Wallpaper glossary: A–Z of terms

A4 sample

A free sample of a design so you can check colour, scale and finish in your own light.

Alcove

A recess, often either side of a chimney breast; papering the backs of alcoves is a popular small project.

Art Deco

A 1920s–30s design style of symmetry, fans, sunbursts and stepped forms. See art deco designs.

Arts & Crafts

A late 19th-century movement championing hand-craft and nature-led, densely layered foliage patterns. See arts & crafts designs.

Asanoha (hemp leaf)

A Japanese geometric pattern of star-like hemp leaves. See japanese-inspired designs.

Batch number

A code identifying the print run. Colour can vary slightly between batches, so all rolls for one room should share a batch.

Butt joint

A seam where two drops meet edge to edge without overlapping – the standard join for modern wallpapers.

Chevron

A zig-zag V-shaped pattern; different from herringbone, which uses offset rectangles. See geometric designs.

Chimney breast

The projecting section of wall around a fireplace – a classic place for a feature wallpaper.

Chinoiserie

A European decorative style inspired by imported East Asian art, typically with branches, blossom, birds and pavilions. See chinoiserie designs.

Chintz

Glazed printed cotton with large flowers; in wallpaper, a byword for traditional English florals. See luxe floral designs.

Colourway

One colour version of a design. Most of our designs come in three colourways.

Coving

A curved moulding where wall meets ceiling.

Cross-lining

Hanging lining paper horizontally so its seams run at right angles to the wallpaper seams.

Dado rail

A horizontal moulding at about one-third of wall height, often dividing wallpaper above from paint or panelling below.

Damask

A formal, mirrored, scrolling pattern taking its name from woven silks traded through Damascus. See damask designs.

Ditsy print

A small-scale, densely scattered floral pattern. See floral designs.

Double cut

Overlapping two drops and cutting through both layers at once to create a perfect seam, often used for patches and murals.

Drop

A single vertical length of wallpaper cut to wall height plus repeat and trim allowance.

Drop length

Wall height plus pattern repeat plus around 10 cm trimming allowance – the length you cut each piece to.

Dry strippable

Wallpaper that can be peeled from the wall in whole lengths without soaking or steaming.

Feature wall

A single wall papered (or painted) differently from the rest to create a focal point.

Free match

A pattern (often stripes or plains) that needs no matching between drops, so there is very little waste. Our designs are straight or half-drop matched.

Grasscloth

A wallcovering woven from natural grasses; our designs are printed grasscloth effects on non-woven paper. See grasscloth & texture designs.

Ground

The background colour of a wallpaper, against which the pattern is printed.

Half-drop match

A pattern match where alternate drops are shifted down by half the repeat, creating a diagonal rhythm across the wall. 1142 of our designs use a half-drop match.

Herringbone

A pattern of offset rectangles arranged in a broken zig-zag, borrowed from textiles and parquet floors. See geometric designs.

Lining paper

Plain paper hung before wallpaper to even out porous or uneven walls. Usually hung horizontally (cross-lining).

Low-VOC

Low in volatile organic compounds – our papers are low-VOC and printed with water-based inks.

Made to measure

Wallpaper or mural panels printed to the exact dimensions of your wall.

Mica effect

A shimmering, metallic-looking finish. Our metallic designs are printed effects. See metallic geometric designs.

Mid-century modern

Design of roughly the 1940s–60s, known for atomic stars, boomerangs and organic shapes. See mid-century designs.

Motif

The repeated element in a pattern – a flower, leaf, bird, star or shape.

Mural

A single large image spanning a wall, rather than a repeating design, usually supplied as numbered panels. See botanical mural designs.

Non-woven wallpaper

Wallpaper made from a blend of natural and synthetic fibres. It is dimensionally stable, paste-the-wall and dry strippable.

Ogee

An S-shaped curve used in ogee or onion-shaped trellis patterns. See trellis designs.

Panel

A pre-cut section of a mural or made-to-measure design, numbered in hanging order.

Paste-the-paper

The traditional hanging method where paste is applied to the back of the paper, which is then folded and left to soak before hanging.

Paste-the-wall

A hanging method where adhesive goes on the wall rather than the paper. Used for non-woven wallpapers, including all of ours.

Pattern repeat

The vertical distance before a wallpaper design repeats itself. It determines how much paper is lost when matching drops, so larger repeats need more rolls.

Peelable

Wallpaper whose top layer peels away, leaving a backing paper on the wall that can be used as lining or removed.

Picture rail

A moulding near the top of a wall, historically used to hang pictures; wallpaper often stops beneath it.

Plumb line

A true vertical guide line drawn with a spirit level or plumb bob, used to hang the first drop straight.

Quatrefoil

A four-lobed shape common in Gothic and Moorish-inspired geometric patterns. See geometric designs.

Relief cut

A small diagonal cut that lets wallpaper lie flat around corners of window and door frames.

Roll length

The length of a wallpaper roll. Ours are 10 m long, giving 5.2 m² per roll.

Roll width

The width of a wallpaper roll. Wallpaper Kingdom rolls are 52 cm wide.

Scrubbable

The most durable wash rating: the surface can be cleaned with a soft brush and mild detergent. Our Premium paper is scrubbable.

Seam roller

A small roller used to press seams flat after hanging.

Seigaiha

A Japanese wave pattern of overlapping concentric arcs. See japanese-inspired designs.

Sizing

Sealing a porous wall with size or diluted paste so wallpaper adhesive does not soak in too quickly.

Skirting board

The board running along the base of a wall; wallpaper is trimmed to its top edge.

Straight match

A pattern match where the design lines up horizontally on every drop, so each drop starts at the same point in the pattern. 1318 of our designs use a straight match.

Terrazzo

A speckled composite flooring of stone chips set in binder, echoed in terrazzo-effect wallpapers. See terrazzo designs.

Toile de Jouy

A pattern style of single-colour pastoral or narrative scenes on a light ground, named after Jouy-en-Josas in France. See toile designs.

Trellis

A lattice-style pattern that frames the wall with repeating open structure. See trellis designs.

Vinyl wallpaper

Wallpaper with a plastic (PVC) surface layer, valued for wipeability but less breathable than non-woven papers.

Wallpaper primer

A sealer applied to bare plaster or patchy walls before wallpapering to give an even, less absorbent surface.

Wallpaper smoother

A plastic blade or brush used to push air out from under the paper, working from the centre outwards.

Wipeable

A surface that can be gently wiped with a damp sponge, but not scrubbed.

Zellige

Moroccan glazed tilework with star and polygon geometry, the inspiration for many tile-effect wallpapers. See moroccan designs.