What Are the Best Wallpaper Brands?
Wallpaper quality varies significantly by brand — print quality, paper weight, and adhesive performance all differ. Here is the recommendation framework.
Best Design Quality: Specialty and Designer Brands
Rifle Paper Co. (in collaboration with York Wallcoverings): botanical prints with a charming, hand-illustrated quality, recognized for their distinctive illustrative style and cheerful palettes. Hygge and West: nature-inspired and abstract patterns in muted, sophisticated palettes, strong peel-and-stick and paste-up options. Schumacher (F. Schumacher and Co.): the leading luxury wallcovering house in the US, available to the trade through interior designers, with a heritage of design going back to 1889. Cole and Son: British luxury wallpaper brand with classic pattern archives and contemporary reinterpretations. Graham and Brown: a mid-tier European brand with strong design at accessible price points, available at retail in the US.
Best Mid-Tier Reliability: Brewster and York
Brewster Home Fashions and York Wallcoverings: the two largest mid-tier wallpaper brands in the US residential market. Both offer a wide range of patterns, consistent print quality, and reasonable durability at $30 to $75 per roll. York distributes the licensed collections of many premium brands (including Rifle Paper Co. and Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines) at retail price points. Available at home improvement stores and wallpaper retailers.
Best Peel-and-Stick: Chasing Paper and Tempaper
Chasing Paper: the most consistently well-reviewed peel-and-stick wallpaper brand. Strong adhesion, clean removal from painted drywall, and a distinctive design range with modern and bohemian aesthetics. Available in single-roll quantities ideal for accent walls. Tempaper: the original peel-and-stick wallpaper brand, consistent quality, wide design range, and the best performance in humid environments among peel-and-stick options. Society6: a broad design marketplace that produces affordable peel-and-stick options with an enormous design range, though quality is less consistent than Chasing Paper or Tempaper.
Working With a Contractor on This Project
Getting the right outcome on any home services project starts before the work begins. A few consistent practices make the difference between a smooth project and a frustrating one.
Get at least two or three quotes. A single quote gives you no basis for comparison. Two or three quotes reveal the market rate for the work, expose scope differences between bidders, and let you assess contractor communication quality before any commitment is made. The lowest bid is not automatically the best value if the scope is thin or the materials are underspecified.
Ask for licenses and insurance before work starts. Verify current general liability insurance and, for any work involving workers on your property, workers compensation coverage. Licensing requirements vary by state and trade; confirm the specific requirements in your jurisdiction. A licensed contractor who carries appropriate insurance protects both parties if something goes wrong during the project.
Get the scope in writing. A written proposal that specifies materials, labor scope, timeline, what is included (permits, cleanup, disposal), and warranty terms is the foundation of a professional engagement. Verbal agreements on any of these points invite misunderstanding. For any project over $500, written scope is non-negotiable.
Clarify the payment schedule upfront. A reasonable payment schedule ties major payments to project milestones: a deposit at signing, a payment at material delivery or project start, and a final payment at completion after a walkthrough confirms satisfaction. A contractor who requires full payment upfront before work begins is a red flag in any trade.
How to Use This Guide
Finding the right contractor is the most important decision in any home services project. The criteria in this article reflect what distinguishes contractors who deliver excellent work from those who do not, based on the specific quality factors that matter for this type of work.
Use the criteria here as a screening framework, not a checklist to be completed mechanically. A contractor who scores well on the criteria that matter most for your specific project, home, and concerns is a better match than one who technically checks every box but does not communicate clearly or does not have local experience with your type of home.
The right contractor is one who provides a clear, written proposal with specific materials and scope, is licensed and insured, has verifiable local references from similar work, and backs their installation with a meaningful warranty. When you are ready to compare your options, use the button below to connect with qualified local professionals in your area.
Wallpaper Cost at a Glance
Wallpaper material: $25 to $50 per roll (budget); $50 to $100 per roll (mid-range residential); $100 to $300+ per roll (designer or specialty). Each roll covers approximately 27 sq ft after pattern repeat waste. Professional installation labor: $3 to $8 per sq ft of wall surface. Total installed cost: $6 to $16 per sq ft for mid-range wallpaper. Accent wall (100 sq ft): $500 to $1,600 installed. Powder room (80 to 120 sq ft, all four walls): $500 to $1,800 installed. Standard bedroom (400 sq ft of wall surface): $2,400 to $6,400 fully installed.
Old wallpaper removal: $1 to $4 per sq ft additional before new installation. Peel-and-stick wallpaper: $1 to $3 per sq ft in material, DIY-installable, less durable than paste-up. Always order one extra roll from the same dye lot as the calculated quantity for future repairs.
Frequently Asked Questions
For design quality and longevity: Schumacher (luxury, trade-only), Cole and Son (luxury, trade and retail), and Rifle Paper Co. via York (widely available mid-luxury). For reliable mid-tier residential: York Wallcoverings and Brewster Home Fashions. For peel-and-stick: Chasing Paper and Tempaper.
Specialty wallpaper retailers (wallpaper showrooms): the best selection, knowledgeable staff, and access to trade brands. Interior designers have access to trade-only lines (Schumacher, Phillip Jeffries, Elitis) not available at retail. Online retailers (Wallpaper Direct, Burke Decor, Lulu and Georgia): wide selection with sample ordering available before buying full rolls. Home improvement stores (Home Depot, Lowes): limited selection but accessible mid-tier brands. Always order samples before purchasing full rolls.
Yes -- always order at least one sample roll (or a large sample swatch) before purchasing the full quantity. The pattern scale, color, and texture all look different at full scale and in your room's actual light conditions than they do on a website or in a small printed swatch. Most wallpaper retailers offer samples for $2 to $10 per sample; many offer free samples. The cost of a sample is trivial relative to the cost of ordering the wrong wallpaper in quantity.
A dye lot is a production run of wallpaper printed at the same time with the same ink mix. Color can vary slightly between different dye lots of the same pattern. Order all the rolls needed for a room from the same dye lot (same lot number printed on the roll label). If ordering additional rolls later: the new rolls may be from a different dye lot and may not match perfectly. Always order extra (one additional roll beyond the calculated quantity) from the same dye lot and store it for repairs.
For a contained application (a powder room, a single accent wall): yes. Premium wallpaper at $100 to $200 per roll in a powder room requiring 4 to 5 rolls: $400 to $1,000 in material. The visual impact per dollar is very high in a contained space. For a large room requiring 15 to 20 rolls: the cost of luxury wallpaper ($1,500 to $4,000 in material alone) is harder to justify unless the design is the primary goal of the space. Mid-tier wallpaper at $40 to $75 per roll: provides excellent design options at a more accessible cost for larger spaces.