Serena & Lily Wallpaper Favorites + My Foyer Makeover Plans!

When we first moved into our house I had the fun task of taking down a TON of dated wallpaper. And it didn’t come down in nice full strips like they show you on HGTV, but instead in annoyingly small bits and pieces. I swore that I’d never use wallpaper again! But here I am 5+ years later having added wallpaper to four rooms in our home with one more to come! The reality is that if you use wallcovering primer before installing wallpaper, when the time comes to remove it, it’s not bad at all. And the difference that wallpaper can make to the look of a space is huge!

So which space in our home is about to get a wallpaper makeover? Our foyer! Our foyer has always been a space that super dark and blah but since it’s long and narrow there really isn’t room for any furnishings other than a console or chest at the end of it. I painted the walls white to freshen it up but that didn’t really do the trick so I recently started thinking about hanging wallpaper. Serena & Lily is my favorite source for wallpaper because they have so many simple yet gorgeous designs that are a great match for my design aesthetic. And their price point is actually quite reasonable for a quality paper (be sure to look at the length of the rolls when comparing prices because most of Serena & Lily’s wallpaper is priced as double rolls). I went to our local Serena & Lily in Westport last week to get some wallpaper samples and check out all of their new spring decor (they make over the store from top to bottom seasonally, wallpaper and all) and it didn’t disappoint! It’s so helpful to see what wallpapers look like installed so I took lots of pics to share my favorite wallpapered rooms with you. I threw in some pics from the rooms in my own home that are wallpapered too! (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})

Let’s kick things off with grasscloth…

Serena & Lily Grasscloth Wallpaper

Grasscloth wallpaper is one of my favorites but it’s also a pretty expensive type of wallcovering (it can easily be 3-4 times the price of typical wallpaper) so often you’ll see it used in just a portion of a room such as above or below a chair rail or behind a bookcase. The first room you walk into in the Serena & Lily Westport store has gorgeous grasscloth in “washed indigo” (found {here}) below the chair rail. I absolutely love the variation of the blue and natural tones – it really warms up the room:

And with such a small amount of wall space below the chair rail (only this area shown plus a small area on the other side), they were probably able to get away with using just one roll: 

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Another favorite of mine is {this patterned grasscloth wallpaper} that they used to line the back of a pair of bookcases. Can you imagine the back of those bookcases being painted white and how much less interesting this space would be??

It’s the backing of the bookcases along with the gorgeous mirror above the fireplace that really stand out when you walk into this space:

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The cute little eat-in banquette area is another space where Serena & Lily used just a small amount of grasscloth wallpaper ({this wallpaper} in navy) to add an interesting pop of color and texture:

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I have two spaces in my own home where I used grasscloth including above the chair rail in my oldest daughter’s bedroom (it’s {this grasscloth} in powder blue):

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and {this charcoal grasscloth} to line the back of the bookcases in our family room – it’s one of my favorite little details about this space:

Hanging the grasscloth in my daughter’s room was much more challenging than I expected (you can read more about it {here}) but the small amount I hung in my bookcases wasn’t so bad to do on my own because I was able to pre-cut most of it. I’ve since hung regular wallpaper in several rooms and feel like I can do a pretty good job with it but will be calling in the professionals for any big grasscloth jobs in the future!

 

Serena & Lily Striped & Plaid Wallpaper

Simple stripes and plaid are always a win when it comes to fabrics and wallpaper! I love this simple striped wallpaper in Sand (found {here}) that’s used on an accent wall in this Serena & Lily kitchen:

I’m also swooning over those pendants – they’re a different shaped version of the round pendant that I have over the table in our kitchen eat-in area:

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I’m also crazy about the refined, tailored look of the two-toned plaid Serena & Lily wallpaper (available {here}) used on the fireplace wall in this living room:

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Serena & Lily Floral / Vine / Palm Wallpaper

For wallpapers that have more motion and are a bit busier than a plaid or stripe, papering just a small accent wall is perfect! I used Serena & Lily’s Priano wallpaper with leafy vines (found {here}) on just a single wall in our small craft room:

and also on the back wall of our “hoard closet” (see {here})! These are some of my other favorite floral, vine, and palm wallpapers from Serena & Lily:

 

Serena & Lily Geometric Wallpaper

When I redid the our small bonus room that’s a hangout for my girls, I originally had a more subtle wallpaper planned but it went out of stock (and I was impatient!). I was hesitant to go with something as bold as {this Serena & Lily Feathers wallpaper} but since it was only above the chair rail, I decided to go for it! I actually think it was luck that the other wallpaper was sold out because my second choice ended up working out better than I think my first choice would have:

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The wallpaper color I used in my space is “Denim” which makes a fairly bold statement but you can see from this space at Serena & Lily that the same wallpaper in a more subtle color option has a much softer feel:

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I also used a geometric Serena & Lily wallpaper in our guest bath (their Cayman Cork wallpaper found {here}):

Again, it’s a bold pattern but since it’s a small bathroom and I was only using it above the chair rail, it didn’t overwhelm the space:

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And how stunning is this large-scale circular geometric wallpaper (Owens wallpaper found {here})? I had seen it in a small sample and thought it was nice but seeing it up on the wall in a larger space in the Serena & Lily store totally made me fall in love with it: 

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Even though it’s just a single accent wall, it makes such a big statement:

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Serena & Lily’s Luna Stripe

I’m not even sure what category to group this Serena & Lily wallpaper into since it’s part stripe and part geometric so it gets its own little category – it’s their Luna Stripe wallpaper found {here}. It’s gorgeous in this blue on blue color (and how cute is this little bed nook?!):

 

But I absolutely fell in love with it in the “Smoke” color options – it looks so amazing in this Serena & Lily bedroom:

 

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of this space – it’s such a stunner. I could transport every single piece into my own bedroom and be as happy as could be:

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And can we digress from the wallpaper talk to swoon over a few things starting with this gray and white duvet (found {here})?! I feel like Serena & Lily made this duvet with me in mind – it is EXACTLY what I would have created on my own if given a blank slate and told to design anything I want – love it so much:

And the large scale art in the bedroom is amazing too, isn’t it?! They are original art pieces by Vesela Baker – you can see more of her stunning art pieces {here} as well as a few for sale on Serena & Lily’s site {here}. 

OK, back to wallpaper… after seeing the Luna Stripe wallpaper in Smoke up on the walls of the Serena & Lily store, I knew it was the one! I ordered it and should be getting it by the end of this week so hope to get going on wallpapering my foyer next week. I tried to dig up a current pic of my foyer to share as the “before” but realized that I haven’t taken many shots of it (there’s really not much to see!) so here’s all I’ve got which is an old shot from several years back: 

So drab right?! That chest of drawers will be moving into the closet of our new master bathroom when our bathroom addition happens since it’s actually where Jeff keeps all of his folded clothes. In its place, I’d like something more open and airy – this is what I currently have in mind as a start: 

I’m going to wait until the wallpaper is hung to make my final accessory choices (mirror, lamp, etc.) so it will be a bit of a work in progress over the next couple of weeks/months. Stay tuned! If you’ve got a wallpapering project of your own coming up and want to be able to easily find this post, be sure to Pin this image below:

And before signing off, I wanted to thank all of you who took the time to give your thoughts and opinions about my dining room chandelier options in {this post} last week. I read every single comment and found them to be so helpful! I’ve narrowed it down to two choices and am planning to pull the trigger by the end of the week…