Recently we moved to a new home, and I’ve been thinking about what to do in my daughter’s room. For some reason, painting the walls seems a bit bland and predictable. I’ve been toying with wallpaper.

Now, most people don’t even think of papering anymore. I think we have this image in our heads that wallpaper is old fashioned and worse, difficult to handle.

The last time I hung paper, I was seven months pregnant and yes, it was challenging going up and down the ladder all day. I don’t necessarily suggest that as a decorating plan (however, it’s equally difficult to stand in the way of a woman who is nesting!). Swollen ankles aside, the results were very pretty – and impossible to achieve with paint alone.

Now we are in a very contemporary home, and so the idea of wallpaper takes on a different tone. Unless you are aiming for design irony (a trend I find interesting. Usually pursued by people in their 20′s who never lived through the era they are exploring), wallpaper in a contemporary space can veer into 1970′s-land unless there is very careful planning.

I have been in too many homes that were plastered with paper from the 70′s (a very good decade for both disco and flocked paper) that all we want to do now is rip it off. A sort of horrid fascination with the tastes of the day linger around, sort of like a bad hangover.

Back then, the more paper, the better. And one room did not necessarily have anything to do with any other room. Patterns could be wildly different. And bold. Nowadays, we tend to ‘flow’ with our colors – not so much then.

In my daughters case, I want to use the wall treatment to create a sense of openness and airiness. Plus she’s a very modern girl with her own developed style (how’d she get that at seven?). Whatever we decide, I know that while walls will never do! Or pink. I’ll keep you posted.