Best Wallpaper for Bedroom Walls: 8 Restful Designs

The best wallpaper for a bedroom is a quiet design on a matte paper: a soft landscape, a sky or a plaster texture that you can look at every night without it feeling loud. Our pick is Buttermere, Pearl, a panoramic lake in soft white and pale grey with fine charcoal details, printed to the exact size of your wall.

Below are eight bedroom designs ranked by what they do best, from small rooms to children's rooms, then two alternatives to wallpaper and a short guide to the paper.

The 8 best bedroom wallpapers at a glance

Our #1 pick

Buttermere, Pearl

Best for: a small bedroom, a guest room or any room that gets little daylight.

✓Pale enough for small rooms

✓A greener twin exists: Grasmere, Sage

✓Pairs with linen, aged brass and pale oak

See Buttermere, PearlFrom $7.95 per sq ft, printed to your wall

The ranking: 8 bedroom designs, then 2 alternatives

Every design is made to measure and comes on three papers: Non-Pasted ($7.95 per square foot), Pre-Pasted ($8.95) or Peel and Stick ($10.95). Shipping is free, with import duties included.

1. Buttermere, Pearl: best overall for bedrooms

Best for: a small bedroom, a guest room or any room that gets little daylight.

Buttermere, Pearl is a panoramic, non-repeating lake scene in soft white and pale grey, with fine charcoal ink details and faint sepia and faded greens in a hazy sky. Atmospheric perspective and a calm horizon give the wall depth instead of pattern.

Its surface is matte, so lamplight in the evening brings out the light and shade of the landscape without glare.

• Pale enough for small rooms
• A greener twin exists: Grasmere, Sage
• Pairs with linen, aged brass and pale oak

2. Notte, Midnight: best dark bedroom wallpaper

Best for: a large primary bedroom where you want the walls to wrap around you.

Notte, Midnight reproduces hand-trowelled limewash plaster in deep navy and indigo, with soft, cloudy tonal movement and no visible repeat. The movement keeps a dark wall calm rather than heavy.

Use it behind the headboard, or on all four walls for a cocooning room.

• Texture with no motif to read at night
• Warms up with brass, terracotta, oak and linen
• Light version: Salvia, Sage

3. Naiad, Blush: best soft colour

Best for: a romantic bedroom, or a ceiling above the bed.

Naiad, Blush is a panoramic chinoiserie landscape of clouds in a delicate watercolour style, in muted blush and gentle terracotta. It does not repeat and leaves generous quiet areas, so the colour stays soft.

The ceiling is one of its suggested placements: a sky of blush clouds overhead is the view you see last at night.

• Works on walls or ceilings
• Navy version for moodier rooms: Skyscape, Midnight
• Pairs with linen, warm timber and cream ceramics

4. Sage Gradient Abstract Mural: best minimal design

Best for: a pared-back bedroom or a reading nook.

This panoramic gradient blends muted sage greens into gentle stone greys, like a dusk sky in confident gouache brushwork. There is no motif at all, just tone, which makes it the quietest design on this list.

It reads as one continuous artwork from skirting to ceiling.

• Non-repeating, one continuous image
• Purely grey version: Halcyon, Stone
• Suits brushed brass, warm oak and cream linen

5. White Chinoiserie Mural: best classic pattern

Best for: an elegant bedroom with antique or painted furniture.

The White Chinoiserie Mural shows flowering trees and exotic birds in soft white and pale grey, outlined in fine charcoal ink in a watercolour style. The repeat is medium in scale, with about a dozen motifs spread evenly, and the surface is never glossy.

It brings pattern to a bedroom without strong colour.

• Evenly spread medium-scale repeat
• Cream twin: Pagoda Walk, Linen
• Pairs with cream or sage linen and brushed brass

6. Whitmoor, Cornflower: best blue bedroom wallpaper

Best for: a blue and white bedroom, or a room with light oak furniture.

Whitmoor, Cornflower is a wide, non-repeating landscape of rolling hills, finely illustrated in dusty blue and slate with a soft vintage texture. Generous quiet areas let the eye wander to a calm, deep horizon.

• Muted blue, not bright
• Green countryside version: Cotterstock, Sage
• Pairs with light oak, linen and cream ceramics

7. Mistyvale, Moss: best Japandi bedroom wallpaper

Best for: a Japandi or Scandinavian bedroom with natural materials.

Mistyvale, Moss is a sky of delicate ink wash clouds in muted olive and moss green, airy but evenly filled, with a calm horizon. It is non-repeating and can also go on a ceiling.

The green is earthy rather than fresh, which suits wood, linen and ceramics.

• Japandi, minimal and Scandinavian
• Grey version: Misty Isle, Stone
• Also suggested for nurseries

8. Thicket, Sage: best for a child's bedroom

Best for: a child's bedroom, a nursery or a playroom.

Thicket, Sage is a woodland glade with deer, foxes, rabbits and owls among slender trees, painted in a soft watercolour style with delicate pencil details. Muted sage and stone keep it gentle enough for bedtime.

The scene is panoramic and non-repeating, so the animals sit where the picture puts them, not in rows.

• Storybook scene, muted colours
• Oatmeal version: Bramblewick, Oat
• Pairs with natural oak and cream linen

9. Alternative: paint

A calm paint colour is the quickest, lowest-cost bedroom change. It gives colour but no image or texture, which is what a mural adds.

10. Alternative: wallpaper sold by the roll

Traditional rolls from decorating stores suit small repeating patterns across several walls. You order by the roll and match the pattern at each join.

How we chose

We started from the designs suggested for bedrooms in our collection and kept those that stay calm at close range: non-repeating scenes with generous quiet areas, tonal textures, or an even pattern with no large busy motifs. Then we covered the main bedroom situations: small and dark rooms, large primary bedrooms, romantic and minimal styles, a blue scheme, a Japandi room and a child's room.

Price did not decide the order. Every design costs the same per square foot on a given paper.

Buying guide: choosing bedroom wallpaper

Which paper for a bedroom?

Which wall?

Most people paper the wall behind the headboard, because it is the wall you see when you walk in and not the one you face from the bed. In a small room, papering all four walls in a pale design can blur the corners and make the space feel larger.

Light or dark?

Pale designs such as Buttermere, Pearl reflect light. Deep designs such as Notte, Midnight absorb it and make a room feel enclosed, which many people like in a bedroom. Our papers are semi-opaque, so on a very dark existing wall, paint a light base coat first.

For more on how a scenic mural changes the feel of a room, read how panoramic murals make a room look bigger. Renting? See the best removable wallpaper for renters. When your mural arrives, follow how to hang a wall mural.

More calm designs for bedrooms

Glenfinnan, HeatherPrinted to your wall sizeChambray, MistPrinted to your wall sizeNavy Sky Landscape MuralPrinted to your wall size

See the full collection

Common questions