Wallpaper and lighting

Lighting enhances wallpaper as it directly influences the light and shadow on the walls and their textures.

There are so many ways to illuminate a space that it would be impossible to give examples of all them.

What we can do however, is to offer acouple of pointers and share our experience of how you can choose lighting based on one type of wallpaper or another.

In this field, designer Bodo Sperlein is an expert.

Metallic wallpapers, Gold and Silver, are ideal for indirect, sporadic lighting as they allow you to generate irregular reflections on the wallpaper, giving depth to the space.

It’s like searching for that alchemical effect that Junichiro Tanizak expressed so vividly in his book In Praise of Shadows, and that Bodo Sperlein uses recurrently in his aesthetic settings.

Indeed, in the latest wallpaper collection that we presented, Artisan by Bodo Sperlein, the London designer uses indirect lighting as well as furniture that highlights the reflective effect of the metallic murals.

Dark wallpapers are also perfect for soft and warm lighting as they generate an elegant, contained and mysterious halo.

For wallpapers with a very matte finish or texture, the lighting can be more general and intense. You can even opt for a whiter light.

It’s easy to imagine a wallpaper in raffia or with designs which have lighter tones, with lighting integrated into the ceiling, provoking a clinically minimalist effect.

This type of space with furniture in soft, curved lines would be just perfect.

And again, proof of this is the space that Bodo recreated with curvilinear wooden furniture and wood laminate lamps from Luzifer in Milan during Design Week 2024.