Dabbieri Blog

Integrating the Wallpaper Trend into Your Home Design

As we move forward into 2022, a key trend to keep your eye on is wallpaper. Inspired by nostalgic home design styles like cottagecore and grandmillenial, the wallpaper trend is a quick way to add a bit of color and ground your interior in textures. Whether you’re looking for traditional stencils with Trompe l’oiel patterns or contemporary geometric wallpaper with architectural designs, wallpaper comes in an endless collection of patterns and can brilliantly elevate your design when used properly. 

Upgrade Your Bathroom Walls

Faux Wood Blinds by Graber

One of the easiest ways to incorporate wallpaper into your interior design is in the bathroom. Choose a wall that you want to be your focal point. Oftentimes, this is the wall where your sink and vanity rests. Use wallpaper to accentuate the color theme or even add textural value to the space. If you have a small powder room, you can also wallpaper a corner of the bathroom to create an illusion of more space, as patterned wallpaper has a disrupting effect on your eyes.

Inspire a Bedroom Headboard

Sombrero Hardwood by Biyork Flooring

Try wallpapering the space behind your headboard in the bedroom. Wallpaper accent walls are the perfect place to apply a pop of color or busy print without overwhelming the whole room. There are several ways to go about this: you can choose a wallpaper print that works well with the existing bedroom design taking into consideration factors like other wall colors, bedding, and overall style. Or, you can pick the wallpaper first and let the colors and textures in your design influence the room around it.

Use as an Accent

Parmesso Marble carpet by Louis A. Dabbieri

Pack a visual punch by using wallpaper as an accent. You can do this by creating a feature wall, wallpapering the ceiling, decorating the inside of a bookcase, or hanging wallpaper as art. A wallpapered feature wall is the ideal way to draw eyes to a focal point in the room. Enhance a striking feature wall in your room by installing wallpaper behind the fireplace or t.v. You can even install two complementary wallpapers on one wall (like stripes and toiles) to create a chair rail effect and liven up the room even more.

Provide Texture

Wallpaper doesn’t just have to be one-dimensional —thanks to special printing technology, textural wallpaper has become increasingly popular. From grasscloth wallpaper that creates a natural textured look to crocodile black wallpaper that gives your room a sleek, dramatic appearance, the stylistic choices for textured wallpaper are endless. Visual wallpaper, which creates the look of a 3-D appearance while maintaining a flat surface, uses shadow and highlights to provide textural options like brick, clouds, and marble.

How have you incorporated the wallpaper trend into your home design this new year?

What Makes Up a Quality Area Rug

Immersed in the cold winter months, January is the perfect time to upgrade your home with warm furnishings. From heavy velvet drapes to cozy cashmere throws to plush deep-pile carpets, nothing quite beats the warmth of being surrounded by soft materials. Now is the time to invest in quality area rugs for your interiors to keep the cold drafts at bay. While your cool stone floors might be great in the summer months, cold tile is an unwelcome greeting for your bare feet on winter mornings. Area rugs are the ideal solution for tile and hardwood floors in your home since they can be easily matched to your existing design and updated based on the season. But how do you find a high-quality area rug that will last? We’ll explore four factors that should be taken into consideration when looking to purchase an area rug.

High Line Count

Colorado White/Blue by Nourison

The first thing to look at when searching for an area rug is the knot density, which is the number of knots per square inch. Determining the density is important as this is a big indicator of rug durability. A high line count means a finer weave and better clarity of the rug pattern. A looser weave means a coarser rug that can incur visible damage more quickly. Look for rugs that have high line counts, since they will better hold up to your household’s foot traffic.

Detail

Marash Palu Rust by Karastan

The second thing to look at is the detail in your area rug. Clarity and detail are typically good indicators of time and labor spent making the area rug. A sharp pattern means that more time was spent on your rug. Just look at the difference between a high-end oriental that you might find in a carpet showroom versus a cheap living room shag you'd find at a big-box store. Oriental, Persian, and Morrocan area rugs are all hand-knotted and custom-made with details that take careful craftsmanship.

Premium Wool

Ceneri by Kaleen

Handwoven wool makes for the best area rugs as it's soft and strong. As one of the best natural fibers to create rugs, wool is durable and comfortable to the touch because the threads spring back with a soft quality even after being walked on. Quality wool is naturally stain-repellant and water-resistant, as well, so you can rest assured knowing that your area rug can handle your active lifestyle. 

Organic Dye and High-Grade Pigments

Celestial Collection by Nourison

Area rugs dyed from natural dyes have a vibrant quality to their color. While organic dyes and high-grade pigments make for bright and colorful area rugs, inferior dyes are murky and flat. High-grade dyes won’t fade over time due to exposure to water or sunlight. You can easily tell the difference between a synthetically dyed carpet and a natural one by spreading apart the pile and looking at the color over the length of the fiber.

Of course, design and flooring experts, like those available at our International Design Guild showrooms, can walk you through the benefits of each area rug on display, but having this knowledge is indispensable when shopping for your next high-quality area rug.

Unique Flooring to Kick off Your New Year

Are you ready for a home refresh this New Year? 2022 has finally arrived and now it's time to get those new year’s resolutions underway. And what better way to set a fresh slate than with a new floor? As already illustrated, 2022 is bound to see more time spent in our homes so creating a space that reflects your personality and individual needs is important. Whatever the home renovation project at hand, elevate your space with a brand new floor that’s unique to your design taste. We've gathered four unique flooring trends to help you find inspiration.

Leather Floors

Leather Tile by Torly’s

Made from recycled leather, leather floors are available in a variety of colors from rich browns to dark espressos. With its soft suppleness, leather looks and feels extravagant underfoot. Depending on the aesthetic that you are trying to achieve, you can select leather flooring in planks or tiles. Leather floors have the advantage of natural warmth to create an inviting home design that blends well with a multitude of design styles from sleek transitional to rustic contemporary.

Cork

Cork by DuroDesign

If you’re hunting for a water-resistant, environmentally friendly flooring choice, cork floors are the perfect match for you. Warm to the touch and easy to clean, cork flooring is highly durable and naturally hypoallergenic and anti-microbial. Making a popular comeback on the flooring market, cork is applauded for its renewability and recyclable materials. Cork flooring can also be installed to reduce noise, making it ideal for family rooms, home theaters, and home gyms where high levels of noise occur. As an aesthetically versatile choice, cork is available in a wide range of colors, sizes, and grades.

Bamboo

Xcora Tundra by Teragen Bamboo

Another beautiful and durable flooring option for your residential spaces is bamboo flooring. This dent-resistant flooring solution is harder than red oak so you know it will hold up against heavy foot traffic and playful pets. Plus, many bamboo products are now available with a long-lasting wear layer to protect your flooring from potential accidents or spills. Since bamboo is fast-growing, it's a renewable source of flooring that can be responsibly sourced. As an eco-friendly option for your home, bamboo floors withstand the test of time.  

Marmoleum Flooring

Marmoleum sheet by Forbo Flooring Systems

Another unique flooring choice, Marmoleum is a stunning flooring solution made up of all-natural, recycled materials including flaxseed oil, wood flour, pine resins, jute, limestone, and pigments. Both safer on the planet and healthier for your home environment, Marmoleum flooring continues to harden with age, proving to be very durable. From wood-look to solid to marble, Marmoleum is offered in limitless styles and colors, making it easy to find a floor that suits your design needs.

How have you used unique flooring in your interior design to elevate your home?