Texture is the biggest interior trend we've seen in recent years, says Pickmere-based interior designer Hannah Barnes
Creating Interesting walls with depth is one of the best ways to inject personality into your home, and there are so many ways to do this, whether your style is less-is-more, or if you're more of a good-big-or-go-home person. Here are my favourite ways to add interesting texture to your walls:
Panelling
We've seen it in every boutique hotel, bar and recently updated hallway on Instagram, so what's still so special about wall panelling? Panelling is so popular because it injects an element of luxury, finesse and tailoring into an otherwise flat ordinary room. Panels invite the light to play with the space, offering shadows and highlights, and the structure of panels give our eye easy repetition around the space, adding interest in a subtle and understated way.
The key is to select the correct scale, proportion and style of panelling to suit your space. Period homes lend themselves to more ornate, beaded styles with smaller squares towards the lower area of the wall and elongating tall panels to reach the ceiling. Newer properties can be updated with cleaner panels, with softer square edges and an all-over simpler repetition.
Try adding panels to just the bottom two-thirds of the wall and simply paint the top section in with your ceiling, then add a shelf for additional storage or display. For an inexpensive and easy way to add panelled detail, purchase simple beading from your local DIY store and use directly onto the walls to create squares or rectangles before painting to match your wall colour.
Fancy something more flamboyant? Try wallpapering inside your panelled areas to frame the print, this works especially well with a digital mural effect. Take a look at Mottram Hall Spa Cafe to see this effect in situ.
Slatted walls
This interior trend offers a very different aesthetic to the classic panelled approach. Slats give a simpler, clean-lined style which looks very contemporary and minimal. Simple strips of wood attached to your walls may not sound particularly exciting or new, but when used in creative ways, this method can transform your walls with very little cost or time. Use as textural backdrop for their furniture pieces to sit against, or showcase your slats as a wall texture all of their own.
Horizontal slats stretch the wall making your room feel wider, and this look is often harder to pull off. For a little extra drama, consider adding LED strips in between the odd slat for subtle contemporary lighting, and choose black or dark stained slats for a new take on the trendy natural oak styles we see so often. Slats mounted onto wardrobe doors can also create a hidden wall of storage behind beautiful modern texture.
Tactile wallpapers
Wallpaper trends have never been so popular, nor so vast and the choice can be overwhelming. If you're searching for touchable texture over visual print it can be easy to overlook wallpaper but there are so many options to consider: grasscloth papers, for example, are not new to the market, but they have been given an updated finish with an array of colours to choose from and some with subtle metallic sparkle too. The subtle texture offers a linear depth which you can't help but want to touch. See Graham and Brown's Grasscloth texture collection for inspiring options.
Plaster effects
One very chic emerging interior wall trend is organic plastered finishes. This natural looking application gives a subtle sheen and texture to surfaces and steers away from the dead-matt painted finish we have all used for so long. Traditional Venetian plaster (or stucco) originated from (you guessed it) Italy and provides a textured polished effect which catches the light and visually changes shade with the light. This classic method is still applied in the same traditional way by many trained plasterers across the UK.
For a less-permanent version of this effect, adding a limewash to your walls is something to consider. Somewhat similar to the fondly remembered 'colour-washing' days of the 90s, limewashing is softer, more subtle and works well with very neutral tones which need a little lift and an injection of soul. This technique feels very natural, inspired by the sun-dappled walls of a Mediterranean courtyard, but can suit any interior in our homes too. Find easy to use limewash paint at bauwerkcolour.com
3D walls
If you're one too easily bored of seeing the same trends repeated everywhere you go, then 3D walls may give you the point of difference you crave. I'm referring to panels or blocks which adhere straight onto walls, and offer a wild array of shapes, contours and textures. 3D panels really are the very next thing in wall decor and whilst we may have spied them in high-end hotels, they are really only just emerging for residential design.
From geometric to angular, soft waves to fretwork inspiration, 3D panels add interest, depth, texture and something very different to the norm. They are often made from polymer so are lightweight and easy to stick to walls, or sustainable cork panels offer a more eco-friendly option with cork's added textural interest too.
Find amazingly different 3D cork tiles by searching Muratto at thewoodveneerhub.co.uk or browse the Designer Wall Tile collection at ukhominteriors.co.uk. Arte.com have brought a 3D-effect wallpaper option to the market, with sponge-like sculptural shapes to highlight walls and turn any flat wall into something truly unique. From weaves to waves, cubes and retro-inspired patterns.
