What's Tending with Grasscloth Wallcoverings

We live in one of the most beautiful cities, and a part of the appeal is Charleston’s architecture and design. There are certain Lowcountry elements that you’re sure to find in most of our Southern homes – gas lanterns, side porches, and bed swings, for instance. Inside, designers are incorporating varying coastal colors and textures – all of which can be found in grasscloth wallpaper! There’s just something about grasscloth that completes almost any room of the home.
What’s great about grasscloth is that it comes in an endless array of colors, patterns and textures. There is something for everyone! It looks like the beautiful natural landscape outside our Charleston homes. It’s modern, but also coastal, reminding us of the intercostal waterways. It’s subdued and calming, which makes it versatile. Grasscloth works in many spaces, whether you are traditional, contemporary or eclectic. It’s a great way to round out a room and give warmth without adding too much art or furniture.
What exactly is Grasscloth Wallpaper?
There are a lot of natural elements in grasscloth wallpaper, including leaves and cork. Other common materials include jute, hemp, reed and arrowroot. It mimics nature in its design; leaves are criss crossed or spaced apart, which shapes the pattern and overall effect. Color is then added to give you a solid or varying shades for a more marbled effect. Metallics can give it a sparkle and dimension, which is just breathtaking.

Popular Grasscloth Wall Coverings
Grasscloth really attracts to the masses – feminine or masculine – and a lot of people can appreciate it because it is a natural fiber. It’s very unique as it is hand-made. Now we also do printed and stamped grasscloths. In general, grasscloth allows you to create that textured space that you desire, while bringing you closer to nature. It joins well with florals, geometrics and stripes that could be found in your room accessories, and it helps you to branch from one room to the next with the patterns on the walls. For instance, you can take the patterns in one room and repeat it in another room where the grasscloth is sitting. Connectivity creates design consistency!

Grasscloth works well in almost any space, including living rooms, dens, bedrooms, dining rooms, entryways and sunrooms. Rooms with a lot of moisture like laundry rooms, kitchens and bathrooms are limited because of natural fibers in the product. You’ll need to be able to clean heavily used areas (hint: water + paper don’t mix well), and moisture will eventually cause the wallpaper to peel around two years or so. Therefore, we suggest avoiding wallpaper in bathrooms with showers but do consider grasscloth for a powder room!

Ready to move forward with grasscloth? Thibaut, York, Schumacher, and Phillip Jeffries carry a lot of popular grasscloth wall coverings. They produce wallpaper with lines very close together, so it is usually liked by the customer. Here are a few examples from Thibaut.

One of our designers used a Thibaut grass cloth in a glamorous dining room featured in Charleston Home + Design Magazine. Starting with a blank canvas, the designer approached this dining room with the goal of adding character and a unique accent to the space. The initial room was very sand neutral, and the walls and floors blended together with similar tones.

With windows allowing a lot of natural light in, she chose to incorporate blue as an extension of the outdoor coastal environment. The large repeat of medallions in this wallpaper’s design offered visual interest, weight and personality to the room. It ultimately appeared as art on the walls, anchoring and grounding the space.

Non-Grasslcoth Wallpaper Options
While the popularity of grasscloth is on the rise, homeowners and designers are not just picking it for their next project. They are selecting all kinds of different papers with varying textures and patterns – geometrics, florals, botanicals, water colors and solids. Wallpaper is just like fabric; there is a paper for everyone! In fact, everything is selling at Aiden Fabrics as all papers are great!


Wallpapers available at Aiden Fabrics
At Aiden Fabrics, we carry many best-selling and trending wallpaper brands. We also have several books to peruse through. You can sit at our design tables and comfortably look, feel the paper and the textures. We’ll give you stickies to mark your favorites, and you are welcome to take samples home to see how the colors look in your home (just like our fabrics!). We make wall paper shopping a personal experience, and if you would like assistance, our team of interior designers will help guide your selections.
Don’t forget! This month we are offering 20% off all wall coverings – grasscloth included! So, stop in before February 28, and work with our team to design your space.

If you would like to work with our designers directly on your wallpaper purchase, please feel free to request a complimentary consultation!