerably in the past 20 years, and are now rich and full of texture, with graphic design and tactile finishes.

"People want a real tactile feel to the paper," said Gina Shaw, vice president of product development for York Wallcoverings, whose designer collections include Walt Disney and Candice Olson. "[These] collections have glass beads, sand or raised ink that give added dimension and added value."

The Walt Disney Collection is based on the 1940s classic "Fantasia." York designers viewed original paintings, sketches and other pieces in Disney's archives for inspiration.

"Sketches, paintings and brilliant pastels of fairies, sparkles, complete scenes -- we interpreted these into textures, glitter and glass beads," Shaw said.

The three-dimensional papers with their shimmer and shine are attracting a whole new demographic of buyers. "The younger generation, in their 20s and 30s, have not seen [wallpaper] in a long time," she said.

Jackie Jordan, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, agreed that the wallpaper market is skewing younger.

"They are attuned to the natural environment. Natural wallcoverings like linen and grass cloths bring the outdoors in. They are not afraid because they have never had to deal with the horror of installing and removing old wallpaper," she said.

Actually, new technology has made papering less of a chore.

"Application is much easier with pattern markings that are removable -- line up two arrows and get a perfect install," Jordan said. "Most papers are prepasted on the back and they are so much easier to remove as there is no more 'paper backing.'"

In the world of natural and textured wallcoverings, Phillip Jeffries is still one of the industry's standards. The company's handcrafted rolls are made mostly in Japan by skilled artisans. Collections include pure metallics in real gold leaf, silks, mosaic hemps and high-gloss lacquered vinyl wallcoverings.

Phillip Jeffries Lacquered Strie collection ($76 per square yard) is shiny, deep, reflective and a sure showstopper. It was born out of the success of the Smooth Lacquered collection that's been used by celebrity designer Robert Verdi in his decorating lab and in the Kips Bay Showhouse by Christopher Coleman.

These coverings are usually used on a single wall with more sedate but complementary coverings on adjoining walls. They are not a DIY product, says Michelle Daniels, the marketing director for Phillip Jeffries. The Lacquered Strie's 54-inch width alone makes it hard to handle during installation. Shaw and Jordan say that coverings like grass cloth and silk are very expensive and should be handled by professionals or experienced installers.

Some wallcoverings' key features are subtle, like the delicate metallics in "Pixie" (Walt Disney, $129.99 a roll). Others are bold, like the glass bead circles in "Rock Star" (Phillip Jeffries).

Other single-wall applications that are popular now include papering a wall behind the bed in place of a headboard or using crown molding as a frame to make wallpaper look like artwork. New, photographic murals are also big, as well as fat stripes and individually placed graphics such as chandeliers and birds.

Shaw said that new, strong graphic patterns such as Candice Olson's "Links" print are often used on only one feature wall; using them on all four walls might be distracting.

This is the approach that Cathy Taylor of CTaylor Designs, plan decorator for Signature Homes in Pennsylvania, took in a client's guest bedroom. A large chocolate damask print (Sherwin-Williams, Blue Mountain, $29.99 per roll) on a turquoise background calls attention to a seating area.

Of course, not everyone is warming up to the idea of wallpaper. When Taylor's client shared her plan to install paper it drew this response from a friend: "I just tore down all of my wallpaper. There's not a chance I'll be doing that anytime soon."