Dear World: I’m Starting a Wallpaper Company. No, I Haven’t Lost My Mind.

I’m Ash, and I’m a writer, traveler, nonconformist & nomad, and every week I’m sharing funny field notes from around the world. Currently, I’m in America writing about what it’s been like to return home to my small town, twenty years after living abroad.

Most Americans still think wallpaper is for drunk grandmas.

But, I have news: your grandma had taste—and a vodka tonic. 🥃

It’s always WEIRD to me how little style Americans have when it comes to home interiors (and I say this being a big, dopey one). But you know what we have to blame it on?

The 1990s.

We can blame everything on the 1990s. (Including frosted tips, prime rib carving stations at Ponderosa buffet restaurants, and those awful mirror-top coffee tables that gave permanent fingerprint crime scene vibes.)

And you know what else we have to blame the 90s for?

Everyone having PTSD from trying to get their 1970s wallpaper OFF. 🤣

If you are a breathing, pulsating human being who has ever attempted the removal of 1970s wallpaper, BLESS YOUR HEART, HERE IS A SHIPPING CONTAINER FULL OF XANAX.

People decorating their homes in the 1990s—you know, those goofy dorks we called “parents”—grew up looking at walls covered with psychedelic swirls and geese in bonnets lining their kitchens (probably *because of* psychedelics), so by the time they had fresh, new drywall all to themselves? Because the suburbs boomed? And they built big, tacky American-style McMansions?

They were not covering that schmutz with wallpaper.

No, sir!

They were covering it with BEIGE. The khaki of paint! Which is like the world’s greatest whiplash ever. All of those Gen Xers trying desperately to rebel against their childhoods covered in acid green atomic burst patterns. (And all of the builders doing the same. Not to mention that beige paint bought in bulk = economical AF.)

And this is why the 1990s was the era of beige drywall punctuated by a giant oversized brown wall clock flanked by a “live, laugh, love” sign and “blessings” written in a free cursive font that looked like your Cricut machine had a religious awakening.

Those people really needed to live, laugh, and love their way through A LOT of childhood decor trauma.

Meanwhile, here’s me, gallivanting off to England for the first time in 2006 and being like WHOA. Whoa! Whoaaaaaa! Hold the (polo) horses!!!!! WHAT IS ALL OF THIS WALLPAPER DOING HERE?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

And then again when I returned in 2015.

And then even MORE when I returned in 2017.

And, of course, even MORE every time I’ve been back since—and not just to England, but to anywhere in Europe.

These bitches love their wallpaper.

And, I’ll admit it: I got hooked. It was easy, really: one stay in a boutique Airbnb on Gibson Square will do it.

This is the THE PATTERN THAT DID ME IN, everybody:

I took one look at this Airbnb pic, and I was *booking*.

And that stay was in 2017.

By which I mean: the Brits have had their wallpaper game going strong since forever. 💪 It never really went out of fashion like it did in America—it’s just switched styles. Plus, they’ve got A LOT of plaster in their older, historic homes, unlike drywall, which means two things:

1. You either want to cover up old, crumbling plaster (wall liner + wallpaper!)
2. OR, you recognize that it isn’t as hard to get off of plaster, as it is with drywall (so it’s more of a tasteful risk than traumatic relic.)

In both cases, British sensibility has always been maximalist cool. 🌸 🌷 🪻 They LOVE pattern on pattern, and as the mega-ass pioneers of the Arts + Crafts movement? They couldn’t just diss their heritage, of course. While we were out here leaning more toward mid-century architecture (I loathe mid-century architecture???????) and middle-class housing, the Brits were going heavier on textiles, wallpapers, and decorative arts.

It makes sense why they’re a global wallpaper HQ.

Do you know how many rolls of wallpaper I’ve imported from Britain in the last 2 years at the farmhouse? 🤣 Oh, it’s embarrassing. Like, REALLY embarrassing. Especially because I’ve changed my mind about the colorways of a few of them, and all I keep thinking is: I need to start a wallpaper marketplace, where we sell each other our wallpaper remnants. I AM NOT KIDDING. Sometimes it just doesn’t work for a project, and then you’re stuck with hundreds (or godforbid thousands) of dollars worth of wallpaper. (Like right now I have one with teal peacocks. But am no longer doing teal, LOL.)

But, imagine if you could shop a wallpaper remnant store and get designer prints for 50% off? I mean!!!! DO WE NEED A FUN WALLPAPER REMNANT MARKETPLACE?! HAVE I GONE OFF THE RAILS?!?!?

Anywayyy, my point is that juuuuuust now in America is wallpaper slinking back into mainstream vogue.

But really even only if you’re really into interiors. Because only then will you have followed the interior blogs and design pubs and SEEN THE GLORY. Been exposed to all of that swanky British floral gloriousness! And….fallen in love with the style, personality, and ~balls~ it can bring to a room.

Otherwise though?

If you’re an everyday regular American homeowner?

Living in an everyday regular American pre-fab home?

With a chocolate lab and a driveway permanently stained with motor oil?

You’re proooooobaby still rocking oil-rubbed bronze light fixtures, giant sectionals that take up 92% of the room, and a wrought-iron wine rack holding exactly two bottles of Barefoot Moscato.

