Finding Colour Inspiration for Wallpaper Design: How Palettes Begin
Developing colour inspiration for wallpaper design can feel like a daunting process. It’s hard to know where to begin. Whether it’s nature, vintage references, travelling, books, or something else, I go through my top ways of how I create colour palettes.
- Lauren Peploe
Finding Colour Inspiration for Wallpaper Design: How Palettes Begin
Colour inspiration for wallpaper design isn’t always a straightforward process. A palette can feel instinctively right without knowing why, and the most considered palettes can grow from observation and development rather than working with colour theory. This post looks at where colour inspiration comes from in practice, and how those starting points can be developed into a palette for wallpaper and fabric.
Does colour inspiration for wallpaper design have to start with colour theory?
Not always. An understanding of colour theory is always useful to have for colour inspiration for wallpaper design, I’ve written about this in Colour Theory for Surface Design. But, in practice most palettes don’t begin with a colour wheel. They begin with a feeling, a photograph, or something that just feels right.
Theory tends to be more useful in the refining stages, once an idea has formed. Starting with references and instinct, then developing that idea often leads to better results.
Where does colour inspiration for wallpaper and fabric design come from?
There’s no single answer, sources vary from project to project. There are some consistently useful starting points I use that can be explored which I’ll share below…
Nature
The outdoors is one of the most reliable places to find colour combinations that feel well balanced. What makes natural palettes interesting isn’t just the individual colours but the relationships of the colours within the palette. Naturally occurring neutral tones, warm colours sitting within cooler tones, sudden pops of unexpected colour, and other naturally occurring tones. These relationships translate beautifully into surface design.
Paying attention to the less obvious details tends to create more interesting references. The colour of lichen, damp stone, or hedgerow vegetation in low light is often more inspiring than a bright summer garden.
Art, antiques, and vintage references
Older objects and printed materials carry a unique quality that’s difficult to reproduce. Faded botanical prints, worn textiles, and vintage interior photography all offer colour relationships that feel unforced and unique due to early production methods naturally limiting colour palettes, creating clever and well-balanced palettes.
Museums, antique markets, and second-hand shops are all worth visiting to find art, antiques, and vintage references. Sometimes the most inspiring colour palettes aren’t the main focus of a reference, but the background, a weathered page, or an unintentional blemish on the surface.
Travel
Colour palettes found while travelling tend to be memorable in a different way to everyday colour. The iconic blue roofs of Santorini, the ochre walls of rural Spain, or the deep greens of the Amazon rainforest, art and culture also inspire palettes when travelling. The colour of shutters, the palette of market stalls, building materials, and light quality also all look different compared to home.
Books
Design books, illustrated references, and interiors books can be a great resource for colour inspiration for wallpaper design. A particular favourite, A Dictionary of Color Combinations, features the unique diverse palettes of Sanzo Wada. Not only the contents of the books, but the books themselves can also be inspiring. The cloth bindings, blemishes, and aged pages, can also be a good starting point.
Pinterest is one of my go-to starting points where I’m not sure where to begin. With the algorithm offering a range of palettes, art, and creative design to match my style, it’s great when there’s no clear direction at the beginning. It offers a chance to see how other designers combine colours to help grow and strengthen ideas. It can also help to find combinations that wouldn’t necessarily have developed naturally.
How do you turn colour inspiration into a wallpaper palette?
Gathering references is only the first part of the process. They can be translated into workable palettes with a few practical steps. Working with physical swatches alongside digital references helps, because colour behaves differently on the screen compared to a printed surface.
Proportion matters as much as the colours themselves. A palette of four colours used in equal amounts rarely works as well as those same four colours used in deliberately unequal amounts. Looking at how references handle proportion is usually as instructive as the colours themselves. It’s also useful to gather more inspiration than you think, choosing from a wide selection tends to help produce a more considered result.
What colour separation reveals about a palette
One aspect of colour inspiration for wallpaper design that doesn’t get mentioned as often is what the separation process reveals. When a design is broken down into individual colour layers it shows things about the palette that weren’t immediately obvious. Separation helps to show how many true colours (and tones) there are within the design, where those tones overlap, and where palette tweaks are needed to balance the overall colourings.
Colour separation is a technical step of wallpaper design; it’s a useful tool to helping understand a design. Find out more about the separation process here. See the build up of a separated design in the video below.
If you’re developing colour inspiration for a wallpaper or fabric collection
It can help to think about what each colouring needs to feel like before deciding what colours to use. Consider colour combinations, colour theory, your instincts, and what you want to achieve for each colouring. Keeping these things in mind during colour development will make later stages simpler.
If you’d like help to develop a palette, or have a design you’d like separated, I’d love to hear about your next project. Get in touch.
FAQs
It can come from many places, including nature, vintage references, travel, books, and existing designs within a collection. Most palettes don’t begin with colour theory but with observation and instinct, with theory used for refinement.
The quantity of colours in a palette is determined by the manufacturer requirements. Digitally printed designs can hold many more colours than traditionally printed methods, such as gravure and screen printing. Proportion and balance play as much of a role as the number of colours.
Ordering a sample print before committing to a full production run is the most reliable way to test whether your palette will work. Working with physical colour references during development can also help, as colour can look different on a printed surface compared to screen.
Everything I share reflects how I approach wallpaper design, balancing creativity with technical decisions moving a design into production. I’ve brought that process, from first idea to seamless, production-ready repeat, together in my digital workbook, How to Create a Wallpaper Design.
Grounded in real studio experience, it’s designed to help you approach your own wallpaper designs with clarity, confidence and technical assurance.
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