We get it. It's 2 a.m., you're down deep in a Pinterest rabbit hole, your cart is full of wallpaper you've never touched from sellers you’ve never even heard of, and your finger is hovering over "Place Order." We've all been there.
Before you click that button, we need to have a little heart-to-heart because we've seen what happens next, and it's not always pretty.
The Color on Your Screen Is a Lie (A Beautiful, Convincing Lie)
We've written about this before, but it bears repeating: your monitor is not a window into reality. It is, at best, an impressionist painting of reality. Pull up the same wallpaper image on your phone, your laptop, and your tablet and you'll see three completely different colors staring back at you. Which one is right? None of them, probably.
The only way to truly know what a wallpaper looks like is to hold it in your hands, take it home, tape it to your actual wall, and live with it for a few days. We do this constantly here at the shop. It's not an exaggeration, it's just how wallpaper works.
You Can't Feel Texture Through a Screen (Yet — Thanks for Nothing, Technology)
Is it matte or shiny? Smooth or embossed? Does it have that gorgeous grasscloth weave that practically begs you to run your fingers across it, or is it a flat vinyl that photographs beautifully but feels a little... meh in person?
You simply cannot know from a product photo. Half the time, we can't even tell from a product photo, and we've been doing this for nearly 40 years combined. When you come into the shop, you can touch everything. You can hold samples up to your paint swatches, drape them near your fabric, and get a real sense of how they'll feel in your home. It's kind of magical, actually.
The Internet Doesn't Know How Much Wallpaper You Need
Pattern repeats are sneaky little gremlins that will absolutely wreck your calculations if you don't know what you're looking for. A 24" drop match repeat can mean you need significantly more wallpaper than a basic square footage calculator will ever tell you. Order too little, and you're in trouble: dye lots change, and the coloring in the "exact same" wallpaper you reorder in three weeks may not match the rolls already on your wall.
We've helped clients untangle some real wallpaper math disasters, and we'd love to help you avoid one altogether. Just come in and let us do the measuring.
Nobody Online Knows Your Room Like We Do
The algorithm doesn't know that your living room gets harsh afternoon sun from the west-facing windows. It doesn't know that your ceilings are low and a large-scale print would make the room feel like a funhouse. It doesn't know that you've been trying to pull together a moody, jewel-toned vibe for two years and just can't quite nail it.
We do. Or at least, we will - the moment you walk in and tell us about it. That's the whole reason Renovate Wallcoverings exists: to be your personal design partners, not just a warehouse that ships brown boxes.
Come See Us. We Promise It'll Be Worth It.
We're a mother-daughter team running Northern Nevada's largest wallpaper showroom right here in Reno, at 300 Vassar Street. We have thousands of options, years of expertise, and an embarrassing enthusiasm for wallpaper that we're not even a little sorry about. We offer in-person consultations, we'll help you calculate yardage, we'll pull samples for your space, and we'll make sure you fall in love with your walls (IRL, not just on a screen!)
The internet is great for a lot of things. Wallpaper shopping isn't really one of them. Come visit us instead. We'll put on a pot of coffee.