The other day, I was searching around for information about when wallpaper went out of fashion.
Unfortunately, I had to dig pretty deep, as most of the top results were written by wallpaper companies and interior design gurus.
All of whom were trying to gaslight their readers into believing that wallpaper never went out of style.
However, the average person knows that this isn’t true.
We know that wallpaper did go out of fashion. This is because we witnessed it disappearing from people’s homes with our own eyes.
Although there is no doubt that some people still use it to decorate their homes, it is nowhere near as popular as it used to be.
In fact, I personally can’t remember the last time that I saw wallpaper in someone’s home. Furthermore, the interior paint section in my local DIY store is at least twenty times larger than the wallpaper section.
When did wallpaper go out of style?
Wallpaper started to go out of style in the 1980s. However, it didn’t completely disappear from people’s homes until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
These kinds of changes take time, as it can take years for people to join the latest trend and then pick up the motivation to redesign all of the rooms in their home.
If you have ever redesigned a room, then you will know that it can take hours of backbreaking work. It can also be frustrating and costly. Because of this, people tend to “put off” projects like these until they become absolutely necessary.
Furthermore, stripping wallpaper off walls was not a fun experience. In fact, it was downright painful.
Consequently, it wasn’t until the 2000s that painted walls fully took over.
Why did wallpaper go out of style?
At the end of the 20th century, interior design started to drift towards minimalism.
In other words, “less” started to become “more”. As a result, the busy-looking patterns and textures that everyone associated with wallpaper fell out of style.
People wanted solid neutral colors, and paint was the easiest way to achieve that.
Wallpaper was also difficult to install and remove.
It is also worth pointing out that most people find wallpaper to be a pain.
- Putting up wallpaper takes far more time. Pasting, measuring, cutting and making sure that everything is level is a job that can test anyone’s patience.
- It can be extremely difficult and time-consuming to remove.
- Removing wallpaper can lead to damaged drywall. During my last wallpaper removal job, I had to patch large sections of the wall and then sand it down.
- Fixing patches of damaged or discolored wallpaper can also be a nightmare, as you have to find the right patch to match it. And even if you do find the right patch, it can still stick out like a sore thumb because the existing wallpaper around it has been faded by exposure to sunlight.
If you take these “challenges” into account, it is easy to see why many homeowners were more than happy to ditch wallpaper and join the new minimalist trend.