And wallpaper proooooobaby isn’t even on your radar. 🔍 (YET.)

But, it’s going to be. <insert maniacal laughter>

Builder beige has been out for forever, and slowly we’ve been working on getting our style back.

Fortunately, wallcovering companies have figured out that making it easier to put up (and take down) = more sales. 💰

And the rise of the internet? Has given wallpaper an invite to the party. 🥳 Not to mention: young people don’t have wallpaper PTSD! Huge plus.

But honestly? My take on this is simple:

Wallpaper is becoming hot again in America because it’s the #1 thing you can do to personalize your space.

And, we’re a generation of people who want (and expect) things to feel personal.

✅ Personalized Netflix recommendations!
✅ Personalized Spotify playlists!
✅ Personalized Amazon recommendations!
✅ Personalized ads being served to you on social media!
✅ Personalized fitness recommendations based on your DNA!

Technology has made us all expect personalization.

And wallpaper?

Is the one way you can really personalize a room that’s special to you.

So it makes SENSE, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z. And particularly because millennials are in their prime home buying years RIGHT NOW.

And, as one, I’m having so much fun hanging wallpaper myself.

(I know, that sounds like an oxymoron. Fun + ‘hanging wallpaper’ in the same sentence?)

But it’s been a wonderful way to take this 1800s farmhouse—which had been painted entirely in an off-white in the 90s—and bring a stylish little historical flair. It works with the old wide-plank floorboards. It works with the old fireplaces. It works with the old-house aesthetic.

Except, the one thing you have to be mindful of is making sure it doesn’t come across as TOO twee. Pair the wrong floral pattern with an old house, and all it does is feel old. (I always think of the cringey 90s bedspreads like this one, LOL.) Pair the RIGHT floral pattern, however—something that reads modern, fresh, original, exaggerated, maximalist, and/or more abstract—and suddenly it feels chic & stylish.

But, you gotta know how to do it right.

This is one of the reasons why I’m super passionate about designing my own wallpaper brand:

Something that’s missing from the marketplace are designs that naturally balance between floral + sweet, and edgy and cool.

For example, I am the QUEEN of pearls + leather jacket, and that’s exactly what I’m going for with my line.

I want maximalist florals that make a (British-loving) style statement. AND ALSO, when you get up close, I want there to be this edgy element of surprise woven throughout the vines: Witty writing. Unconventional ideas. Sharp thoughts. The kind of unexpected little lines that make you do a double take while you’re sipping tea in front of a wall of roses.

This is wallpaper with manners, but also a mouth. Wallpaper that says, “Sure, I’m classy—but I also know every word to Biggie.”

And frankly? That’s the only kind of wall I want to live with.

I’m calling the brand: Witpaper.

And I’m making a bet that a paper like this will have success in the U.S. market, because this is who we are: a little sweet, and a little brash. It gives wallpaper a down-to-earth cool flair, especially for the skeptics who haven’t yet been indoctrinated.

And with wallpaper sales steadily growing in America?

I think we’ve got a good shot at making this a product that appeals—and not just to Americans, but anyone with a unique sense of style.

EVEN BETTER?

I’ve already been considering ways that we could build an app and you could insert whatever lines of text you want, and it will auto-populate into the wallpaper design. (Sort of like if you order a neon sign.) Digital on-demand printing makes this hella possible. And, like I said?

We love personalization. We’re in the personalization era.

And, what a fun way to really make your home YOU—just like picking out your clothes, but for walls.

(Cue wallpaper bring printed with lines from your diary from 1993. Or the first lines from the first book you ever got published. Or a poem you wrote for your father on his birthday.)

One caveat, however, is that it must feel high-end designer—not something reminiscent of Zazzle. And, ALL of that comes down to the branding of it all, and the limitations you place around the brand: it must be polished, but not boring. Irreverent, but not childish. Edgy, but still refined. And the designs must walk that line, all the same.

So together, we’ll be exploring how to do all of that—and bring this brand to life. 🌱

• Where do you find artists & design partners?
• How do commissions and licensing work?
• What are the associated fees?
• What about printing partners?
• How much does printing cost?
• What are the quality options?
• Can it be printed on-demand?
• How does it get shipped to the consumer?
• How do you market it?
• How do you price it?
• What are your margins?
• What’s your revenue potential?
• What profit levers need to be pulled?
• How do we build a killer website?
• How do we get our brand featured?
• How do we market the hell out of it?
• What are the risks and challenges of the biz?
• What do you do with refunds and wasted product?
• How hard it is to design and deliver a physical product?
• How do you have success in the industry?
• And more.

I’ll be sharing what I learn here on this Substack 🎉, and paid subscribers will get ALL of the behind-the-scenes breakdowns and numbers and real-time financial info as we go. Plus access to the chat, because we’re forming a biker wallpaper club (obviously).

Perfect if you ever wanted to start your own e-commerce brand. And even more perfect if you ever wanted to start your own interiors brand, or obsess over interior design.

I see you! 👀 And, I’m so glad to have you on my design team!!! (Essentially. 😉)

In the meantime, I’d LOVE to hear what your experience has been with wallpaper: do you have any in your house? Did you growing up? And, where are you from? (A big factor!)

HOLLER AT ME IN THE COMMENTS. ⬇️