How To Choose Colors To Match Your Bold Wallpaper

15 Bold Ideas for Color Palettes That Match the Wallpaper

1. High Contrast with a Pop of Color

Bold doesn’t necessarily have to mean bright. Gray tones in both wallpaper and room decor can give any living room or foyer a stately and beautiful appearance. Mix and match textures and patterns in varying tones of gray for a playful take on an otherwise somber color palette. (via Ideal Home)
While you may love bold patterns you may not enjoy the high contrast design style of bright colors. Don’t worry; lighter colors with a mixture of bold patterns that also use more subtle patterns are still beautiful. Take a look at this bathroom that uses floral branches and a light blue to produce a light and airy feeling throughout the bathroom. Paired up with a high-end finish such as marble creates a room that isn’t too overbearing and instead is comforting and calm. Don’t get turned away by the use of bold wallpapers, choose a color from the paper and then mimic it in surrounding materials, finishes, and decorative accents.

2. Subtle Color with Bold Inspiring Patterns

One of the best ways to make the most out of a bold wallpaper is to bring the same dramatic color on your wallpaper around the rest of the room too. You can use different shades of the same hue to help break up the look of the room’s design and also add some visual interest.
(via HGTV)

3. Use Colorful Wallpaper as a Backdrop

All colors in interior design can potentially be considered bold depending on how they’re used in the room’s style. It’s all a matter of finding complementary colors that draw the eye around the space. Even gray and neutral tones can be bold choices when paired with the right wallpaper. Keep these tips in mind when you’re matching your decor to your bold wallpaper by color. Building your color scheme carefully can help you find accent pieces that make your wallpaper design really pop!

4. Choose the Most Dominant Color

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4. Choose the Most Dominant Color

The easiest way to pick a bold color that matches your wallpaper is to choose the most dominant color in the wallpaper and make that your accent color for the rest of the room. Choosing a color that is prominent in the wallpaper to act as the main color in the rest of the room will result in a unified and somewhat monochromatic look. (via Love to Know)

5. Pick an Accent Color in the Wallpaper

 Many homeowners think that wallpaper and color should have to take center stage in their interiors. On the contrary, bold wallpaper looks beautiful behind large pieces of furniture, or on the upper portion of a wainscoting wall. Oftentimes, less is more, and choosing a color from surrounding furniture will help to tone down the overpowering nature of your wallpaper. Take a look at this bookshelf that uses wallpaper to line the back of the cabinet. This technique helps you bring visual interest to your cabinet while weaving in subtle color without overtaking the eye. Remember; choose colors that feel good to you and most likely the colors will work beautifully with your wallpaper!

6. Go with a Mismatched Look

7. Use Tertiary Colors for Soft, Subtle Tones

8. Bring in Jewel Tones for a Rich Look

Dark colors are great for making large vaulted spaces feel more cozy and intimate, so they’re a bold choice for wallpaper. Adding accents like puddled drapery and textured bedding in a muted, neutral color can help soften the bold impact of wallpaper in dark colors like charcoal gray or black. (via Home Stratosphere)
If cool colors add tranquility and mystery, then warm colors add excitement and flair. These colors are perfect to match the wallpaper in rooms that are used for social gatherings such as kitchens and dining rooms. Use a warm-toned white as a contrasting color to warm colors like orange and yellow in your wallpaper and accent decor to make these colors pop. (via The Spruce)

9. Use the Same Color Throughout the Room

Tertiary colors are the colors between primary and secondary colors – these include colors like blue-green, yellow-green, or red-violet. Tertiary colors are great for introducing jewel tones to your interior design in a muted way that can make them a better option for tranquil spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms. (via Ideal Home)

10. Use Cool Colors for Drama and Tranquility

If a kaleidoscope of colors is more your vibe than fifty shades of gray, picking out bright colors from the wallpaper and echoing multiple shades of them around the room can give you a dazzling and cheerful look. Using white as an accent in the decor and the wallpaper against a brighter color palette helps the individual colors stand out. (via The Spruce)

11. Use Warm Colors for Sensuality and Excitement

Instead of matching your wallpaper, another bold option is to deliberately mismatch your wallpaper to the color palette in the rest of the room. While this kind of mismatched look can be harder to pull off, it’s a great way to give the room an eclectic, bohemian feel. (via Society 6)
If you’re going with a darker or muted neutral wallpaper, a dramatic choice can be to bring in furniture in rich jewel tones like indigo or crimson. For even more sophistication, metallic accents can add a decadent art deco aesthetic. (via Ana Maria Designs)

12. Soften Up Dark Wallpaper 

Cool colors are some of the most versatile colors you can use in your wallpaper and the decor you use alongside it. In rich tones, cool colors are mysterious and dramatic. In muted or pastel tones, cool colors offer a sense of calm. Teal is one of the most versatile cool colors you can use. (via Nazmiyal Collection)
Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.

13. Try Wooden Elements with Vintage Wallpapers

The walls of your home are the most valuable real estate for decoration and design. They cover the most area and your eyes are instantly drawn to them. So it’s only natural to use colors and patterns that create a statement instantly! Wallpaper has the rich quality of bringing out bold patterns, colors, and even texture in ways that paint cannot do easily. While you may be excited to try out a new bold wall covering you may be apprehensive in choosing colors of furniture and accessories to go with it. While it may seem hard, take a look at these tips to help the process be that much easier to match your decor to your bold wallpaper.

14. Look for Sophisticated Gray Tones

Vintage wallpapers usually come in a mixed color palette, and they can look garish or tacky if you don’t choose the right decor to match. An option for toning down the pattern in vintage wallpaper is to use wooden elements as your accents in the room decor. Wood helps reinforce the vintage aesthetic of the wallpaper and acts as a neutral against any bright patterns.
(via D. Marie Interiors)
If you don’t want to choose the most dominant color in your wallpaper to act as the primary color in the rest of your decor, another choice that can still result in a matched look is to use an accent or secondary color in the wallpaper instead. Using the accent color in your wallpaper as a base for your color palette instead of the most dominant color can create an unexpected look in your final design. (via Paper Moon Painting) 

15. Choose Bright Colors for a Whimsical Vibe

 If your design style is for an instant ‘wow’ factor when guests enter the room, opt for a high contrast color to your wallpaper color.  Take paint samples or even fabric swatches and find colors that contrast with brightness or with powerful saturation to create a space that is electrifying and speaks to your eclectic design style. A good way to match colors is to use a color wheel, which shows the entire color spectrum. Colors that are across from each other will contrast well, while colors that are close on the wheel will complement each other.  If you are in doubt – visit a home improvement, or craft store and look for swatches and samples of complimenting colors.


While you may have thought that choosing colors to match your bold wallpaper was difficult these few tips should inspire you to go and create your own magic in your interiors. Before you tell yourself “no that just won’t work” – get creative and decide if you want subtle or dynamic. Whichever you choose, get going, your beautiful walls are waiting on you!