20 Gorgeous Nature-Inspired Wallpaper Patterns

Nothing breathes new life and adds a sense of fun to a room quite like adorning it with flora and fauna. Which of these beauties will be the next star of your space?

By: Lauren Oster

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Photo By: Graham & Brown

Photo By: Rebel Walls

Photo By: Anthropologie

Photo By: Lauren Rubin Architecture

Photo By: Anthropologie

Photo By: Timorous Beasties

Photo By: Milton & King

Photo By: CB2

Photo By: Michael J. Lee

Go Fish

No space for a koi pond in the yard? No problem: the hand-painted swimmers of Graham & Brown’s Flow cultivate a similar sense of serenity (and you don’t have to worry about theft from neighborhood raccoons). Use their scales as a starting point for carrying blush and coral tones through your space, as with the rose gold accents and tub in this bathroom.

Take a Hike

2020 Colors of the Year are all about going back to nature — quite literally, in the case of Behr’s offering — and the wild foliage on Graham & Brown’s Midsummer Fern complements it and an array of delicate greens beautifully. The large-scale, curvaceous fronds also serve to soften angular pieces like this desk and lamp.

get the how-to: How to Hang Wallpaper

Armchair Safari

Graham & Brown’s sometimes-muted Kingdom is like a Magic Eye stereogram in reverse: let your eyes unfocus, and the serene neutral tones of this paper function as an understated abstract. Look closely, in turn, and it’s teeming with everything from African predators to camels and porcupines. Who knew intricacy like this could also feel restful?

Tropical Complements

Mother Nature knows her way around the color wheel, as the dynamic combination of warm and cool foliage (and warm and cool parrot feathers) on Rebel Walls’ Vigor demonstrates. This pattern performs like a mural, thanks to the substantial height of its plant life’s tallest stalks.

Black Swan Event

These shapely creatures would cultivate an elegant and downright sexy mood on the walls of, say, a master bedroom. That said, we love how Rebel Walls’ Cygne Noir makes an unexpected splash (as it were) in this monochromatic, otherwise minimalist kitchen.

Undersea Menagerie

Fans of Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities — a gorgeous collection of 18th-century natural history illustrations that’s become a coffee-table icon and a killer gift in the 21st century — will thrill to the intricate kaleidoscope of Rebel Walls’ Aquatic Life. Why settle for sea green paint on the living room wall when you can have actual sea greens?

Storybook Forest

Rebel Walls’ Rabbit Hole puts a grown-up spin on the Lewis Carroll tale its name evokes: this painterly scene features mountain owls, intricate anemones and even an ermine with bared teeth (bonus points for the styling here, where that ermine appears to be perched on top of a large ceramic vase). With an intricate backdrop like this, additional artwork would almost be redundant.

Tigers Tigers, Burning Bright

If big cats catch your fancy, Anthropologie’s peel-and-stick offerings will be right up your alley: Silent Tiger is just one of several jungle denizens in their current collection. Their stylized stripes are actually chevrons — a pattern within a pattern, if you will.

get the how-to: How to Install Temporary Wallpaper

Sylvan Soirée

York Wallcoverings’ Henriette would be a sweet, tongue-in-cheek choice for a nursery or an accent wall behind a home bar: its adorable woodland creatures are actually little party animals (look closely to see their vintage finery, cocktail glassware and bottles of booze).

Egrets Only

York Wallcoverings’ Evening Egret paper, in turn, puts an Art Deco spin on long-legged marsh birds. Seen from afar, this diminutive pattern appears abstract; it’d be equally at home in traditional and modern spaces.

Paradise Found

Six digitally printed linen panels combine to form York Wallcoverings’ massive 9’x9’ Ervine Mural, a joyful flock of petal-pink flamingos. Shouldn’t every day at home feel like a staycation?

Night Moves

Inspired by 17th-century Indian wall hangings, the blue-on-blue beasts and intricate florals of Hygge & West’s Foret turn this powder room into a mythical, supersaturated wonderland. Hand-washing just got a lot more interesting.

From: Lauren Rubin Architecture

Fern, Fern, Fern

Cole & Son’s Royal Fernery takes rooms of all kinds from zero to “old-school botanical garden” in… well, we won’t say no time, since it does require a bit of effort to hang. That said, living in a greenhouse that needs no upkeep sounds (and looks) pretty spectacular.

Lizardy Wizardry

Named for a mouse in a Robert Burns poem, Glasgow’s Timorous Beasties has been producing some of the world’s most iconic nature-inspired patterns for three decades. Their superwide, virtually-Technicolor Merian Palm is an apt illustration of what a huge design moment animals and plants can create.

Beachy Bouquets

Timorous Beasties’ Seaweed and Shell, in turn, incorporates oceanic elements like conches, corals, anemones and kelp in arrangements more traditionally composed of garden clippings. Land-based patterns, please try harder.

Purples and Plumage

Milton & King’s jewel-bright Hummingbirds flit between (vegetal) birds of paradise and tiny, trailing blossoms, inspired by their designer’s childhood summers in Quebec. This colorway’s cool tones pair beautifully with warm wood pieces like this credenza.

Down Under All Over

An Antipodean twist on traditional Chinoiserie, Milton & King’s Australia paper boasts native birds, deliriously flowering branched and even the occasional koala. We think it’s high time reading nooks felt more like animal sanctuaries.

Tentacular Spectacular

CB2’s Jellyfish demonstrates just how excellent dining at home can be when one invites a few marine invertebrates to the table. This space gets bonus points for a modern floral arrangement that echoes the deadly beauties’ forms perfectly.

Africa Via London

CB2’s Flamingo in navy desaturates traditionally pastel plumage to create a colorway that’s almost … preppy? This fresh take is a stealthily cerebral match for an emerald-green velvet sofa (and a beige dog).

Botswana in the Bath

Named for one of the best-known national parks in Africa, Cole & Son’s Savuti features coral trees bustling with baboons, chameleons, hoopoes and hornbills. Isn’t it high time you featured a few baboons in your powder room?