Upholstered walls have been in fashion since the Middle Ages. What began as woven tapestries to cozy up cold and damp medieval interiors, these wall coverings soon evolved into the silk damask upholstered walls of 17th century estates like Versailles. While it’s certainly considered a serious splurge today to fabric upholster your walls, the luxury factor can’t be denied. In the right setting, upholstered walls can impart a sense of warmth and richness not possible with wallpaper or paint. Today we’re exploring some of our favorite fabric-lined interiors. This image of Carolina Herrera Baez’  foyer in Madrid (below) will forever be a part of our inspiration file. We love the combination of the skinny stripe fabric and the nail head adorned tape that highlights the classic architecture of the room.
The aubergine fabric covered walls in designer Alex Papachristidis’ dining room below are fantastic and showcase another advantage to upholstered walls: high color saturation.

Papachristidis added more interest to the walls by using nailheads.

Tory Burch’s NYC apartment, below, has become a walking advertisement for upholstered walls. Many of our clients use this room as a reference for their inspiration.
Burch’s family room is a throwback to the days when the same fabric was used on the walls as on the upholstered furniture. Her designer manages to keep this looking fresh and 21st Century appropriate!
Below, designer Carolyn Roehm’s brown velvet swathed living room.

Another green velvet dining room…

Designer Steven Gambrel uses a happy ikat in this kid’s room.
Another one of Gambrel’s projects, below, where he covered the walls of a TV room in fabric (also a practical idea to keep sound contained!).